From an interview with Matt MacDonald (lead singer) at JesusFreakHideout.com:
Question: Is "The Way That You Are" inspired by anyone specific?
Matt: "You know, it's really inspired by people watching, and I do it a lot. My mom told me when I was a kid, I used to swear to God I was a psychic and that I could read people's minds laughter but I'm pretty sure that's not true. But I believe now I am not a psychic but I do like to sit and look at people sometimes and look at their actions and how they interact. "
"And we're on tour a lot, we're traveling a lot, looking out windows a lot so sometimes it gets my mind reeling about 'what is that person, why is that person the way they are?' And trying to figure out who they are and try to put a story to what made them who they are, what made them dress like that, act like that, or twitch like that, or laugh like that, you know? And they're definitely fictional characters but I think they're very real characters in that there are people who, the characters in the 'The Way That You Are,' the story, could identify with. And so that was the idea behind that, just to put something out there that maybe someone could sing along to and go, 'that's me,' you know? Or 'I relate to that in some way' or 'I have a friend like that.'"
I don't know about anyone else, but I know I can definitely relate to the first person in this song. I tend to just keep quiet in a lot of situations and listen to what other people are saying instead of putting my self out there in the middle of things. I also saw a theme of not letting others dictate who you are, much like Maenberlin pointed out.
Oh, and for the record, I post this interview just to give some insight into what Matt thinks of the song. Obviously, it can mean different things to different people, and I'm not trying to say that it can only be interpreted the way that he (or I) interprets it.
From an interview with Matt MacDonald (lead singer) at JesusFreakHideout.com:
Question: Is "The Way That You Are" inspired by anyone specific?
Matt: "You know, it's really inspired by people watching, and I do it a lot. My mom told me when I was a kid, I used to swear to God I was a psychic and that I could read people's minds laughter but I'm pretty sure that's not true. But I believe now I am not a psychic but I do like to sit and look at people sometimes and look at their actions and how they interact. "
"And we're on tour a lot, we're traveling a lot, looking out windows a lot so sometimes it gets my mind reeling about 'what is that person, why is that person the way they are?' And trying to figure out who they are and try to put a story to what made them who they are, what made them dress like that, act like that, or twitch like that, or laugh like that, you know? And they're definitely fictional characters but I think they're very real characters in that there are people who, the characters in the 'The Way That You Are,' the story, could identify with. And so that was the idea behind that, just to put something out there that maybe someone could sing along to and go, 'that's me,' you know? Or 'I relate to that in some way' or 'I have a friend like that.'"
I don't know about anyone else, but I know I can definitely relate to the first person in this song. I tend to just keep quiet in a lot of situations and listen to what other people are saying instead of putting my self out there in the middle of things. I also saw a theme of not letting others dictate who you are, much like Maenberlin pointed out.
Oh, and for the record, I post this interview just to give some insight into what Matt thinks of the song. Obviously, it can mean different things to different people, and I'm not trying to say that it can only be interpreted the way that he (or I) interprets it.
Peace.