NEW SINGLE OUT NOW: You Poor Thing

⤷ AI Summary: apple pie, manipulative hag

Released March 26th, 2025

This song is a letter of spite, sympathy, and ultimately, love. It’s been addressed to someone who hurt me a considerable amount. Sometimes it was on purpose, but more frequently, I think, it was compulsive rather than malicious. A defense mechanism outside of his control, interpreting miscommunication as attacks and generosity as manipulation. I was angry yet sympathetic. Happy people don’t behave that way.

What was the impetus?

One day, whilst delayed-processing the shit show crash landing from a couple months before, I returned home from the HEB on South Congress. A bittersweet jazz standard was ear worming in my brain while I put away my groceries. The opening line of “Misty” a tune familiar to boomers and Gen Z-ers alike—after it became a viral audio on TikTok—was playing on repeat in my brain. “Look at meeeee.” But instead of “look at me,” I kept thinking “my dear fool”. These are now the opening line to the third verse in YPT, but at this time I was still just throwing vocal spaghetti at the wall and seeing what gonna stick.

This pic was taken in CO, I had no idea it would be cover art, it was just a picture lol

Singing those three words over the iconic Misty melody, I looped and looped until words and melodies unravelled to become the V-Ch-V-Ch-V-Ch we now know and love. With my guitar, I set out to create an unsettling accompaniment. Fun fact: the first take of this song is 4 minutes and 47 seconds. I was unsure how this would translate to an enjoyable audience experience... removing the intro and speeding up the tempo did the trick.

What about the sound?

Listeners have consistently reported that the best part of this song is the groovy interlude. I had no idea that that section would become so jammy and funky. The boys are terrific at pulling a story out from my acoustic demos—one I didn’t know I was telling. Grant pulls the story even further along with his mixing and production choices. This song transformed this song from an apple to an apple pie. Mmmm.

Wtf is that line about stealing eyeballs??

The lyrics themselves mostly live in a world of metaphor. One of the stranger metaphors is a reference to the Tim Burton claymation film, Coraline. It surprised me to have this comparison jump out of my subsconsious and find itself onto the page of my song. It feels a little bit like

This is the "other mother." Called that bc she pretends to be like the real mother but BETTER and uses this to get into Coraline's head.

a tribute to my beloved high school years, when my best friend’s passion for the film led her to leave it playing on the tv 24/7 for six consecutive months. Which meant I saw it every day for six months.

In this film, the “other mother”—a jealous, manipulative hag who keeps herself alive by tricking young children and stealing their eyes to eat their souls. It's very much a Halloween movie lmao. She's an evil witch! Unable to love a child for real, only able to use people for what they give her... she felt like the perfect symbol of a third party that was interfering in this relatipnship. Someone whispering in his ear, confusing truth with lies. In the movie, Coraline gets wise before it's too late. With my dear fool, not so much. See the words in full below!

... and now?

After all the twists and turns it went through in rehearsal and production, You Poor Thing has revealed itself to be the centerpiece of this EP. It’s the newest song on the record and therefore feels the most emotionally-fresh. Additionally, it bridge the funkier, pop-soul half with the more indie-sad girl songs of the second half. It marks the start of a more intellectually-involved writing process, both harmonically and lyrically, and was the perfect single to release first.

You poor thing, I hope you get better.

L I S T E N H E R E

Lyrics

You poor thing.

Sharp as a razor, you cut your own ties

and hang your world on a string of lies

Isn’t it heavy? Isn't it heavy?

The world isn’t against you, you are

It’s a trick of the mind that’s breaking your heart

You sad soul.

Spreading your seed hoping something will grow

You're stocking up for when you’re running low

And you’re always running low. You're always running low.

The body shouldn’t betray itself, but you will.

Running through women but moving in circles

My dear fool.

This is my last word to you.

I've begged and pleaded till my face was blue

She eats your young and steals your eyes

You can’t see her web of lies

I was never out to get you, she was

It was the devil on your shoulder choking us

And no one’s hated you all along

It’s always been the crack in your mirror steering you wrong

Moving in circles, moving in circles.... You poor thing.

If you found this to be an interesting read, go check out my other releases!

→ Get with Me

→ Irrelevant

→ Dumb Enough