Can't Lose

On the cusp of success, We Are Scientists found themselves living in New York and mingling with other bands in the same situation. Keith Murray describes it as "a scene of bands that we were involved in that still not a lot of people had really heard of." During that period of time, the band members indulged in their newfound rock and roll lifestyle. This song, recalls Murray, "was sort of at the height of that period of just sort of being out all the time, rarely going to bed before the sun was up, and wondering how healthy it was to be doing that for the first time since we had moved to New York."
Remembering those days, Murray says, "We'd sort of been a band that essentially didn't really exist on anybody's radar but our own and our parents'. And I think we were just sort of coming into our own as a band about the time we were writing those songs. I think that one was written about halfway through the writing of the songs on that first record. And we had started touring for the first time, doing actual extended tours. So we had a lot of friends who were in bands that we'd made on the road."

Breaking up with a long-term girlfriend added angst to the tidal wave of emotions Murray was already living in. And it provided fodder for the songwriter in the form of abandon. With a hint of irony he says, "As a person who's never really been totally comfortable in non-considered abandon, I've spent a lot of time thinking about that abandon, how good for me it was or was not. Ultimately, I do think that being drunk all the time and being out constantly in that period was pretty good for me psychologically, although I was sort of losing my mind momentarily."

"A lot of that first record is also about indecision," he adds, "and inability to actually make any real moves on anything. So that song is also considered that, as well."

For a band who doesn't take themselves too seriously, Murray confesses to having a "problem with solipsism" and spending a lot of time over-thinking everything. "Even abandon for me involves consideration of abandon," he says. "And I spend a lot of time worrying about things that I shouldn't necessarily worry about." The line in the song, "everybody says I ought to get over myself" is a reflection of that sentiment. "Not necessarily that people were confronting me about it. And in fact I think that line is a pretty good example of how great an importance I tended to place upon my consideration of myself, because I doubt anybody else even gave a sh*t. (laughing) You know, that total belief that it was so important that everybody else must be considering it, too." (read the full interview with Keith Murray)