The band was formed by two members of Okkervil River, back-up vocalist and accordion/keyboard player Jonathan Meiburg and singer and guitarist Will Sheff, so they could write quieter songs. Beginning in 2005, Sheff lessened his role in the band, leaving Meiburg as the band's songwriter from Palo Santo on.
Band members today include Jonathan Meiburg, Thor Harris, Kim Burke, Lucas Oswald, with many contributions from others. The touring band in 2012 featured producer/drummer Danny Reisch and guitarist/vocalist Mitch Billeaud of The Lemurs and Christiaan Mader of Brass Bed.
To date, Shearwater has released nine full-length albums The Dissolving Room, Everybody Makes Mistakes, Winged Life, Palo Santo, Rook, The Golden Archipelago, Animal Joy, and Jet Plane & Oxbow as well as EPs Thieves and The Snow Leopard, and a split LP with Okkervil River entitled Sham Wedding/Hoax Funeral, as well as an album of covers of former touring partners, Fellow Travelers, released in November 2013.
As an ornithologist and writer, Meiburg has a unique perspective. The songs of Palo Santo were partly written at the Galápagos Islands in the footsteps of Charles Darwin. Rook was influenced by studies in the Falklands Islands and by the current mass extinction we are living through. The Golden Archipelago examined the destruction of island cultures in the 20th century and beyond. Animal Joy returned to more personal concerns; Meiburg stated repeatedly in interviews that the foundational idea is that life is most real when "the blood flows fastest and closest to the surface." Fellow Travelers started as a small home EP and expanded into a full album celebrating relationships with the other bands they've met along the way.
Breaking The Yearlings
Shearwater Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The river is blocked
The road is hot
The sky is blazing
Black smoke on the rise
The weather holds
Until it's on you
And then suddenly breaks
I curl right back into the sound
I take one breath and spiral down
And you not watching the road
Or watching the flood stage rise
And we are yearlings
Not watching the tide run out
Till what the daylight hides
Is known
Yearlings
Not watching the tide run out
We are yearlings (I curl right back into the sound)
Feeling the blood break down
Yearlings (I take one breath and spiral down) (The sky is blazing)
Not watching the tide run out
We are yearlings (I curl right back into the sound) (Until it's on you)
Feeling the blood break down
Yearlings (I take one breath and spiral down)
Not watching the tide run out
We are yearlings (I curl right back into the sound)
Feeling the blood break down
Breaking The Yearlings by Shearwater is a poem-like composition that requires careful interpretation to unravel its meaning. The song appears to be about the passing of time, the inevitability of change, and the carelessness with which humans approach life, regardless of the dangers around them. The first stanza sets the stage, describing a blocked river, a hot road, and a blazing sky. The singer warns of black smoke on the rise, a prelude to change that is inevitable but ignored. When the change comes, people are caught off-guard, unprepared for the sudden havoc it wrecks.
The second stanza uses a metaphor of yearlings, young and vulnerable animals not yet attuned to the ebbs and flows of nature. Caught in calamity, they do not watch the tide run out or the daylight hide, oblivious to the warnings of impending danger. The refrain, “I curl right back into the sound,” repeated twice, suggests a retreat to the familiar, a coping mechanism or a surrender to fate. The singer, taking “one breath and spiral(ing) down” with resignation or fear, recognizes the pointlessness of resisting the inexorable flow of life.
Overall, Breaking The Yearlings is a melancholic rumination on the passage of time and the transience of everything. The lyrics question how much control we have over our lives and whether we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes, unable to learn from experience. The chorus of the yearlings, with their innocence and naivety, represents the childlike aspect of humanity, forever unprepared for what life throws at us. The song’s weighty imagery and use of metaphor, coupled with Jonathan Meiburg’s haunting voice, create a disquieting atmosphere that lingers long after the last notes fade away.
Line by Line Meaning
The river is blocked
The flow of life is halted, blocked and stagnant
The road is hot
The journey is difficult and trying, with obstacles and challenges
The sky is blazing
The world is on fire, chaotic and uncertain
Black smoke on the rise
Destructive forces are gaining strength and threatening to consume everything
The weather holds
For now, things remain stable and predictable
Until it's on you
But change can come suddenly and without warning, catching you off guard
And then suddenly breaks
And when it does, it shatters everything you thought you knew and believed in
I curl right back into the sound
To cope with the overwhelming chaos, I retreat into my own inner world
I take one breath and spiral down
I dive deep into my own subconscious, searching for meaning and understanding
And you not watching the road
But while I'm lost in my own inner world, I neglect the reality of the world around me
Or watching the flood stage rise
I fail to realize the danger and destruction that is coming my way
And we are yearlings
We are naive and inexperienced, unprepared to face the challenges of the world
Not watching the tide run out
We fail to see the warning signs that something is coming to an end
Till what the daylight hides
Until the truth of the situation is revealed, hidden in the darkness of night
Is known
Only then can we truly understand our situation and the world as it really is
Feeling the blood break down
As the chaos and destruction intensifies, we feel our very essence breaking apart
Contributed by Mia O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Vic
Soooo great! Loooove jonathans voice, the power in the music! Thank you guys!
slasheh
love this album. the riff is almost identical to timo maas's to get down though
Ivan Brave
Gotta love austin artists
usedfuzzbox
Yeah, kinda loving this!
André Lapa
that's quite good actully... really good...
Deine Mudda
shearwater - meridian .... <3 ... this is good too !
Mophonic
ultra hot song- cool cover - i like
Jack Nicholson
@IdisagreewithMe Well put.