I grew up always trying to put on the right face
Carrying everything I knew inside a guitar case
Hymns in choir went to an impossible key change
Changing key when they all were lookin at me strange
Playing for change at the checkout of a grocery
Playing for strange looks on the steps of university
Playing for coffee like I wasn't worth any more
Blood on the strings showed a devotion to the hardcore
Spilling out unformed thoughts every night on open mic
Spitting out deformed throbs of a heart when the times right
Stomping flip flops on the asphalt in the middle of summer
Makin’ fun of assholes who drivin Yukons and Hummers
We were all earnest and naive and saviors and it was truthful
But every thought in our heads wasn’t made to be useful
Thought we desired the life of a beaten down troubadour
But martyrs never get to walk through their own open doors

When the headphone meets the ear
when the artist meets the fear
Is there a system to this art
Is there money where there's heart?

I'm scared you might find me pithy enough to like online
A thumbs up cheaper than funneling nickels and dimes
Bandcamp iTunes Spotify Rhapsody
How much do you value the commerce that comes in the melody
Is it scroll through check in minuscule light in your day
Or is this a currency on the level of the New York Exchange?
The stock might rise it might fall it might flatline
My calves might start to burn from the rate of the incline
But you better understand that I'm gonna do this
Without regard to money or time or cost or success
I'm talking yours or mine I'm talking nothing gets undermined
I'm going to make this anyway I'm going hate this if I don't find a way
I will not be the one that waits for the right hope
Passivity will string you up faster than a good rope
I want these things to all collide like money and art
One we work hard for one we make hard

When the headphone meets the ear
when the artist meets the fear
Is there a system to this art
Is there money where there's heart?

You gotta understand I'm coming at you with a reverence
I don't want to preach or make it sound all malevolent
But this is not the time to ask when I'll get a real career
Or explain to your kids that I'm just going though a phase here
This is the stuff that will save them from their adolescence
The groove and the hook that will hit like an obsession
Pull them out of the hell that happens day to every single day
Tell me does a doctor or lawyer perpetually save?