There's a cool podcast called "Song Exploder", and in one of the episodes they talk to Carl Newman and John Collins about the writing and recording of this song. It's definitely worth a listen, only about 12 minutes long: http://songexploder.net/the-new-pornographers
The TL;DR is basically:
• Carl was playing around with the three chords that make up the bulk of the song, and the instrumental demo had the file titled "Rock You" ala "We Will Rock You" based on the heavy backbeat he had in mind.
• Perhaps based on this, the lyrics ended up revolving around notions of rock stardom - "The sea was all lighters," etc.
• I think he states that the lyric in the bridge is actually "A fire in love with sirens".
I also end up hearing in the first verse "...send you back to stages set and sailing away", which could totally be wrong, but I like the twist on the phrases "The stage is set" and "Set sail" in a single phrase.
There's a cool podcast called "Song Exploder", and in one of the episodes they talk to Carl Newman and John Collins about the writing and recording of this song. It's definitely worth a listen, only about 12 minutes long: http://songexploder.net/the-new-pornographers
The TL;DR is basically:
• Carl was playing around with the three chords that make up the bulk of the song, and the instrumental demo had the file titled "Rock You" ala "We Will Rock You" based on the heavy backbeat he had in mind. • Perhaps based on this, the lyrics ended up revolving around notions of rock stardom - "The sea was all lighters," etc. • I think he states that the lyric in the bridge is actually "A fire in love with sirens".
I also end up hearing in the first verse "...send you back to stages set and sailing away", which could totally be wrong, but I like the twist on the phrases "The stage is set" and "Set sail" in a single phrase.