“what in the world do we have a quarter to four” is different for me because at that hour in the afternoon I find myself bored and sad because my mind wanders to a person I love(d) and I wonder what we have anymore 🙃
Surprised isn't exactly the word. I love what you do with your music. It's all abou exploring feelings like you said, and that's how it can be so relatable but for each person it comes in different contexts. I'm very grateful for your music, and you. I'm also proud to see how you've been improving on the arts of not oversharing when it's so easy to do so in social media. Thank you for the breakdown of the lyrics luv. I think the "all my daughters" one was the one I hadn't been able to understand. Now I get it and I love it. If I could say something, I would tellyou to just encourage and remember your younger fans that it's their own path in life. You are you and we are we. We can all learn and relate to anyone, but we still have to explore our own essence.
@Yasmin my parents were both depressed and anxious when they raised me and it affected me! (my mum's doing so much better now! she went through like a reckoning lol it's been wonderful to see)
genuinely so suprised If im Being Honest is about a crush lol I always interpreted it as battleing mental health and wanting to get better but just feeling defenceless
I thought carry the time we don’t talk in a backpack from cool girl meant specifically carrying those times where you wanted to talk to your partner but they chose to ignore you, lie to you, etc. but you chose to just carry that instead of open the backpack because you didn’t want to disrupt and be called a “psycho partner” 😂 I do think it’s similar to what you were saying but I love that line nonetheless ❤️
I always wanted to know the meaning behind 'Oh, I think I was doomed before I began' My favorite lyrics of yours. I relate to it so much but i can't pinpoint exactly why.
also on "i carry the time we don't talk in a backpack" i interpreted it like holding precious a relationship you have with someone and all they've taught you after not talking to them for a while. So like, they're always present with you in the backpack even if they're not there with you at the present time
Special girl always makes me think of this poem think and it starts with “we are the girls with anxiety disorders …” and there’s a line in there that says something to the effect pf we are the daughters of feminists that raised us saying you can be anything and we heard you have to be everything. I’ll just the idea that you walk around having to prove that you’re special and worthy resonates with me rn
I always wondered what the lines " I'd love to watch you gasp You'd understand in minutes And I'd like to think you'd miss it 'Cause so would I" Meant in rainbow
Luna Lovegood2021-07-13 00:00:45 (edited 2021-07-13 00:06:15 )
@Yasmin I might be wrong but my interpretation of it was that she was praised a for everything as a child and now hasn't really got any critical thinking skills i.e. she can't distinguish between good and bad ideas (at least romantically?) so she doesn't really know how to show love/appreciation in an appropriate/correct(?) way. Edit: lol Dodie replied, i was way off but it's cool that different people can have totally different interpretations haha
@A D i always thought that meant that they’d be swapping hearts and the love interest would feel how much dodie likes them with heart flutters and stuff
@avrilsakura05 I WAS WORRIED ABOUT THIS ONE TOO bc people were connecting it to secret for the mad and I was like omg wait did it mean that promise?? 😭😭
i always grouped ‘all my daughters’ together with ‘burned out’ because it feels like that shared idea of feeling an audience that idealizes you and loves you so much, but it can sometimes feel undeserved
I really love bite back - to me it feels like trying to help a friend who’s drowning out their sorrow with unhealthy coping mechanisms - while they dismiss you. The “my dear” feels so delicate because in my mind it’s met with disregard.
i also think ‘human’ feels like a continuation of ‘intertwined.’ intertwined was the idea of falling in love while in a bad mental space, and i think human feels like that person actually going through with it. even if they don’t realize it.
The one specifically that surprised me kinda was "I'm walking if it doesn't sting" because I always took it like "I'm [still] walking if it doesn't sting" instead "I'm walking [away]-" So instead of it being like "I'll leave if the thing doesn't hurt," it's like the ~thing~ causes a dull pain but hey it doesn't sting (like a sharper pain you can't ignore) so I'll keep walking, or it'll hurt later and hey yeah maybe I KNOW it'll sting later but fuck it I'm going to keep walking until it makes me stop. Like ~metaphorically~ spraining your ankle and pretending it doesn't hurt so you don't have to admit you need to slow down/stop the thing and you can just keep walking like it's fine? If that makes sense?? (sorry to ramble lol)
Red pushing down on the green made me think of when you're driving and it suddenly turns red at a traffic light, like when you have a crush and you're like going as if the traffic light is green and suddenly you realize oh CRAP is it all in my head?! and it feels like you hit the brakes hard.
