We’re in a pivotal time right now in this country when it comes to social justice. On “Say Something,” you sing about leaving a better world and “I know words ain’t enough/but when the silence becomes so dangerous/We gotta say something.” Are you talking about Black Lives Matter?It’s about a lot of things. I got sent the song. The first verse was already written and it felt like it was very much a social issue commentary about speaking up about things you believe in, things that you want to see change, just speaking up and not being silent. I said, “I’d love to finish this song, but I think on the second verse, I’d like to open up some more dimension to what ‘say something’ means to me.” Because my personal experience was I was raised by a father who was quite the opposite. He was like, “Don’t speak out. Don’t say anything. Just be quiet and put all your beliefs into your music, just say it in your music. Live your life by your principles and you won’t need to say it.” And there’s some goodness and truth in that approach, but what I wished we had done was said more things in our home even, intimate things: “I love you.” “I’m sorry.” So I wanted the second verse to touch upon those things, which were more personal to my life, because I’m trying to raise my family a little bit different here. We do speak up in our house, we say things, we don’t bottle stuff up. And that was important to me as well.
We’re in a pivotal time right now in this country when it comes to social justice. On “Say Something,” you sing about leaving a better world and “I know words ain’t enough/but when the silence becomes so dangerous/We gotta say something.” Are you talking about Black Lives Matter?It’s about a lot of things. I got sent the song. The first verse was already written and it felt like it was very much a social issue commentary about speaking up about things you believe in, things that you want to see change, just speaking up and not being silent. I said, “I’d love to finish this song, but I think on the second verse, I’d like to open up some more dimension to what ‘say something’ means to me.” Because my personal experience was I was raised by a father who was quite the opposite. He was like, “Don’t speak out. Don’t say anything. Just be quiet and put all your beliefs into your music, just say it in your music. Live your life by your principles and you won’t need to say it.” And there’s some goodness and truth in that approach, but what I wished we had done was said more things in our home even, intimate things: “I love you.” “I’m sorry.” So I wanted the second verse to touch upon those things, which were more personal to my life, because I’m trying to raise my family a little bit different here. We do speak up in our house, we say things, we don’t bottle stuff up. And that was important to me as well.