Lyrics: Things between

Behind the Song “Things Between”

A song about anxiety and frustration

“Things Between” is a song about wanting to change but failing to do so. About repeatedly ending up in situations that you have worked hard to avoid. The song was inspired by a quote from Amanda Ma, “The hardest thing is to lose yourself to become who you are,” which I discovered while reading the book “De icke synliga” by Fredrik Härén (a big fan). But I completed the song because I needed it. I started working on the lyrics when I was in a relationship that I realized wouldn’t last – and it wasn’t because of her, nor was it because of me. It was all the things in between.

Following / not following rules

The structure of this song is not entirely conventional. The most common way to write (when it comes to “radio music”) is often: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus (once or twice), outro. If you find that interesting, please comment, and I’ll gladly write a post about it as well.

“Things Between” is somewhat different and has a structure that goes like this: Chorus, Verse, Verse, Chorus. With a pulsating interlude between the “blocks.” I like to write my songs in different ways, structurally speaking! Sometimes a more conventional style works, and other times you need to choose a different path. For me, the most important thing is the feeling that comes across. The message is more important than the delivery method.

To clarify, the delivery method is, of course, not unimportant. What I mean is that as long as the message gets through, the delivery method has succeeded. The exact way it is done is less important. What is important, in my opinion, is that the message is good and that it creates some form of emotional response in the listener.

Behind: Things Between

A constant crescendo

Personally, I have used “Things Between” to verbalize and channel the frustration and anxiety I feel about my inability to change certain aspects of myself. If you have felt that this song has touched you in some way, please share it with me. Hearing how others experience my music gives me a lot of motivation.

The whole song is actually one long build-up, a crescendo! The idea is to symbolize an outburst. Something that is simmering. A frustration that keeps growing and eventually boils over.

The Lyrics

“Haven’t we been here before?” That feeling is something I’ve encountered in various types of relationships, even though in this song, I’m referring to a romantic relationship. It’s scary, and it’s frustrating. I’m constantly afraid of stagnating and ceasing to grow, so being confronted with a problem that I thought was resolved before gives me chills. It feels like going in circles, and it can really drive me a little crazy sometimes. Development is so important to me, as well as understanding.
In a relationship, the ability to listen and understand what the other person is saying is one of the most valuable things. So when you encounter something that you thought was resolved, it can easily feel like proof that the other person hasn’t listened to you.

But it’s not always that simple, as I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older and calmed down somewhat (still a long way to go). Sometimes both parties in a relationship really do their best to make it work. They listen and try their best to understand the other person; they try to change to make it work. But changing oneself is not always a feasible option – and sometimes it doesn’t work even though neither of the parties in the relationship is actually doing anything wrong.

That’s how it was for me. That’s what the song is about. It wasn’t her fault, and it wasn’t mine either. It was the combination that didn’t work. That’s how it is sometimes. But the journey to accepting that can really suck, and I learned a lot from it.

Focusing on oneself

No matter how important it is to try to make a relationship work, it is more important to keep oneself functioning. In the pursuit of saving a relationship, you can sometimes risk losing yourself – but I don’t think that’s what Amanda Ma meant when she wrote “The hardest thing is to lose yourself to become who you are.”

I believe the hardest thing is to lose who you became for someone else’s sake – in order to become the person you truly are.

It’s scary to change. Breaking up is scary, and being alone is scary. But it is so important. We can live with a partner for a very long time. But we live with ourselves for even longer. The priority should be based on that.

“Things Between” is about the feeling of realizing that we can’t change everything about ourselves. It’s about sometimes needing to accept parts of ourselves that we’re not proud of. Sometimes we need to let go of/lose things about ourselves in order to feel better. In order to move forward.

Lyrics: Things Between

Haven’t we been here before 

Haven’t we tried all the ways

And it’s not you, and it is not me

It is all the things between

oooh oooh ooooh x2

Find myself standing in a mirror, again 

Still cannot believe what I’ve become 

How did I get to this point? Am I the only one who can’t change? 

I’ve been so far away from being what I want to be

And I don’t wanna…

oooh oooh ooooh x2

To this day, I think that I have remained the same 

But now there’s just the hardest part left to do

Sometimes you have to lose yourself to become the one you are 

And I don’t wanna be here, don’t wanna hear it anymore 

ooh ooooh oooh x3

Haven’t we been here before 

Haven’t we cried all the way

And it’s not you, and it is not me

It is all the things between

oooh ooooh ooooh 
oooh ooooh ooooh