I don't know if you specifically meant "how can I be proud of what a million people shout to me I'm not" to talk about bi erasure but as a bi woman dating a cis man I've been told so many times that "I'm basically straight" that it instantly had that specific meaning to me, as in that "should I really participate in pride/be vocal about being queer when I'm actually passing as straight?" kind of self-doubt. But that song gives me so much strength so thanks for making it
“ So please step inside my soul I'd love to watch you gasp You'd understand in minutes And I'd like to think you'd miss it 'Cause so would I” in rainbow. everything else in rainbow feels like we’re sharing a secret, but that part i can’t figure out
@Nashiha Ahmed Yes I also associated it with traffic lights and that idea of trying something with that person you like vs your head telling you to stop (the red light) like it made a ton of sense to me but I liked her explanation a lot
@val barquero i have always interpreted that as- dodie wants them, they don’t want dodie, so “let’s swap chests” like- i’ll have your heart and change it to make you want me, and you can take my heart which wants you and we’ll both like each other :)
@Sophia Rojas i think that part is like her talking to the people who’ve made her feel so negatively about her sexuality, and if they could see her soul the way she sees it, they wouldn’t be so hateful about it anymore and they might actually miss that part of her if it wasn’t there anymore!!
all my doughters , i thought it was about like , the person you are to different people, like you may like this version of me but you dont entirely know me?? idk if it makes sense , also srry for my broken english
@AmyLouise the grey haired circle line is explained in her sick of losing soulmates tutorial from a couple years ago!! :) she talks about the whole song it’s really cool
i always felt like "what in the world do we have at a quarter to four" was like losing track of time and not caring about whatever you're suppossed to be doing in your daily routine bc you're too hooked on what you're doing. also "disconnected but beautifully raw" made me think of how you're disconnected from the person you're thinking about but you're still doing a "beautifully raw" thing hehe
not surprised, but special girl means SO much to me and it’s my favorite song on the album (and maybe from your whole discography, along with when) so thank u for writing it :)
Not exactly from this video, but when you first explained the lyrics to human, the lyric "you'll for so nicely, you'll keep me intact". I always read it more in a "I have been hurt before, and now I have these cracks, but you won't hurt me, you'll be comfortable and warm" than how you described it, which was more along the lines of "I have been hurt before, and I have these cracks, but it's okay because you'll be the glue that will hold me together". I always read it more like one person saying to the other "I trust you, you won't hurt me" and not "I trust you, you will keep me from breaking apart" Anyway, I have been your fan for 4 years now, you sharing your experiences helped me realize I am bi, and that sometimes I disassociate. Thanks for that
@Sophia Rojas it’s like… all the pain is worth it and you still wouldn’t give up being lgbt despite all the negatives? Like the whole song she sings about being different and isolated and longing but like begrudgingly at first maybe she still loves that little bi part of her like it’s caused pain but she still loves it And she’d love for someone homophobic or straight to step inside her soul and feel that little part thats bi because it’s so powerful and wonderful they’d understand why she identified as bi so clearly and they would miss it if they then lost that part and so would she
@A D one of the other lines in the song ‘how are your lungs/are they in pain/cause mine are aching’ when you have a crush on someone it physically hurts! Like your heart hurts or as dodie says her lungs are aching it’s just so much longing that it actually hurts lol so she’s asking can you swap chests can you just experience all this unrequited love I feel like once you feel all the love I feel maybe it would help you make the decision to date me
One of my favourites lyrics ever is "I was raised by open mouths and teary eyes Passive wistful lullabies" just!!!! Amazing!!!! And I think I understand but if you want to elaborate on that? When I first heard it it was like a punch to the gut
i experience derealization and maladaptive daydreaming, and when you started talking about before the line, specifically when you broke down the idea of there being a line between where you started experiencing derealization verses before, i started tearing up. because that’s the first time i’ve ever heard someone else explain how it feels. and when you talked about grasping at the strings? that really got to me. that song already meant a lot to me, but now it just hits so close to home. thank you.
