Kites

The 1/8 note intro. The intro beat. The driving synth. The melodic vocals. The slight delay on the keys. Oh, and here comes the cello! What. an. amazing. song. Geographer is doing it right.

This song is incredible. Beautiful voice. Should be more popular than it is. As for the meaning I'm not quite sure. Maybe he's talking about a girl that broke his heart once and now he's watching another man go through the same process with the same girl. "there's nothing to discover/from the thunder and lightning" maybe he's referring here to the girl by saying nothing is going come out of this. and "there's no way to recover" from it. And in the end we're all each other. "I was a brother when I saw you." Now when they see each other it's completely platonic. I don't know. That's what I got out of it.

For, oh, about seven months I thought this song was about him being in love with another man, "him" being an ambiguous person, not necessarily the lead singer. And the lyrics work perfectly with this, as far as wanting someone to love you goes ("you were a brother when I saw you," as in, off limits).

BUT! Recently I found out that Geographer was created out of several family deaths of the lead singer, who put this experience into song. Now, go back and listen to Kites again, but think about losing a brother ("my brain is on edge, I'm next to the bed where I saw you").

It'll give you an entirely new experience, and it'll be like you're listening to the song for the first time all over again.

It's about the way love can change. The europhia, love, then anger and hate. The narrator gets married and has kids, they move on. When he says "I was a brother when I saw you" says how all the feelings have chastened to a point that its simply love. It makes sense with the song title - kite. The kite can fly very high but it eventually falls to the ground again :)

Personally I love all of the interpretations. It could be lovers, or a boy and his girlfriend that cheated on him with his brother, or what the band says it is (about death of family members). I love all of them, mine especially lol, and this song is absolutely gorgeous. Love it love it love it.

maybe it's him looking back on somebody he cared about deeply and therefore who roused strong emotions in him - somebody he loved deeply and also at times hated, only to quickly feel love again - and then when they broke up, even though he moved on to other people (pile lover upon lover) there was "no way to recover" from the heartache of losing that person. but then, the last line seems really spiritual - so maybe it's him, after death, looking back on his life thinking despite these ranges of emotions we feel as human beings on earth, in the afterlife he finds out we are all the same and kindred spirits (i was your brother when i saw you). far-fetched but the last line seems pretty otherworldly to me. really beautiful song

I think a girlfriend of his cheated on him with his brother "I was a brother.." "My weight is like his".. possibly. In an interview with the band he claimed the meaning was too personal to talk about. suggesting something messed up like that :(

Michael does an interview for the Snap Judgement podcast in which he talks about this song. He wrote it for a girl he met during college who was from Eastern Europe and apparently very beautiful. He fell in love with her and thought they had a very strong connection, but she did not reciprocate the feelings. She then revealed that she had a boyfriend which really hurt him. He then wrote this song about their relationship, mainly how their connection was so strong and all the work he put into their relationship was being taken by her boyfriend.

He says he actually played this song live at a show in which her and her boyfriend attended. Afterward the boyfriend came up to him saying how much he loved it. Pretty funny.