Feather

The vocalist, Yukimi, stated in an interview that the song was inspired by a book on evolutionary psychology. The book included a section on risk-taking and explained that, biologically, men were more likely to take risks than women. She said that it upset her and that she wanted to assert herself as a risk taker.

I think the song tries to positions us, and perhaps women in particular, in a post evolutionary state of mind. It's an emancipation of everything that evolution has determined us to be and puts us control of what we want to become (we can even become feathered beings!). I think it's great how she puts the listeners at the edge of that cliff; at the exact moment of launch. Whether or not we'll fly is left to us and will only be clear once you overcome the fear to make the leap.

This song is about a woman rejecting the expectation of commitment. Women are expected to fall in love and get married and settle down. That's not what this woman wants. She doesn't want everlasting love; bandits are never there for long, they strike and then run, move on to the next. Society doesn't expect men to want to commit, in this sense, she'd rather be a man. "A man with the other" might mean a man with the other woman; not his wife, not his lifelong commitment, but that fleeting affair or fling. When the man is with that fling, he's at his best, most virile, most alive. That's what she wants. "Rather be a whisper in heaven" -- she'd rather die -- "than a daughter locked in your prison" -- than get married and stuck in something she can't get out of. "You are airborne / you've got silver rays" -- an affirmation of the value of her true nature.

This song also conveys a sense of apprehension, though. She knows commitment is not what she wants, but she wonders if she can happy floating along on her on. "Will it ever float / will it ever soar along?" She worries that she won't be able to achieve the sense of weightlessness that a lack of commitment might offer. The last verse expresses even more doubt -- "did it all for your feathered hand" -- she feels that maybe her rejection of commitment is narcissistic or selfish. Or, perhaps the feathered hand is just a further reference to her identity as someone who can't be tied down. And again she wonders "Will it ever float?" whether she can truly have the weightlessness in life she so desires.

To me this song is about empowerment and freeing yourself from your chains. It's taking a risk, there's a lot of uncertainty, but it's telling yourself to go and run that mountain down, break that which is holding you down, beat the powers that are weighing you down. A bandit does things on the bandit's own terms, whereas a lover is tied down-- in a bad relationship, love is a prison. Being a daughter in your prison is being in a relationship where the power dynamics are unequal; she is treated as inferior in a condescending manner. It takes a lot of courage to leave a bad relationship because love is a mountain that is hard to run down-- but go run it down girl. This song is to encourage, it's to reassure oneself but the reassurance comes from a state of self-doubt. Will it ever float? Will it ever soar? Do it all for the feather, do it all to free yourself.

The chorus of this song is awesome! I love it!

I'm lovin the chords that come in off the beat. dope!!!

I think you're right VelvetSwan, the narrator is comforting someone, lifting them up with confidence, telling them to "run the mountain down". They can float with ease over the difficulty.

Definitely agree with bandislife.

Also, did anyone else think of Kate Bush's song Running up that Hill? I've been trying to draw some parallels between the songs, because the metaphors used are similar. Really, compared to this, relationship problems seem like just a bump in the road to her. :P

is this a song about devotion?

I think its partially about people who difficult things and try to make it look as if its just natural or they didn't work for it. They have the "feathered hand" trying to make float.

"Grip the crown like a winner, Pretending like a beginner"

First off, I <3 this song. My friend sent me a message the other day asking me what I thought it was about, and I spent like an hour writing up this response so I figured I might as well post it on here:

Yeah, I'm kind of in the "no fucking clue" boat myself, but I have a few ideas. Insert pretentious posturing here: In a way, I feel like it's an approach to love coming from the female perspective-- understanding the fact that for much of the world love exists in a society which is largely paternalistic and misogynistic. Here, the "mountain" would be love, and the verses are coming from the girl's perspective.

In the first verse, as she's listing all the things she would rather be than herself (bandit [stealing love without care, perhaps?], man [half of the reason that I bring the gender issue into this], whisper in heaven [perhaps a fleeting encounter rather than a lasting affair]) in this situation, it seems like she's coming to a rather pessimistic formulation of love's positive worth for females, but it seems that she has accepted it as a part of her life at the same time-- telling herself to run the "mountain" down without thinking about it too much, perhaps?

It's especially hard to really try to interpret this song because it seems like the perspective shifts in between the verse and the chorus. As if we are coming out of a subjective, first person verse into an objective, third person chorus, we are told that the 'protagonist' is airborne, has silver rays, etc. Here it seems like we are seeing the more positive side of love, the pure rapture of emotion if you will. But, still there is an air of incredulity with the two questions at the end of the chorus. Will it ever float? Will it ever soar along? So, our heroine of the song is caught up in the feeling of love, but still unsure of its benefits.

The third verse really punctuates this idea of an unsure acceptance of love for me, at least. "Grip the crown like winner, pretending like a beginner." Here, she seems to be trying to persuade herself that it feels right, and hoping that if she just assumes the feeling to be real then it eventually will be-- not letting the trials of her past overshadow her hope for her future.

The coda brings in the imagery of a "feathered hand". Perhaps, this symbolizes this pretension that I mentioned in the last paragraph. To me, it makes me think of the story of Icarus, which fits perfectly into the questions about soaring and such. Maybe the comparison here is that losing yourself in love is like putting feathers on your hands and hoping you can fly? That sounds a bit too pessimistic, but who knows.