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Gabriel Kamiesz2021-07-13 02:15:16 (edited 2021-07-13 02:15:44 )
"I used to smile at every star and thank the sky", Before the line or "I opened the door that a kid shouldn't walk through" Guiltless
i love bored like me and the line where you say "and talk like we've been married for 40 years" and then "and not talk like we're married fifty years", i think is very clever. i have always think you say it in a way of "i would love to have the amount of trust in each other as if we have been together for years but at the same time i want to be excited about you like i was when we first met. is that the meaning behind those two lines or is another thing? <3 also hate myself is probably the song i relate to the most in the whole world so i was so happy to hear you talk about it! everything you said was like "omg that's me" fff it was really funny
I love all my daughters, though I always felt the "mother/father" role less like parental ( cuz I'm a teen) and more like family and peers and always feeling like I have to take care if everyone and always be there even when I'm broken myself. Like a broken glue bottle. All of the glue leaks out.
I always thought of all my daughters being about you feeling responsible for the care of your younger selves, like knowing you’re unable to shield them from the pain that will inevitably reach them
I thought red pushing down on the green was more of like a stoplight metaphor. You’re really wanting to go forward in the relationship snd continue with that idea (green light) but something is making you feel like you need to stop (red light) aka overwhelming anxiety or something to that extent so the red is pushing down on that green
I always really like the lyrics "you opened a door a kid shouldnt walk through" "I'll carry your burden, till the day that you die" and "no use at getting angry at the way that you're wired" in guiltless. I love the entire song but those speak to me a lot so, thank you for being vulnerable so I can be vulnerable 😊
@isabelbm the first part of the verse is about people not believing she’s bi, so she’s saying to them if you could feel how I feel, you’d understand how real it is. And it’s a beautiful thing to have the potential to love anyone, so anyone who experiences that feeling might miss it if it was gone :)
The whole of Special Girl made me immediately think of the Enneagram type 4, I've been learning about the enneagram all this year and these lyrics were so clearly illustrative of the 4 who literally 'tries to prove their self-worth by being special and unique"
I always thought ‘red pushing down on the green’ meant some contrast between being embarrassed and feeling sick which both occur during a crush I guess
I always thought the promise you broke was in reference to secret for the mad where you promise "it'll all make sense again" and I was surprised it wasn't lol
in cool girl "rolling your eyes to the back of you heads surely you know to close them instead". i always thought this was about everyone else (like friends) being so annoyed and rolling their eyes bc youre trying so hard to be cool and different for this guy but you are saying surely you can just close your eyes and "look away" rather than making a fuss like ohh here we go again she has one of those crushes again ehh
What is "You waited smiling for this" about? I always thought the song was just about being overworked and wanting to quit, so I wanted to know who this other person is, are they causing the person's pain or just enjoying it and why?
@Gabriel Kamiesz pretty much all of guiltless is addressing parental trauma iirc. Opening the door to adulthood and other problems at such a young age as a result of fighting, yelling, etc.
@Holly Gardiner did your parents bicker a lot? or some trauma/maybe bad coping habit someone introduced you to? it resonates w me because of my parents divorce at such a young age
@isabelbm i think it’s referring to the line beforehand imploring people who deny or erase bisexuality to “step inside [her] soul” and realise that she actually is attracted to who she says she is, and once they leave they’d miss it. Kind of a little hopeful twist on the song as she talks about all the cons of her sexuality during the verses but then says she’d miss it if it was gone which is quite lovely. hope that helped! :))
@doddlevloggle totally get that, made me think of those in our lives that scheme and manipulate like politicians and that those actions always come out leaving them alone in the mess they made
@Arwyn Hager I think it's for when your partner's come home late without letting you know, you should just chill out to be a cool girl because if you sigh and make a big deal of it they will leave you
idk why but i always thought of monster as specifically a post breakup song but u described it more generally and now i can relate to it so much more strongly (from the perspective of finally standing up to a toxic / abusive family member). like i didnt even realize it could apply to that
i know this is probably not how you meant it, but as an aromantic person i always imagined human to be about someone longing for the ideal of romance but not necessarily enjoying the actual thing, the repetition of "i'm so human" makes me feel like they feel as though loving someone else is what makes them human, so they have to, even if they don't enjoy it, and the way the song borrows from the minor key whenever the line is said makes it feel this way too, because it's a darker sound. this is probably just me projecting though :P. what does the line "i'm so human" actually mean?
