Behind the Song - Reason to Live

'Reason to Live', our latest single, released on the 31st of July, is a grower. On first listen, it's an angry song about someone else being an asshole. As you listen to it though, it starts to push you to question yourself on the things that the song seems to be accusing the other person of. The moral of the song is to interrogate yourself before you start casting judgement on other people. Read on for more hectic shit xoxo.

We've spent over a year working on our sound as a band, and what we want our musical brand to be. 'Reason to Live' is the first time that we've really been able to start to translate what we want our sound to be. This is what Hey Imagine sounds like. Lyrically, it's a song that changes the more you listen to it, where the meaning evolves and grows.

"It's like you heard a proverb and it confirmed Everybody around you is just a piece of dirt (Oh shit)"

We got Jono to re-look at this song that he wrote a year ago, the meaning of which has evolved as much to him as anyone.

Hey Imagine: Tell us about the origin of the song? How did it come about, what inspired you?

Jono: ‘Reason To Live’ is a very cool song. It’s also quite complicated with regards to the meaning of the lyrics so let’s start with the origin of the song. I wrote this song in 2019 while I was having a fight with a now dear friend of mine (hence the aggression). It’s quite obvious that the lyrics are very bitter and that’s probably because I had no real reason to be mad at this person. I just wanted to express the fact that I didn’t like them and that I thought that they thought that they were better than everyone. I wanted to remind them that they definitely weren’t because, obviously, everyone who isn’t you (yourself) can never be more interesting than you – very mature.

The origin is pretty simple, but the overarching ‘message’ is where it gets a little more confusing. If you had to ask me at the time of writing what the message was, then I probably would’ve said that this is a song for anyone who’s ever felt less than another person and that this is a big ‘fuck you’ to that person. It’s perfectly fine if people get that from the song and if that helps them process certain emotions, that’s great, because the world needs a few musical middle-fingers every now and then.

It’s been a year since I wrote this and I feel that I have learnt a lot. I’ve had lots of experiences in which I’ve had to question my own beliefs and I’ve seen that there is never only one side to a story. Everyone is how they are for reasons that are just as valid as your own. This ongoing epiphany has caused the song to take on a far more self-interrogative form. I started to realise that the things I was accusing this person of (not spending time with friends, trying to be seen on social media, feeling entitled to other people’s attention, being a generally selfish PRICK) are all things that I am guilty of as well and, perhaps, the fact that I was so unaware of these underlying character flaws is the reason I could even bring myself to saying things like ‘you’ve got no reason to live’. What is my reason to live? I can’t just say this to someone else and move on. I can’t list behaviours that undeniably make someone a ‘bad person’ and feel good about myself after singing them at the top of my lungs when I know I’m just describing myself.

HI: What is the overarching message of the song?

J: This song is a FUCKING boomerang. Throw it at whatever you want, but just know that it’s gonna come back and klap you unconscious a few moments later, if you’re not careful. It all depends on whether you’re ready to catch it or not.

HI: Who is this track written for?

J: This song is written for absolutely everyone. It was intentionally designed as a stress reliever, but it turns out that I accidentally wrote something that hopefully gets the listener to question themselves and why they feel better after projecting their flaws onto someone else. I doubt many people will think about it this much though [Editors Note: Self-interrogate mfs].

HI: What's your favorite lyric in the song?

J: My favourite lyric has to be,

“You put the ‘art’ in ‘heart attack'”

This was the first line I came up with and you best believe that the song only exists because I wanted to use this lyric in something.

HI: What makes you proudest about this song?

J: What makes me most proud about the song is the production. I feel like we’ve finally found our sound on this one. The past releases never really knew exactly what they wanted to be, but this one has a definite identity and it’s an identity that we want to carry on exploring as we grow. This is the first song that, in my opinion, sounds like ‘Hey Imagine’.

We hope that you've listened to the song already, and if you have, we hope you love it as much as we do. Now that you understand how hectic it actually is, you should go listen to it again ;p. Here are the Apple Music and Spotify links to make your life easy. Don't say we don't do nice things for you. We love you, keep self-interrogating and becoming better human beans. <3