I’m sending out a message of distress My patience has run thin And as a consequence, I guess, As has my conviction I’ve been seeing visions of a Revelations nature And I’d wager that we ain’t about to make it past the Rapture And I sought refuge in stormwater drains Unlearned the old traditions That have acted as an anchor attached to our ankles Found the angles that project our lines to intersect If only for a second Read the wisdom left embedded in the remnants, said If we weaponise this pain We may lay waste to a hundred of these guilty men Restore the ship before we sink And start again When we laugh we get more sick Oh, so it goes, so it goes When we laugh we get more sick So if those guilty men Remain amongst the living Things will never change When we laugh we get more sick And if things stay the same When we laugh we get more sick Then throughout all our days We will laugh and get more sick

I gotta say, your indignant cynicism is a little bit contagious in its own way And I can't help but tell myself that it's okay That I've slipped into this unexpectedly lengthy bout of indifference Once upon a time these slumps would come and go Lately though, I've been losing hope Where's it goin? I don't even know Blown out with the gear and cones and durry smoke Or stuttered out between uncertain words one of the times that we last spoke Can't shake the feeling that I'm pissing away my time With every week, autonomy looks more like just a life of crime I used to write about the privilege of apathy Used to have a million different ways of phrasing My disdain for lack of action from the ones that talk the talk Now fucked if I recall the last time that I bothered trying to walk the walk Or even the last time that it bothered me that I don't give a fuck Can't shake the feeling that I'm pissing away my time With every week, autonomy seems more like just a life of crime It's not that I'm not happy It's not that I'm not content Just never thought I'd grow complacent And become all that I resent

The seams, they start to split Submitting to an inconceivable stress But somehow, I don't think the stitches are gonna break Cos there's a benefit To being down for as long as the likes of us have You figure out the rough amount of heat you can take And there's no telling from which way the flames will come sometimes And bitterness can come naturally as breath once it takes stride And that fire can stay alight Till well after you die Your maledictions scrawled around you while you try to rest They confuse most, but those who understand will clutch their chests Hang their heads and say they feel the same But you're not sure they do What we thought was manna Was their chemical waste And I get the feeling we'll be in this awful place For far, far longer than forty days They built their borders round the Earth and round your mind And as much as you decolonise and deconstruct The fence stays just as high I know you're trying to quit But I'll oblige if you ask for a cigarette I get how it gets when the temperature drops We all expected so much more from this Than feeling burnt out by age 22 And only growing thinner by the minute Yeah if the shoe fits why the fuck does it slip? I can't put in but if you're racking up I'm down to join Or come round for a pip if you're on and you feel inclined The comedown won't be shit and we'll confirm whether we're still alive Beneath the cheap disguise You know salvation is a rich man's game There's no saviour for you and me As kids we dreamt of going to space Cos we all crave what we can't reach We paint our marks onto their architecture to wile away the hours We etch our names onto their architecture so we won't forget what's ours We etched our names into the architecture so we won't forget what's ours

I haven't slept in about twenty hours I haven't eaten in roughly thirty-six Can't get the temperature right in this room I'm sweating bullets but it's still just as cold as that Fitzroy playground Where every word we said brought another tear to our eyes Before then I hadn't cried since I was twelve when my grandmother died You said you wished that I could've been an asshole Then it'd be easier to say You didn't feel in love anymore, couldn't explain it But ain't that just always the way And just that day I'd cleaned my room And changed the sheets as a surprise Just an awkward attempt to break the rut You said had formed before our eyes Now the sun's rising somewhere near Belgrave And I have no idea where you are Never thought that'd feel so strange I fucking miss you but I know that there's no way round it I know if we had our say I doubt we'd let each other go But as it is, I guess it's like I told you, word-for-word: You'll always be welcome at my shows

A tab of acid refuses to kick in And I'm sitting round and flipping out again Cos I ain't got no serotonin left To push away the intrusive thoughts and overthinking Sinking into winter doubts again I'm dreaming about getting out I'm getting sick of faces around me disappearing My brain's steering me down eerie back streets and factory districts To trap me in abandoned lots Where all the stimulation I need is in the form of lines shooting from a phone screen Through a makeshift straw and up my nasal cavity You wanna watch me fly, just wait and see So take me for a ride someplace nice That you think might remind me why I don't go to work at nine or come home at five And spend time trying to decide what to eat tonight Open your eyes wide, stare into mine Spit the words like fire: "it's too early to die, so be alive" It's too early to die so be alive Make me believe it It's too early to die so be alive, be alive, be alive Be alive

There are whispers of corruption in the government again Urban development's infecting the street I grew up in Under party thumbs I struggle to care and just get stoned And there are pigs parked next door all the damn time I'm not afraid of the impending doom, I'm desensitised Part of me would give my life for the destruction of mankind So every time I kiss you, I'm conflicted on being alive Cos you remind me that life is worth saving You give me something to love in a nightmare So let the walls of the cages lose opacity So every person on this Earth can catch a glimpse of living free Might be a jungle out there but it's a dog fight in here And we're finding our escape route tonight The world outside this house is falling down We're doing things most people wouldn't ever do if they knew how Let's light em up and send our declaration of war And just sing Erik's songs till the sun dawns In search of all that cannot be monopolised Away from prying hands, tobacco taxes, disregard statelines Burning down the highways, all our love, all our rage You touch my hand and baby, everything's okay You're by my side so everything must be okay So let the walls of the cages lose opacity So every person on this Earth can catch a glimpse of living free Might be a jungle out there but it's a housefire in here And we're finding our escape route tonight The world outside this house is falling down We're doing things most people wouldn't ever do if they knew how Let's light em up and send our declaration of war And just sing Riley's songs till the sun dawns And you'll sing along as the sun dawns I'll see the light touch your face as the sun dawns I'll know I'm really alive when the sun dawns

We sang songs penned by our fallen mentors that we'd never met It was a temperate late December day and there was guesswork on our breath Cos this unrelenting sense of raw uncertainty was tugging at our sleeves And anything was welcome that could set our wretched minds at ease Alas, my head was bedlam You weren't much better off There was something in the air It felt peculiar and it made you choke and cough If a softened countenance is all that we can offer one another Then have we already failed each other? What with the lack of recognition for submission that we have On a collective level, of course everything was fine There's an ever-present ebb and flow you have to follow Joy relies on sorrow I thought about that every waking minute Until my chest turned numb and hollow Now I'm unfazed beyond each moment as it passes by Is it balance or suppression? That's anyone's guess, can't say I really mind If a carefree countenance provides cause for concern between one another Then have we already failed each other?

May we never be caught dead saying we ain't got friends Cos the patches that are stitched to an array of fabrics From Melbourne to Toronto go to show That this woe-is-me mentality you get wrapped tight in is bullshit It's hard-wired into your circuits It's in your bones when you feel so alone A community in which each individual's convinced that they're on their own It's how the bosses thrive, you hand over your life cos nothing else felt right When are we gonna get to a stage In the frameworks that connect us to our friends Where when we say "they're in a better place" It doesn't mean that they're dead And may I never be caught dead saying I'm restless once again And running rampant in the repetitive roundabouts as they occupy my head Every now and then, as I embrace sedation And wonder why I'm numb Cos once the feeling comes back I'm underprepared And scared of what's to come And what's become of the shred of light we still get from the Sun Optimism swapped out for alarm at the cancer risks When are we gonna get to a stage In the frameworks that connect us to our friends Where when we say "they're in a better place" It doesn't mean that they're dead So when the city's sold us out And the comedown's snatched us up What's left to do but spectate And say "maybe it's just all fucked"