Mostly surprised by how much I had understood (I am a 72 year old man, so that just shows the power of well crafted songs to communicate across genders and generations). Thought the whirring machine was a vibrator, though :-) Looking forward to coming with my partner to hear you in London in September. I guess we will be among the oldest people there.
in special girl i had it in my head that "talk and tap to find a crack, prise open till my nails turn black" was referring to yourself, like that urge when your in a bad place to find flaws and bad things within yourself and make them as big as they possibly can be, so that you get that pity or support from people and they reaffirm what you're thinking; that you're such a special, unique little snowflake with all your problems
At first I thought "if I'm being honest" was about a crush but then I thought it was a way of asking your younger self if they would love you for the way you turned out and reassuring yourself the path you took is okay and that it isn't that bad at all
Love these! Pas De Deux has been one of my favorite songs of yours for a while, can you talk about what inspired that song? Also do you think you'll ever record that one professionally/put it on Spotify?
I perceive the line “I am not cartoon” like this: you know when cartoon characters get hurt constantly but always seem to be fine? Always survive, bruises and bumps leaving when the camera cuts and comes back five seconds after. I feel like saying, “I am not cartoon,” basically states that I may withstand some damage, but in the end, I’ll always break. I’m-not-as-strong-as-a-cartoon-character kind of thing, yk?
PLEASE DODIE PLEASE WHAT'S "I KNEW YOU ONCE" ABOUT like what kind of a relationship? I've applied it to so many situations and had so many different "you" people but I always always wonder what it's about. My tippy top favourite song of yours. Also..... BLESS YOU FFS
@A D I always assumed that it meant "if we swap chests, you'll know how in love i am with you (because that's an emotion often felt a lot in your chest) and that might make it easier for you to decide to date me because you'll get a taste of what it feels like"
"Once I saw fire and all I know is something happened-- did I let it go?" grrrahhra that lyric is so cool and i want to know ur reasoning behind that lyric :D I imagine you're watching a building burn or something and you don't actually realize it's burning its just kinda happening like it isn't connecting for some reason
on the color spectrum the opposite of red is green. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but the oppositional energy/force that was captured by this line added a whole lot :)
I was a bit surprised by Hate Myself being specifically about being around people who won't open up! when I sing it to myself, it feels like such an accurate expression of how I can spiral into anxious overthinking and assuming people are mad at me when they're just quiet or there's a lull in conversation.
I'm working on calming that anxious voice, though 💜 she just wants to keep me safe, but she works too hard sometimes! as an autistic enby transfemme from suburban Texas, I grew up pretty much constantly confused why everyone else seemed to have read a manual & gone to an orientation on "how to be 'Normal' (terrible)" that I had missed entirely 🙃 thank you for songs like Rainbow that feel as if my own heart wrote them, and help me feel less alone and alien 🌈❤️🩹 your art makes such a difference
i was surprised by "it seeps through her cracks and so i start to choke" because at first i had absolutely no idea what the lyric meant but now i think it really makes sense
I was definitely surprised by Hate Myself! I’ve always listened to it through the ears of someone who has social anxiety, dreading conversations where the other person “goes quiet” because then I feel as though I’ve done something wrong in not keeping the conversation going. It was definitely interesting to see the different perspective that you wrote the song in and meant for it to be perceived as :)
All the lyrics were exactly what I thought, I always feel like they're very straight-forward but on point. Before the line is my favourite, it broke me
@isabelbm for me I picture someone walking around and being able to see inside my brain. And they gasp when they see the fact that I'm rainbow ( lgbtq) but now that they can see inside, they can actually understand. The narrorator like to think that it helped, and that you would miss thier brain at the end because so would the narrorater.
when i was in seventh grade me and my newly found best friend were sitting on the front desk waiting to get our graded papers handed to us. we were incredibly nervous so i suggested that we both cross our index finger and middle finger for good luck but that didn't calm us down so we both crossed all the fingers of both of our hands that weren't crossed and we crossed our toes too ( sounds so stupid omg) ,it was so comforting because no one but us could see that we both had our toes crossed, silently praying to get good grades and laughing at our own stupid selves because we knew that wasn't going to do anything and the "i look idiotic with my limbs all knotted it don't feel right" reminds me of that moment, we were so incredibly just happy and ourselves back then and i don't know if i will ever feel like that again so that lyric holds so much importance and happiness for me. i haven't felt like i did back then in a while. i love your music Dodie, thank you.
