SOCIETY - Commentary Songtext
von Valley

"Society." This song I believe was written on the same writing trip
That we wrote "Last Birthday" on, so that would be November 2019. Um
We went over to our friend Andy′s—I say friend, he's technically the
The fifth member, uh, of Valley. He′s kind of the original member
He—we produced and wrote, um, our whole debut with him. He's an
Amazing, amazing human, and, um, we just always work really well

Together. So, kind of the context of before we went over to his place

Though, we did a session, um, with someone who else shall not be

Named, and, uh, you know, it was just—it was a weird session. We, we

Were coming that day with a lot of kind of emotional baggage. Um, we

Had some stuff going on in our personal lives that was fairly dark

And we kind of just, like, started talking about it, and this person


Was like, "Oh, like, like, that's too serious, that′s too sad. No
One′s gonna relate. Like, let's do something a little more, like
Digestible, easy, kind of radio-friendly," you know. And we just kind
Of looked at each other, we′re like, "No fuckin' way. Like, we′re
We wanna write what we're feeling right now. Like, this shit is
Serious." And we kind of have this, like, signal in the room for
As a band, we′ve done this for a while. We're just like, "Let's, let′s
Get out of here." So we ended up just kind of, like, finishing the
Day, and, and then instantly, we were like, "We need to go to Andy′s
And write about this tomorrow." Um, and we ended up kind of writing

I guess, in a way, like, channeling a lot of the songs that we loved

Growing up. We didn't realize this at the time, but, um, I′ve always

Been obsessed with, with kind of pop music that has, like, a subject

That's a little more aggressive and a little more, like, making a

Statement, and it almost iro—kind of the irony of it all. Um, you

Know, a song like "All Star" by Smash Mouth, or, um, "You Get What

You Give" by the New Radicals, you know? They′re such, like

Anthemic, beautiful written pop songs. When you look at the lyrics

You're a little like, "Oh, what?" Like, this person′s kind of

Frustrated singing this, and there's a lot of kind of irony and a

Little tongue-in-cheekness in the lyrics, and I think that's what we

Tried to do with "Society." Like, "Society" in its essence, if you

Just listen to it in passing, like, it sounds like a nicely crafted


Beautiful pop song, but the lyrics is what really drives kind of the
The subject and what really gives it that tongue-in-cheekness and
That irony. And I′m really happy we kind of hit that, um, kind of
Right on the head, I think. Um, also, like, we have that, like, "
Weedus snare" reference. That snare drum in the verse is very, very
Particular. It′s, it's, uh, it′s our version of, of the "Teenage
Dirtbag" snare, so there's a lot of, like, little threads running
Through the song that, um, is kind of just reflective of the music
That we were obsessed with growing up with. And it wasn′t necessarily
Our generation, but it just kind of fell onto us to discover. Um, so

Yeah, I think anyone out there that's pursuing a dream or pursuing

This particular dream, it′s just like, don't let anyone tell you you

Can't do something, and really just write from your heart and

Write what feels best to you. And, um, in this particular case

You know, we were kind of being told what songs to write, and we

Didn′t want to do that, so thanks, Andy, for, for being there that

Day and, and kind of saving, um, saving the, the day. And honestly
We ended up having a great song and, and saying something that
Um, you know, feels like a little bit of a, a statement for our
Band, which we haven′t been able to do until now. Um, this is a
Very specific statement and us really kind of, um, telling the
Audience, like, "This is the—this is not the way it should be."
Um, and we're just gonna keep writing songs, and society kind of
Sucks sometimes. Like, it sucks that, like, we can′t write about
This, like, dark, really intense shit that's going on in our lives
But at the end of the day, we can, and we do, and that′s "Society."