One Way Trigger

I think the meaning of this song is pretty apparent. Sounds to me that his wife is wanting him to retire, and wants them to move somewhere else and settle down and just be a normal family. But he's not ready to do that just yet, but he doesn't want her to leave him or make any major decisions without him. That's my interpretation of it anyway. Pretty point blank.

My thoughts:

This song is about a man wanting to leave a relationship, possibly marriage, because he does not feel loved.

"Get dressed in your bed, while she's asleep It isn't right, but it isn't hard Tell me, tell me, won't you understand? Show me, show me, show me a better plan It's summer lies, it’s someone else’s nothing Here it comes now"

He is telling himself to leave and convincing himself to do it. She wants him to explain why he wants to leave, but she won't understand.

You ask me to stay You ask me to stay You ask me to stay But there’s a million reasons to leave

She continues and asks him to stay with her, but he has many reasons to leave.

Find a job, find a friend Find a home, find a dog Settle down, out of town Find a dream, shut it down

This describes his past. He found a job, friends, a home, a pet, and he settled down. Despite the fact that man gaining the idealistic goals of the American Dream, he never gained love. Now he wants to leave because he isn't happy.

Please, please don’t point it that way It’s just a trigger that goes once and you’ll be unafraid I wish that I'd been noticed, but it never goes that way The silence that you brought has gone, gone, gone

He's telling himself once he leaves it will be over and he will no longer be unhappy. He wishes he could have been "noticed," or that she would have actually loved him. When he leaves her, the lack of love, or silence, will be gone.

I don’t wanna be in there with you I don’t wanna be in there without your loving either I waited for your thoughts Can't wait no longer

This is the explanation for why he wants to leave. He doesn't want to be with someone who doesn't love him. He loves her but she doesn't love him, and he waited for her feelings and love but he can't wait any longer.

I think the "find a job" part shows that while him and his partner have all of those conventional things, they do not have love. He tries to tell her how he feels but she does not understand. Without love, he is not happy and wants to leave.

Most interpretations are far off i think. Consider the authors and the band, they are voyeurs into modern society and this is another great example of seeing 'us' as people aiming for the wrong things in life, being misdirected and shallow. I always enjoy Julians duality of thought and emotion in his writing, one hand he is in control the next he needs to be shown how to 'be'. Now this doesnt necessarily mean its his view or his retrospect it could be some joe he met, or it doesnt take much to imagine that is how we all are... we need to: "Find a job, find a friend Find a home, find a dog Settle down, out of town Find a dream, shut it down'

By shutting down i think he means end of your journey, life. So what is it all for, these roles we play. I see this song also has suicidal gestures, 'a million reasons to leave' suggests that whilst someone or something is encouraging to keep on going, there are a lot of reasons to leave this place.

As well is reading to much into it, this song could be about a relationship that is struggling to find commitment, the balance and path is in question, should he want all those things common people desire, it seems pointless, he needs another opinion but really he's on the fence..

amazing band, still producing amazing music

“One Way Trigger” sounds more like Julian Casablancas than The Strokes.

I got tired of the synths so I made this down to earth version: https://sites.google.com/site/videothestrokesonewaytrigger/

Isn't the last line "Can't wait no longer" Also I hear "Shattered now" instead of "Shut it down"

The song seems to be about a guy who's already settled down (he's already got the job, friend, home, and dog), but is still trying to juggle all that with his dream, whatever that may be. On top of all this, the girl he's with doesn't seem to love him any longer. He seems to be saying that the only reason he agreed to settle down was because of his love for that girl, but now he's realizing it was all just "Summer lies". When she finally catches him leaving, he gives her his reason and asks her to give him an answer, but he gets tired of waiting.

Sounds to me like this is about a man who's being unfaithful. He talks about laying in her bed with someone else. He seems to be fed up and undecided about being in this relationship and he's asking his girl to tell him what he wants her to do.

to me it's about this guy who met this girl inn summer (as he says "it's summer lies", like those happy relationships that last no longer than four months and between this time they believe and say it's going to last forever) in a holliday or something. Then, the hollyday ends, he has to go, he always knew it was going to happen. But the girl doesn't want it to happen, she wants him to stay. He doesn't want ("I don't wanna be in there with you": he doesn't want to take her with him, "I don't wanna be in there without your loving either", he doesn't want to lose that love, but he will) and doesn't know how to break up (" show me what to say"), but there is no other option no better plan, no better perspective ("show me a better plan", "show me what to see", "show me what to be"), he has to build his life ("find a job, find a friend, find a home, find a dog, settle down out of town, find a dream, shut it down").

I think this counts as a memory, since it has to do with a personal experience of mine.

My best friend at the time, and still is, had frequent suicidal thoughts, but it was a bit weird, since you would see her as a very happy person, she had a boyfriend, she had good health, good family, and nice friends. But you can never judge someone's thoughts knowing just that.