Also, Human is one of my top favorite songs of yours! Human reminds me of falling in love with someone, and being vulnerable in front of them for the first time. Its Beautiful!
i’ve always wondered about “don’t say it’s genetic” from guiltless. it has such a particular meaning for me and i’m so curious as to what it originally meant
@tobefrankie I think it means, that he says the way he act towards her is genetic so he can't do anything about it, like he was born to be a person like this (in the same way some people say, that alcoholism or stuff like that would be genetic, because the children of people who have it, often get it aswell, when it's just a way to escape your feelings and as a child of someone with alcoholism you might haven't learned other ways that work for you, so you end up like your parents). She blames him for what he did and says that he can't just give the blame away because he was the one who did it. If that makes sense to you
I know you skipped it, but the lyric “a dark politician will end up alone” is one of my favorites, so I wanted to say what it means to me. Someone who twists words and scenarios and does everything with the intent of getting something in return, at the end of the day, has no one. They spend time lying and bargaining and it amounts to nothing, never knowing love.
i’ve always felt that “when you go quiet, i hate myself” was a representation of the overthinking and self deprecating thoughts that come to play when you’re beside someone that doesn’t seem to give you what you need or talk to you and let you in; therefore, causing you to overthink and feel as though you’re the problem. it brings out a feeling of self blame and unworthiness, incapable of being the person someone you love could confide in since they are just beside you dealing with their issues but not letting you in and leaving you detached from the narrative in a way
The lyric “I’ll never be sixteen again” in “When” made me WEEP. I understand that you probably wrote that lyric when you were wishing to relive one of the best years of your life (possibly???, I could be very wrong sorry), but for me hearing that lyric now that I’m seventeen made me realise how much I missed out on when I was sixteen. I fell out with close friends, plummeted into a really bad mental state, and I just felt so lonely all the time, obviously this was all happening during the pandemic (and i got the virus in winter wuhay I guess we’re twinning, Dodie lmao). I feel so dumb writing this cause I know it could’ve been so much worse, but I just feel like I missed out on what was supposed to be one of the best years of my life. Hopefully the rest of the year is gonna be a bit more exciting than last.
I'm a few years past sixteen, and I can tell you that there's no timeline for any teenage experiences. Your "sixteen" could be this year, or maybe it'll be a few years of your life. Sometimes we get the rough parts first, then the time of our lives follows. No matter the age, you never lose the opportunity to have fun and enjoy life like you're sixteen. I'm wishing that you have a better seventeen.
I’m sixteen right now. On the one hand, this year has been super difficult for me and the idea that I won’t experience it again is comforting. On the other hand, it’s a whole year of my life that I’ll never get back— a year in which I’m supposed to have fun and feel alive. This line is so bittersweet to me and it always resonates so strongly with me, but not always in the same way!
I had a fall out with friends my junior year while I was going through some things that made me feel alone. I am so strong now and happy in my life at 27 and have been for a while. Life isn't perfect and that is true for everyone. But llife keeps moving and there's always going to be more time to do these things. It sucks that you had to go through a hard year. But you haven't peaked. There will be amazing years to come when you least expect them.
ugh i love all you sixteen/seventeen yr olds in this comment section it's just kinda comforting that i'm not alone came into the pandemic at 15, leaving it at SEVENTEEN damnnnn
Wow we have such similar experiences Haha, if it helps at all, practically every adult tells me your teenage years truly arent the best years of your life. Life gets so much better once you figure out who you are and arent a teenager anymore so dont worry about "wasting the best years of your life" or anything.
Oh my, so I'm currently sixteen. And this is actually one of the best years I've had so far. Covid sucked yes, but it also made me learn a lot about myself through being away from society.
I think something that you should take comfort in, is things are only as good as we make them to be.
I decided on my last days of being 15 that I expected nothing. And then that nothing became everything. it 'bloomed for me' (haha see what I did there? Skdjjfkd) Happiness is only what we make of it. Your sixteen will never come if you expect it to only enter your life at a certain point. think: when I'm more mentally stable (I'm still not) when I move out (still haven't) when I am making money from what I love (also not doing that lol) but nonetheless, there is so much joy to be had in life eh?
It's all just about perspective. But don't beat yourself up about your current perspective. it's okay to grow. And growing takes time.
This was a ramble-y mess but I hope that helped in any way😭😭
For me it feels very weird because when "when" came out and i first sang that line i was still 15, now im 19 and it just shows me how much time has passed and how much i hoped would happen in this time and just didnt...
i just turned 19 so i guess i still have one more chance, but for me 16 was probably the best year of my teenage years and at the time i didn't know it. i was unhappy for most of my teenage years and there's not much i can do about that because it's in the past now, and i wanted my life to be so much better and fun and interesting. but 15 or 16 is probably the best of them and i wish i was happier with it when it was still happening.
also as an added bonus, the first version of When was released in 2016 when i was 14 years old. i was listening to the song and i was like "damn i kinda have a lame life, i relate to this "waiting to live" thing and i'm still young so i should just do it now" and that feeling that i would be missing out is why i put so much pressure on myself to have fun when i was 16, whole time that pressure (and my bad mental health lol) was the reason why i wasn't enjoying myself!
i'm not gonna be young forever, but now i know not to pressure myself to live the way that i think i'm supposed to, and instead just live now. and hopefully i'll be satisfied with that.
