Stolen words

The story

We don't always get to say goodbye properly. Things are sometimes over too abruptly, too violently, too unexpectedly to leave us time to properly process their ending. Maybe we lash out, say things we don't mean. Maybe we think it's in the past, tell everyone we're fine. But maybe deep down we're really not and we wish that those good times together could go on. This what the lyrics of Stolen words are about.

At the same time, how is anyone else supposed to know you haven't moved on? When you say you're fine, people just go on with their lives. And that's what I wanted the musical idea to express. The song just continuously become more dramatic, loud, expansive. And yet, no one in the supposed bar where it is playing seems to care. The singer is pouring their heart out to an aggressively neutral crowd that simply goes on with their conversation. Having finished the job, the entertainer just goes back to being alone.

Now, some of the pre-release listeners of the EP were torn about the full rock ending. They would've prefered the song to just be unplugged. That is why Philathina has an alternate take (well, that and the fact that most major streaming platforms only consider a release an EP if it has at least 4 songs). While I believe that the musical message is still there in the acoustic version, I think it is clearer in the original production. Either way, I'd love to hear your opinion on that (by email or on Instagram).

By my estimates from voice notes and lyric sketches, I wrote this song between 2018-2019. As its title suggests, the lyrics are stolen from conversations I've had. The verses are essentially stitched together pieces of text messages, such as "took me a while to realize the end;" "those months when we were so carefree;" or "somewhere, somehow, sometime." I also found an old version of the song that had a bridge, but it was way too cheesy even by my standards. The song is definitely better without it.

The bar noises you listen throughout the song were recorded by myself at Dirty Frank's in November 2021 when I went back to visit some friends in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving. In fact, if you pay attention during the third chorus, you can hear my friend shout her classic "vlaka!" (which translates from Greek to something like "idiot").

The lyrics

The history