Pet Cheetah

-I am on an island, no one to confide -Eight days straight, eight hours each and not one line -I can feel pressure start to possess my mind -So, I'll take this beat I should delete to exercise.

 In this verse Tyler is basically saying that he is isolated and has no one to confide in. He then gives a time period sort to speak in which he stays without saying a single word. Anyone can feel pressure or anxiety build up in them if they stay quiet for that long. So he uses the beat that he feels isn't good according to his standards to practice talking (writing music).

Chorus No, I move slow I want to stop time I'll sit here 'til I find the problem No, I move slow I want to stop time I'll sit here 'til I find the problem

Tyler is describing himself as one who moves slow (takes his time) and that he wishes he could stop time so that he could sit there and try to figure out what the problem is in his life(himself).

-I've got a pet cheetah down in my basement I've raised him, and bathed him And named him Jason Statham I've trained him to makre me these beats Now my pet cheetah's quicker in the studio than on his feet

   I think the pet cheetah represents his passion. His grown his passion, cleaned it and removed all negative sides of it.(fame, pride etc). Naming it Jason Statham just means that he has strengthened it.( Jason Statham is never weak in his movies, the man's a bad ass). Now his trained himself to make beats and now he is better at making beats than writing music.

-I'ma get mine and get going I'm showing my faces in just enough places I'm done with tip-toeing, I'll stay in my room My house is the one where the vultures are perched on the roof Get behind me, I bet this nepotistic mindset Will help us get ours as we're growing This clique means so much to this dude It could make him afraid of his music And be scared to death he could lose it

  His going to get his share of Fame and fortune and not show his face to much because his a celebrity (not confident on that one). So his done with the life of a celebrity in which one has to moves discretely avoiding the attention of the the paparazzi but instead stays home(retirement) his house has vultures on the roof because something is Dead inside it. Probably he feels Dead inside. The love of his family and friends will help him get his share of Fame and fortune as the band gets bigger. The clique refers to his family and friends and that makes him afraid of his music because loosing it can make him lose them.

Thank you for read I know it's not perfect but any comment is appreciated and please don't take this to heart it's just my personal understanding. The_Dictator

This song is about Jason Statham and Tyler professing his love to him. It is clear in the lyrics that Tyler is attracted to Jason Statham, almost to a creepy level. The lyrics read: I've raised him and bathed him, and named him Jason Statham.

Now, why would he have a pet check and name him Jason Statham? It's not good lyrics if there is no hidden meaning. I mean, if you were going to name a cheetah anything, it wouldn't be Jason Statham, it would be something like Usain. (referring to Usain Bolt, because a cheetah it the fastest animal, and Usain Bolt is the fastest amongst humans.) And look how much better it rhymes: I've raised him and bathed him and named him Usain. So, clearly Tyler is trying to profess his (almost obsessive) love for Statham.

Anyway, that's what the song is about.

It’s about Tyler dealing with writers block “8 days straight, 8 hours each and not one line” So he takes his time and tries to figure out what’s holding him back. He feels that he has gotten better at creating badass beats more so than writing lyrics, he compares his beats and music to a pet cheetah (who’s more badass than Jason Stratham?) side note when Tyler was dealing with this writers block he asked josh for inspiration and josh told him to write about a pet cheetah. Love this song.

Others on this got some pints very right. He is dealing with writer's block, and an internal pressure. But his let cheetah is the missing link most people don't understand. He says in my BASEMENT. He also mentions his basement in polarize. He is talking about his subconscious mind, the part where all of our conscious thoughts come from. With Pet Cheetah, he is talking about how he cleansed his mind and cleared it, and focused it on making him catchy beats. Now that has taken root in his subconscious mind and now making beats is natural for him. But his pet cheetah is quicker in the studio than on its feet. He's become better at making beats than he is at being himself. And with this comes the realization that he is back to a fear. Fear of what if they don't like my music? What if I don't produce more for my clique, who seek to get so much from it. He also talks about this in other songs. Lane boy. "But what will they be like tomorrow? He's gathered a following mainly due to the popularity of his hit songs. But his fear is not founded in reality, because his art is his. That's why he mentions nepotism. Get ours as we're going. He realizes that he feels as if he has brought up every fan along with him, helping them let go of thier fears. It'a constant struggle for him between his idea of Fame and success and morality. In another song he says why would I stand in front of you and hide my soul. He wants to move past the idea of being successful, hit songs, but ultimately wants that success by doing it the true soulful way.