Oh boy, same! I'm seventeen now and sixteen was a hot mess. But that being said, I've listened to dodie for a LONG time now and 'when' has always broken my heart because when i was younger i was so desperately hoping that sixteen was going to be my year though i doubted it and then it came and it wasn't haha. but i mean, there's still the future! (also i'm sorry you got the virus, that really sucks, i'm glad you're okay!!)
Hey! I'm 19 now, but 16 was possibly the worst year of my life (I felt so terrible), so I also always cry at that lyric. But it gets better! It really really does! It required therapy for me and I'm so glad I went. I haven't felt this good in so many years.
It always feels like "oh i'm young i should be happy NOW". But you don't! Age and happiness are not necessarily related, don't worry :)
I'm 32 and that line gets me too, every time. I've made a lot of amazing memories so far but I also regret a lot of decisions I've made and that line always reminds me that I can't change those things no matter how much I want to. it's hard to get through that song without crying.
@Brooke Cavanagh same with me the last two years, but this one is finally getting awesome. Yesterday, I was at dodies concert in Cologne, in august I'll go on vacation with friends for the first time and also I'm at university now! There's so much good to come!
I never fully appreciated She until I had it bad for a girl who couldn’t love me back. It does feel oddly good to hurt…. As a supposed “daughter” personally I love listening to your music and watching your videos because I know you aren’t perfect. You have a transparency that most others wouldn’t be brave enough to have
@doddlevloggle grammatical intervention can almost reverse the meaning from companionship to a hostage situation: "paint me in. trust, i'll be your best friend."
my senior quote this year was “i promise you, it’ll all make sense again” - i attempted suicide twice my senior year of high school and this lyric has extreme significance in my life. for my 17th birthday, my sister took me to a dodie concert in oakland, california. while dodie was singing, my sister held me close while i wept through the song “secret for the mad” - i plan on getting it tattooed on my foot when shops open up more. that lyric changed my life, it’s something i tell myself everyday.
that one has been great help for me too. there’s been so many times where i feel like im going to loose myself and this is it.. and that lyric among many others of dodies had just been so lovely.
You are so incredible, that tattoo is going to look so lovely on you and your beautiful self ❤️ I am so glad you are here and I hope you have a great day
Extending all the support and love in the world to you!! You are more adored and loved than words could say, and only deserve the greatest in the world❤️❤️❤️❤️
dodie mentioned it more than once, maybe regretting an unhealthy narrative in a lyric, but it’s very lovely that music lets you show all your worst thoughts and feelings w benevolence. some lyrics seem unhealthy, but you hold you hold the feeling’s hand and give that feeling a place
i like the imagery of holding a feeling in your hand and then letting it fly away, almost like a bird. i personify or objectify my feelings as a coping tool from therapy so that i can examine them, and i might try this. thank you kind stranger <3
thissss. i really appreciate whenever artists put their raw emotion no matter how unhealthy or silly it is. a lot of times there are people who have similar feelings. and if not then it allows others to understand it a little better.
Timecodes: 1:04 - If i'm Being Honest
1:47 - in the bed
3:46 - Burned Out
5:43 - Before The Line
7:30 - Four Tequilas Down
8:40 - Special Girl
9:32 - Cool Girl
10:06 - In The Middle
10:54 - Monster
11:19 - Human
11:34 - Sorry
12:23 - All My Daughters
14:46 - Hate Myself
15:36 - She
it has nothing to do with the original meaning of the song, but All My Daughters holds a special place in my heart, cause at a time where i was feeling a TON of dysphoria and dealing with transphobia at home, being called someone’s “daughter” really meant a lot.
p.s. love ya dodie! thank you for everything you do!
