From the recording 'Seiche' download
This song has an actual story! It was 2012ish just after I graduated from UNT. I was on this high like, 'now I'm an adult, I obviously know everything, and I'm ready to move forward and live my best life with this incredible expanse of knowledge.' Somehow I was wrong. I was dating this boy that I really liked, but things started going sour. We were breaking up for reasons, and one was because I was dishonest. This one is about literally driving away from him after we split, heavy with regret, but also being okay with it. Like, 'Crap. I don't know everything. I'm have weakness, but I know my mistakes don't define me, and I can do right next time.'
The name Dragon Skin came about because I was casually reading Mein Kampf, Hitler's autobiography. He was a big fan of Richard Wagner and his opera, Siegfried.
In German mythology, Siegfried is a hero that slayed a dragon and bathed in it's blood, rendering his skin inpenetrable like a dragon's. Of course, a leaf falls on his back in the process and he gets stabbed in the leaf spot and dies, but the story stuck with me. Like, not matter how much we think we're killin it, we're always vulnerable in some way.
Lyrics
Dragon Skin
C F
Three days, four hours, nine minutes
You stepped out and soundly slammed the door
From the paste of what it takes to admit it
I cling to what I knew I'd change it all for
C G F
So I pulled away, packed down with the blame and a little desolation
C G F
Words that falter and fade just like your shape in the rearview
C G F
Love need not be adorned, it's not a race, or an option
C G Em F
This is not an exchange one could be bullied into
Am B C
you can take the road
Am B C
ill cut through the garden
AmTOP - F Dm Am
while we’re growing old
F G F G A B
faces may crack but heads are hardened
I've bathed in blood and have the dragon skin of Siegfried
a closed book from the safe in the wall of a dark room
now all the fake outs, bombs, the biff, and misdeeds
on my open, endless pages for you to scour through
C G F
So Ill pull away, packed down with the blame and a little desolation
C G F
Words that falter and fade just like your shape in the rearview
C G F
Love need not be adorned, it's not a race, or an option
C G Em F
This is not an exchange one could be bullied into
Am B C
you can take the road
Am B C
ill cut through the garden
AmTOP - F Dm Am
while we’re growing old
F B F G A B
faces may crack but heads are hardened
F B F G A B
faces may crack but heads are hardened
C
It seems I've been a liar
F
Seems I've been a fraud
C → F
Seems I didn't know myself quite as well as I let on.
C
I hope the shit that we’ve collected
F
We won't always need
Am
I hope the colors we're painted
B C
We don't always have to be.