Traveling Solves Everything

Violent Femmes frontman Gordon Gano told the story of the song to Q magazine: "The idea for this song when I first started writing it was when I was in a time of turmoil. I was in a hotel and my whole life was coming apart and somebody spoke to suggest why don't you just get on a train and go travel, just start heading it doesn't matter where, just do it. And I thought that was very interesting and I did not do it, but I wrote the song. I find it also interesting because there is a philosophy or idea or a catchphrase for it, that changing solves nothing, something like wherever you go, there you are. But I think that sometimes it is important to change environment, even just the experience of movement, of traveling. I think it's quite an interesting idea and certainly was a lot of fun to record with all the different shifts and changes that happened when we had our full expanded lineup playing that song live together."