hey sister! i hope you're feeling better now and i'm glad that the song was able to help you during a tough time. i hope you've got heaps of friends and loved ones to give you so much love and support <3
My Grandma was listening to In The Middle with me a year or two ago and asked "is this about a threesome?" And I was like "noooo, there's no way that's what it's about"... I guess I owe her an apology
i always felt really seen by "special girl" but for a totally different read than what was intended, i think? the line "hate me first, yeah, make me work, that's perfect" and "i found my worth in this world by proving i'm a special girl" struck me as musings from the inside of a gifted kid complex? like, if you did well in school as a kid, you feel this compulsion to be promising and special from every point of view. and when someone doesn't happen to think you're marvelous, you're like, "ah, yes. that means i must demonstrate my talent and *make you*." every time i listen to the song, it reminds me of feeling like, great! i'm going to get a good grade in being a person. something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve,
“So just hold me like you mean it, we’ll pretend because we need it” i think is one of your most beautiful lyrics, it’s been stuck in my head ever since I heard it. And the way the music pauses before it continues really gives it that emotional pull, perfection.
That pause is EVERYTHING. It's like the whole world fades away and you're left in the solitary space with the two protagonists and their feelings bubble.
me and my best friend bonded over your music, over our summer holidays we're both going to print out the song lyrics of build a problem and each listen to the album and annotate along with what specific lyrics mean to us and then exchange annotations and re-listen taking them in mind, to try and understand each other better u know, does this make any sense? This is so interesting to me, the lyrics on this album are so special and beautiful :)
it wasn't mentioned, but arms unfolding is probably my favorite song of yours and the reasons why have changed over the years. every time i go back and listen to arms unfolding it has a different meaning to me, and i just hold that song so close to my heart. i saw you perform live a few years ago and the show opened with arms unfolding and i was just bawling in the middle of the concert floor it was very classy :)))
I cried so hard when I saw her preform it and I sometimes cry when I hear it in general but I remember it starting and I was just crying so much and I was like “and this is only the first song” it was the best
"take the energy of anxiety and turn it into....horniness lol" -dodie Me: 👁️👄👁️ 🧐 🤔🤯 I don't know why this is so revolutionary to me lol it makes a whole lotta sense
Hey dodie, I don’t know if you’ll see this but I’ve been a fan of yours for so long and I want you to know how much the song guiltless means to me. I’ve never held a song so close and I completely understand not wanting to go into it just because I know the feelings that go into writing those types of lyrics. I cried so hard when I heard guiltless just because I understood, and It hurt that you understood too. I have always felt this deep connection to your music but guiltless really got me. I couldn’t believe the absolute strength it took to make that song, I still get strung out any time I listen to it. Just because it makes me remember I’m not alone In my pain. Thank you dodie. I understand the whole “this YouTuber that I barely know saved me” mentality but your music genuinely got me through so much. I remember listening to your music in the hardest moments in my life and it making me feel like there was a light at the end of the darkness, and even if I haven’t necessarily reached it just yet, there’ll be something beautiful to come out of it. I don’t ever mind the things you will do in life, and I never want you to feel pressured by my respect, but since guiltless, I’ve never felt closer to someone I’ve never even spoken to. I can’t wait till I get to meet you if you come to Australia again, just so I can properly let you know how much that song meant. Thank you for that song. I’ve never felt so seen, and I just really admire you. I understand why you took a step back and drew a line years ago, I myself have a problem with oversharing so sorry for this long comment, but I just really wanted a chance for you to see me, even if it’s only through a screen. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your beautiful songwriting and your ability to make a song that relates to so many people. I know I only see a tiny portion of you from YouTube, but I genuinely love you so much, thank you for being you. Thank you dodie Elizabeth
I've always loved your lyric "they say they like my eyes but I've only ever seen them in the dark" from when. Something about it hits me so deeply, the idea of someone saying they love you but there's no way of them knowing you because you haven't shown them. Or if you interpret "them" in the lyric as your own eyes it gets interesting as well because it's saying that you don't even know yourself, you can't see what they love about you. The lyric just has always meant so much to me and your lyrics are so powerful and beautiful thank you 💗
“Seeps through the cracks and so I start to choke” actually inspired a painting I made about a year ago, and it looks a lot like the image you described!!
I wanna draw venn diagrams of dodie song themes.... Sorry & Monster, Burned Out & All My Daughters, Before The Line & When.... There are crossovers between some of these songs that would be really interesting to explore.
Guiltless to me is about certain family members of mine witnessing my abusive childhood and not putting a stop to it despite their situational power. It’s a way for me to push all my resentment into that song, and then allow myself to forgive.
The dark politician is a specific person, and there could not be a better description.
