The first time I met Mike from The Deadly Syndrome, he was throwing up on my couch. He had been out drinking the night before with Will, tore the head off a paper mache dummy, wrestled it across a stranger’s front lawn and then stumbled up to my house (I was living with Will and Jesse, and soon Chris would move into the garage) where he puked all over everything and passed out.
There was a lot of that sort of thing when The Deadly Syndrome first got together. Everyone was running around having fun, working shitty jobs, and writing music all the time. The house was drowning in instruments. There were cheap old organs that somebody picked up off Craigslist. Guitars, pianos, keyboards, violins, all broken down and beat up, just laying around in case somebody needed them.
The weeks started to revolve around shows. You know how whenever someone says, “You should check out my friend’s band?” how your immediate reaction is “are you saying that just because they’re your friend?” I never had that problem. The guys attacked the stage; the audience lost their minds. Their shows were like festivals (with lots of cardboard cut outs). It was a wonderful couple of years.
And then it stopped being fun.
It’s a cliché to say that youth is fleeting. But it’s true. And it’s hard to separate youth from rock and roll. That’s not to say The Deadly Syndrome are a bunch of geriatrics, they aren’t. But after two years of being together they were four guys who loved music, but still weren’t able to do it for a living. Four guys who were getting older and starting to think about things like financial security, maybe starting a family, having a car that didn’t break down all the time, getting health insurance, etc – all the stuff that keeps making more and more noise as the years go by and you start growing up.
And growing up is tricky business in rock and roll. Because the truth is that while age doesn’t stifle creativity, it certainly encourages stagnation. And stagnation leads to a sad and boring road that either ends with too much thinking about The Good Old Days or Fat Elvis.
So after a couple of years I think the guys weren’t sure what to do. If you’ll allow me another cliché, things were starting to feel like an ending, rather than a beginning. At this point they could have very easily broken up. Left on good terms and gone their separate ways. Or they could have written another Ortolan. Similar songs played in the same venues, stretching out the good times as far as they could. Instead they moved all of their stuff into a cabin up in the woods and started over.
There weren’t a lot of updates, no hand wringing or bragging, nothing specific, just the occasional word that things were moving along. And then one day after about nine months had gone by, they let everyone know that they had finished an album and were calling it Nolens Volens.
The songs, the production, it all seems to be the work of a band that has found its strengths, and is busy seeing how far they can push them. You can hear the earlier, younger band throughout all the songs, but there’s something else there as well. A sort of self-assurance that gives each song its own life and space, along with a patience that usually isn’t associated with rock and roll.
More than anything else though, Nolens Volens is about growing up. About the give and take that comes with age and responsibility, about remembering the energy of youth and infusing it into a new, older life.
Or not. Fuck it, maybe I’m over thinking it. Maybe they just made a great record and plan to release it later this year and that’s all there is to it. After all, they’re all still in their 20’s for god’s sake! Why am I talking about growing up? There’s still plenty of time for being young, playing the music too loud, and puking all over everything just before passing out.
–Jason Greene
Heart
The Deadly Syndrome Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Can find his own way home
It's just a place you leave
When you finally are grown
Up and away we'll go
To a place we've never been
A place we've never smelt
It's easier the second time
To feel like we're alone
To feel like we're the only one
With no place left to go
Out on the open road
It's where we shall roam
It's where we shall roam
It's where we shall roam
Only time will tell
And when it finally does
We'll be hard of hearing
Barely seeing, and never speaking
Every night is the end of the world
(When we don't!)
Have anything to wake up for
(And we won't!)
Go to sleep until the sun comes up
On a bed, that we built, with our own two hands.
It makes us tick
It makes us tick
It makes us tick
It makes us tick
It makes us tick
(It makes us sick)
It makes us tick
(It makes us sick)
It makes us tick
(It makes us sick)
It makes us tick
This is our heart!
This is our heart!
This is our heart!
This is our heart!
This is your heart!
This is your heart!
This is your heart!
This is your heart!
This is your heart!
The Deadly Syndrome's song Heart is a beautiful exploration of self-discovery and the journey to find one's place in the world. The lyrics suggest that sometimes we have to leave behind what's familiar to find ourselves, and that the road to self-discovery can feel lonely and isolating. The opening lines, "The boy that lost himself / Can find his own way home / It's just a place you leave / When you finally are grown," suggest that sometimes we have to lose ourselves in order to find who we truly are.
The song also touches on the idea of adventure and exploration, with the lines "Up and away we'll go / To a place we've never been / A place we've never smelt / A place we've never seen." This sense of wanderlust and the desire for new experiences is a common theme throughout the song, which encourages listeners to embrace the unknown and to be open to what life has to offer.
Line by Line Meaning
The boy that lost himself
Refers to someone who is confused and doesn't know who they are
Can find his own way home
This person can rediscover themselves and find their way back to their true self
It's just a place you leave
This confusion is something you eventually grow out of and move away from
When you finally are grown
This growth occurs when you reach maturity
Up and away we'll go
We're leaving this confusion behind and moving on
To a place we've never been
We're going somewhere completely new and unknown
A place we've never smelt
We've never experienced anything like this before, not even in terms of smell
A place we've never seen
This place we're going is completely new and unfamiliar
It's easier the second time
After going through something once, it's easier to handle it again
To feel like we're alone
We feel isolated and like we're the only ones going through this
To feel like we're the only one
We feel like no one else understands or can relate
With no place left to go
We feel lost and hopeless, like we have nowhere to turn
Out on the open road
We're on a journey, both literally and figuratively
It's where we shall roam
We have the freedom to go anywhere and experience anything
Only time will tell
The future is uncertain and we'll only know what happens with time
And when it finally does
When the truth is revealed and time passes
We'll be hard of hearing
We won't be listening or accepting of what we hear
Barely seeing, and never speaking
We'll be closed off and silent
Every night is the end of the world
Every night feels like it's the worst thing that could happen
(When we don't!)
This feeling happens when we have nothing going on in our lives
Have anything to wake up for
We lack purpose or something to motivate us to get out of bed
(And we won't!)
We don't have anything to look forward to
Go to sleep until the sun comes up
We're staying up all night because we don't have anything better to do
On a bed, that we built, with our own two hands.
We've created our own situation and we're the only ones who can change it
It makes us tick
Something is driving us and keeping us going
(It makes us sick)
This thing that drives us could also be harmful to us
This is our heart!
This is who we are and what motivates us
(This is your heart!)
This is also true for the listener, as everyone has their own heart and motivations
Lyrics © THE RAY CHARLES FOUNDATION DBA TANGERINE MUSIC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Christopher Richard, Jesse Charles Hoy, Michael Hughes, William Etling
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind