Throughout my life I have grown to love a lot of music—music of all styles and bands from all sorts of genres. However, I have never really connected with a band’s music and lyrics on what I would consider a truly personal level. You see, there are songs that I can relate to, there are songs that I can understand…and then there is Nothing More.
Jonny, your lyrics and the band's music connects with me on a different level—it is visceral. It is more than songs that match the mood I am in—the songs strike a chord with my past and present, and they help me look forward to the future. There is a certain reality to the lyrics and sense of urgency in your voice.
“I’m the hand that feeds. You’re the dog that bites.”
I know exactly how you feel, because I have been there. The inflection, the power and the raw emotion that is injected into those words let me know that you have been sucked completely dry. I understand the frustration when the person on the other end doesn’t even realize it. What are you supposed to do when the person who is sucking you dry is a person that you love, a person that you consider family? Do you just let them go? Or do you keep feeding them? This song helped me wrap my brain around the answer.
You sing about how our minds have become conditioned by our traditions and all it has done is turn us into machines. I couldn’t agree with you more. When will the collective we, wake up? Traditions are great, but there has to come a time when we realize that these deep-seated traditions and values of ours have become convoluted, and the good intentions of which they were set have become transgressions.
Letting go is one the most important things I have taken away from your lyrics. The concept of letting go seems to be a focal point in your lyrics and it helped me get back to and discover a part of me that truly defines who I am as a person—a husband and a father. In the past, I have gotten so wrapped up in an emotion or situation where I have felt half alive. In these transfixed moments, time almost stood still while the rest of my life flew right by. I, very literally, lost myself along the way.
While there are other variables in my life that have affected my present, philosophical self, Nothing More and Jonny’s lyrics, have opened my eyes to see not what is wrong with the world, life and relationships, but to see that I am in charge of my response to those inconstant factors that used to torture my existence. There is strength in letting go. There is power in challenging the injustices in our world. There is courage in ending the cycle of dependency.
