This one is pretty self-explanatory. I just wish it had taken me less time to adopt this philosophy. Very early on, I was in punk bands in high school and a little unabashed in my creative output, but afterwards I started working alone and being much more shy about music that was purely my own. It’s very easy to hide behind humbleness or other ways not to put yourself out there, but it’s better to just make your art and not care about who cares. There’s a great Thought Slime video that goes into depth on this very subject that I also found highly inspirational. I could have even applied this lesson to this very song, since I spent way more time than I needed to when polishing it.

Musically, the song is fairly diatonic, except for the F (flat-VII) in the chorus, which honestly is more of a passing chord than anything else, and there’s a little walk-up in the chorus that also uses flat VI, but that’s even more fleeting.

This was a “weekend song”, as I began writing and arranging it in the afternoon, which took way too long (instead of doing something rational like using sequences to quickly create drum parts, I arranged the whole drum track from scratch). I didn’t get around to the recording work until 10:30 PM, which lasted 5 hours. I took an hour to mix but decided to sleep on it at that point because… c’mon, it was 4:30 a.m. Some final touch-ups and mixing on Sunday morning and it was ready to go. I recorded it in my studio and spent way too long. I used Amplitube via my Radial DI box for the guitars and basses, and recorded the lead and backing vocals using my SM-7B.

Lyrics

How long have I spent protecting myself

From what I think others might think?

Too much thought I’ve given to

Fearing what I write might stink

It took so long to figure out

I’m not really under attack

Just do what you want, do what you love

Without ever looking back

 

I don’t have time to care about cringe

I’ve got more important shit to do

I don’t need to keep my ego safe

guess I’d rather be earnest and true

I’m not fragile like I was at sixteen

There aren’t enough hours in the day

To squander on embarrassment

‘Cuz I Don’t want to piss my life away

 

So join in the joy of being yourself

And speaking straight from your heart

 Don’t let your labors be constrained

‘Till they might as well fall apart

Express yourself and love your work

Ignore the insecure fringe

Who have so little faith in themselves

They mistake earnestness for “cringe”

 

There’s no time to worry about cringe