I really enjoy Twenty Pilots music. I've always been impressed by Tyler's ability to write compelling songs which give us a glimpse of his struggles with the creative process of being a musician and artist. And Pet Cheetah is another example.

The infectious baseline is one of the subjects of the song. " I'll take this beat I should delete to exercise " and as part of that exercise the author seems to make a primitive, meaningless association of that beat to the phrase "Pet Cheetah". You can hear in the closing of the song, how the beat and the phrase seem to be mentally inextricable even though the syllabic meter is at times incongruent. The phrase "pet cheetah" is unshakable. Confronted with writers block (along with the "pressure" to produce something) the author chooses "a beat I should delete to exercise", meaning a songwriting exercise which he has no expectation of ultimately publishing.

But he has an internal struggle with the need to produce something, and the song shifts diametrically in an effort to combat the pressure.

"No, I move slow
I want to stop time
I'll sit here 'til I find the problem"

The author is challenging that pressure to produce. "Why should I brute force my way into producing art when there's clearly something troubling me?"

"The problem" as it turns out is that this expectation to quickly produce, while not the author's original invention, is a self-nurtured (I've raised him, bathed him, named him, trained him) expectation.

I've got a pet cheetah down in my basement
I've raised him, and bathed him
And named him Jason Statham
I've trained him to make me these beats
Now my pet cheetah's quicker in the studio than on his feet

Naming the Pet Cheetah Jason Statham emphasizes the strength and toughness of this expectation, and the difficulty the author has in quieting the internal conflict.

"quicker in the studio than on his feet"

The author has so internalized this demand to produce that it has overgrown the demands of anyone or anything external to his own studio. In other words, he puts more pressure on himself than do his fans, or his record label, or anyone else who might be a source of this kind of pressure.

"I'ma get mine and get going"

This stanza reflects the author taking the demand to produce to it's logical conclusion. The demand will allow him to extract fame and fortune from his music, but at what cost? "I'll stay in my room" refers to neglecting a flourishing life in favor of remaining isolated and churning out music. "the vultures perch" The vultures are the foreshadowing of death, and the next creatures in line to feed on the demise of an artist. "Get behind me" is a Biblical reference (see Mark 8 and Matthew 16), juxtaposing the will of men (for comfort and ease) and the will of God (for sacrificial love).

"This clique means so much to this dude"
"It could make him afraid of his music"
"And be scared to death he could lose it"

The ironic twist is that the mechanism for achieving artistic success (staying in the studio with his pet cheetah) could ultimately leave him bound on one hand by his fear of making music (fearing the high demands on his soul and life) and on the other hand his fear of losing his music altogether (which onstensibly feeds his soul and life).

What began as "the pet" threatens to become "the beast" which could finally devour the artist. And that is the surface plot line.

But there are other threads to follow.

• What began as an "earworm" baseline, a primitive verbal association to a beat ("Pet Cheetah") was given real sense and profound meaning by the author.
• What began as a songwriting exercise for him ("the beat I should delete"), became a compelling work, demonstrably worthy of making the album cut.

And it's in those two transformations that the author sows the seeds of the Pet Cheetah's demise. The author takes us into his intimate internal struggle with making music, and instead of bravado, he reveals his weakness. It is not difficult to imagine a shallow, chart-busting single coming out that original baseline if it had been produced for a money-making single; but because of the author's unflagging committment to an honest, accurate self-portrait, his music will not take on the feel of mass-produced, mass-appeal money makers. Its popularity will be a simple reflection of the listeners' ability to resonate with the author's joys and struggles, like enduring art should.