VIDEO CONTENT:
Here’s a fun short video I made (a la 90s camcorder grunge vibes) showing off all the recorded parts in this song. Usually the running joke in any rock band is the bass player has his quirks haha. Well, I tried to make that true in this video too even though as a one-man band the bass player is… well, me:
LYRICS
What is on the outside
Of walls that ever close
Are we getting buried under
Lies we’ll never know
Holding up the inside
Like chemicals erode
But freedom on the upside
Captive if we don’t
We cannot be sold
Turning in the light for this
Power for the lost mind
Living in the night for this
Is all you can decide
In your mind
You can do no wrong with all your lines
Doesn’t matter if we say no
What matters is you say so
Well show me to the door
I’ll let myself out
We are not hypnotized
Faking likeness in your eyes
Fallen order, falling cold
We cannot be sold
Turning in the light for this
Power for the lost mind
Living in the night for this
Is all you can decide
In your mind
You can do no wrong with all your lines
Doesn’t matter if we say no
What matters is you say so
Well show me to the door
I’ll let myself out
Thank you very much I don’t need your alibi
If you tell me that I’m lost then I’ll never waste your time
Thank you very much I don’t need to fall in line
If I follow who I am then I can’t be bought with lies
In your mind
You can do no wrong with all your lines
Doesn’t matter if we say no
What matters is you say so
Well show me to the door
‘Cause in my life
This was never what I had in mind
Doesn’t matter if you say so
What matters is I say no
Just show me to the door
I’ll let myself out
SONG LORE
Writing Process
This song went through multiple lyric changes on the verses, but what remained constant the whole time were the chorus lyrics. “In your mind, you can do no wrong with all your lines…”
The chorus and the intro guitar chord strumming part is how this song began. Usually a song starts with a vocal melody with words, and then I work until I can fill in the rest of the gaps of the song.
My favorite part of recording this song was the bridge section where it’s just vocals. There is a “whisper” type effect on one of the vocals that I actually just spoke the lyrics into the microphone, then used a vocoder effect to give it that whisper/radio white noise sound.
Song Meaning
I always hesitate to share a song’s meaning because it’s usually specific to me, but I truly feel these songs are meant for each listener to interpret and find their own meaning. I’d hate for my meaning to get in the way from a listener finding their own. Also, over time I usually find different meanings come out of my songs for me so it’s always changing.
That said, for me “Thanks But No Thanks” is all about control over those who give up their free will to be controlled. Control is very much a part of the shadow agenda. The beauty of it is that if given the proper recognition, it can also be released.
Without consent, the control aspect of the shadow path has no power. I can always choose whether or not to allow someone or something to have control over me. The Universe has granted me my own divine free will to say NO. When I stand up for myself using my free will in this way, I can free myself from the reins of control, hence the lyrical line “I’ll let myself out.”