Behind everything there were little holes of problems, that were destroying her, her boyfriend was a wreck, there was some trouble in her family, most of her friends were untrusty, and she like herself the way she was. She would tell only me about these problems, and I always did my best to help her, I remember telling her once that "There is a million reasons to live".

I see this lyric as a counterpart of my perspective, what she was thinking.

Expressing how fun things ended up bad for her, how things were a mess, not right but not hard, sunny summers being unmeaningful, looking for a better plan of enjoyment apart from ending her life.

Im asking her to stay, im trying to convince her, and in an opposite meaning but same pronounciation, I tell her there's a million reasons to live, "But there's a million reasons to leave"

"Find a job, find a friend Find a home, find a dog Settle down, out of town Find a dream, shut it down"

She tells herself how to live her life, how maybe by accomplishing simple and rewarding things may make things better, but as she keeps finding problems in them, she just wants to shut everything down.

"Please, please don’t point it that way It’s just a trigger that goes once and you’ll be unafraid"

The rest is talk of being uneasy, of how all of it would be cleansed by just simply pulling a trigger,it would only have to go once and everything is solved, an easy task for her.

At the very end.

"I don’t wanna be in there with you I don’t wanna be in there without your loving either I waited for your thoughts Can’t wait no longer"

She doesn't wanna be in life, but she doesn't want to miss out on everything either. She finally realizes that she's doing all of these things that are destroying her because she wants people to think normal of her, having a boyfriend, having friends, even though it hurts her, but she is not waiting for these thoughts anymore.

If anyone asks, she's more than great now, this situation was hard on both of us, but now it's just a reminder of what we don't have to do to ourselves in life, as is any other situation we live. To this day she still tells me that I saved her life, and I couldn't be more happy about that.

The Strokes have been my favorite band for a long time now, but believe it or not, this song from my least favorite album, is the one that speaks to me the most, I feel describes what we lived perfectly. I always find meanings in their songs, sometimes political, sometimes even of situations from Julian or the other members, but few songs I feel resemble my life, this is the biggest of them.

Thanks for reading.

It seems obvious to me that this song is about suicide*. First, the song name, "One Way Trigger" - it's a one way trip, he's not coming back.

"Please please don't point it that way, it's just a trigger that goes once and you'll be unafraid" - this is awkwardly phrased because it's unclear if he's talking to someone else or two sides of himself, but it's at least clear that he doesn't want to be afraid anymore, and this trigger going once will do that.

"Tell me, tell me won't you understand, show me show me show me a better plan" - at multiple points in the song, it sounds like someone (or he himself) is trying to talk him out of it ("please don't point it that way", "you asked me to stay", etc), and this is him asking them to accept his decision, because he doesn't think they CAN "show me a better plan", he's saying "I have no choice/there's no better way" or "This will fix everything" (by ending it).

"I wish that I'd been noticed, but it, it never goes that way" - this is a pretty clear feeling of isolation, as though they feel overlooked either in general or by a specific person. It could even be "I wish they'd have noticed what I was going to do and cared enough to stop me".

"Find a <thing>" - this seems to be a feeling of apathy towards "normal" life goals - a job, a home, a partner, settling down, etc. It sounds like he either doesn't see the point, or doesn't see himself wanting or perhaps being able to do those things.

"I've waited for your love, can't wait no longer" - this seems to tie into "the silence that you brought has gone" and maybe even the wanting to be noticed bit. People with a history of trauma sometimes take breakups really hard, because they felt that their partner "fixed" them or helped them deal with the trauma, and losing them can mean having to confront that trauma again while also feeling the same pain we all feel during a breakup. They silenced his demons, but now that silence is gone, and though they tried to repair the relationship, they can't wait any longer, they can't deal with the pain anymore.

.....

Some of these arguments are stronger than others, and it can be difficult to figure out Julian's meaning due to his "stream of consciousness" writing style. That said, there's a sense of wanting "it" to end here, with a real feeling of permanence, and given the context of the "normal" life he's mocking, as well as the messages of loss and isolation, it seems to me that the "it" he's wanting to end is life. At the very least, he's extremely depressed and feels he "can't wait no longer".

..... * A final note: suicide is never the answer (unless you're terminally ill). It's a permanent solution to a temporary problem. No matter how down you are, it's possible to come back from it as long as you're still alive - you CAN be happy again. This is doubly important for parents - if you have a child, you need to try to put aside your own pain and think about them, because the pain of losing you will be much, much worse than what you're going through (speaking from experience on that).

If you feel you can't go on, please at least try calling 988, or 800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Lifeline - you have nothing to lose by doing so, aren't you at least curious what they have to say? Just give them 5 minutes.

If you are part of a highly at-risk group like Veterans, Trans or Teens, and feel like they won't understand what you're going through, try these special services designed specifically for these groups.

Veterans Crisis Line: Same as above (988), but press 1 upon connecting Trans Lifeline: Trans-to-trans - 877–565–8860 Youthline: Teen-to-teen - 877-968-8491 Crisis Text Line: Text "HOME" to 741741

If you're not in the US, try this page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines