Dance Monkey

Tones and I (real name Toni Watson), wrote this song when she was a busker playing for tips at Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia. She loved the freedom of busking, but was dismayed by certain drunks and idiots who could ruin the experience. She came to the realization that attention spans were getting shorter now that entertainment is always a click away, so she had to tighten her act to get people to stick around for any length of time. This made her feel like a trained monkey, which inspired the song. If you substitute "sing" for "dance" the meaning becomes more clear, but "Sing Monkey" doesn't sound right, and she wanted the song to be less personal.

There was a specific night that led Tones and I to write this song. "I had already been busking for six hours," she told Diffus. "One person ran past and stole my money, and another was drunk and tried to lean over and play my keyboard. The crowd was very drunk and rowdy. I said, 'I'm sorry, but this is it.' They tried to get me to keep playing, then they started booing me, and I was so frustrated because it showed me how people didn't have much patience anymore." Some of the lyrics come directly from what people in the crowd said to her that night: "I've never seen anybody do the things you do" "I see the way you shine" "You stopped me dead when I was passing by" "You make me wanna cry"

Originally from the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Tones and I was working at a clothing store in Melbourne when she decided to take a chance at busking full time. It took her about a year to get a permit that allowed her to play a specific spot in the city, but she had to park far away. This was a problem because she had to transport gear, so she moved her operation to Byron Bay, where she started doing her busking in early 2018. One night, a guy walked past and gave her his card. That person, Jackson Walkden-Brown, became Tones and I's co-manager.