What’s the inspiration behind “The East Has Stolen What the West May Want”? Is there a story there?
Kenny: Yeah, that was one of the first songs I wrote on the album. It was inspired by a journal entry I read from someone who was separated with the Berlin Wall, whereas my story is a little different than theirs because I didn’t want to take anyone else’s own words. It all basically has to do with a couple that split up between the East and the West of the Berlin Wall. One side the living conditions were much better. So the only way for this couples to keep communication between each other were to write these letters. The woman was actually the one writing saying forget about me and there’s no hope, just go on without me, let’s forget about each other, there’s nothing we can do and move on with your life. The song is coming from his perspective and he’s saying I can’t do that and I don’t want to give up. It’s all about the struggle that people really did have by being split up by this stupid wall that made no sense. It was basically just there to ruin people’s lives. It was such a landmark of stupidity and this was the first song that I wanted to write about something different. I really dove into head first and in the end I didn’t know if it was going to work because I’ve never done anything like this before. Which it’s now one of my favorites on the album and one that I’m really excited to play acoustic.
From Absolutepunk interview:
What’s the inspiration behind “The East Has Stolen What the West May Want”? Is there a story there?
Kenny: Yeah, that was one of the first songs I wrote on the album. It was inspired by a journal entry I read from someone who was separated with the Berlin Wall, whereas my story is a little different than theirs because I didn’t want to take anyone else’s own words. It all basically has to do with a couple that split up between the East and the West of the Berlin Wall. One side the living conditions were much better. So the only way for this couples to keep communication between each other were to write these letters. The woman was actually the one writing saying forget about me and there’s no hope, just go on without me, let’s forget about each other, there’s nothing we can do and move on with your life. The song is coming from his perspective and he’s saying I can’t do that and I don’t want to give up. It’s all about the struggle that people really did have by being split up by this stupid wall that made no sense. It was basically just there to ruin people’s lives. It was such a landmark of stupidity and this was the first song that I wanted to write about something different. I really dove into head first and in the end I didn’t know if it was going to work because I’ve never done anything like this before. Which it’s now one of my favorites on the album and one that I’m really excited to play acoustic.