@doddleoddle didn’t want to bring back any bad mems that’s all lol. i’ve found my own meaning for it and can relate to the song from my own interpretation so that’s good enough for me!
To me that lyric screams gaslighting by a parental figure - someone that’s supposed to take care of you is twisting your words for their own gain. But that’s also me projecting my own experiences and doesn’t say anything about what dodie’s intent was
@Isani Art as someone with an unapologetically abusive mother, every line in Guiltless resonates with my personal experiences. It's very obviously a song about trauma, but I do think it's one of those things that very personal and isn't owed a deeper explanation unless the person who experienced it wants to provide it. People even hear the word "trauma" or "abuse" and they start assuming and stigmatising. And a lot of the time it takes personal growth to not feel the need to pry into everyone's personal bag of traumas and experiences that shaped them. And unfortunately the majority of people don't do that work. Which is why tabloids sell so well.
as one of your “daughters” that literally grew up with you and have seen you blossom since i was 10, you are a huge role model to me. you were a big sister for me growing up. your younger audience knows you have flaws and behind closed doors have made bad decisions. you are not perfect. you are dodie and we love you for who you are, not just how you present yourself online. love the album, so proud of how far you’ve come from the bedroom recording of “she” :) -a now 18 year old fan
6/10 holds a very special place in my heart- i first heard it when i was beginning to go through the self discovery reckoning that all young mentally ill teens go through and it's carried me through it all. it just helped me feel less alone and a little more normal when i felt like i couldn't stand out more. especially the bridge at the end of all the voices overlapping, feels like the epitome of a brain with social anxiety
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Sarah Turner2021-07-13 00:25:43 (edited 2021-07-13 00:26:35 )
I noticed that you changed it from "I wail aloud/I need it back" to "Oh my god/I need it back" in all my daughters (I listened to the demo way too much lmao)... what spawned that change for you? was it just an aesthetic change or did you change your meaning/intent there?
@katie For me Rainbow has always been more about being or feeling different and taking pride in that then particularly about being queer. Especially “So please step inside my soul. I'd love to watch you gasp. You'd understand in minutes. And I'd like to think you'd miss it. 'Cause so would I.” makes me cry very often cause…it’s true. I often say or feel like I hate my brain but in actuality I’d probably miss it.
@eykyra I have social anxiety too and it resonated with me a lot! For some reason I thought of it as like “oh all these people are good at talking and are able to be social but I’m kinda not and so I feel like I don’t belong”
@Random Artist Yeah exactly like when she says "is there a code" like "why does everyone know how to act except me?" And also the line about how alcohol makes you a bit disinhibited and therefore more able to socialize, everything makes so much sense to me
@Random Artist Yeah it's what's so cool about Dodie's songs, they seem to be very specific but they are actually fitting to each one in a very different way
There are quite a lot of dodies songs that I relate to my autism (probably because I listened to the new album while waiting for the results of my diagnosis) and it's so nice to see others here do too
Yessss, as someone on the spectrum i heavily agree, and its funny cause she made it about waking up in this alien world but thatd exactly what being neirodivergent feels like. I've also felt I was an alien to this world and never knew why until my recent late diagnosis
As someone who always feels their stomach in knots when having to be in a social situation, it's my personal anthem.
Like...the heck do you mean that I'll feel better if I drink? I'll just get tipsy, my brain will still go a million thoughts a second and I'll feel annoyed that my senses are mildly impaired, lol
i always interpreted "hate myself" as the aftermath of an abusive relationship....like being punished with silence, never knowing what's right, the immense anxiety that comes with that
this past year i’ve gone on a bit of journey embracing my (possibly) being autistic, and ‘hate myself’ just perfectly expresses the difficulties i had with communication growing up honestly thank you for that song, cause it’s put into words something i struggled for years to
“hate myself” to me is about anxiety and overthinking about the people you caring about liking you. seeing a shift in their expression and worrying you said something wrong, constantly trying to explain their behaviors by something you could have possibly done
I interpreted "when you go quiet, I hate myself" as the end of a conversation in which I am revealing something abt myself to you, I secret I've kept. & you go quiet & I hate myself for ruining our relationship by telling the truth. I read your quiet as disappointment or horror or fear or hate abt the secret I've shared. Your opinion of me is changed forever & I hate myself for just not saying anything. I interpret it as this kind of anxiety-reaction to sharing your soul w/ someone & not getting an immediate reaction. My brain goes into overdrive & I have so much doubt. When really, the person I've shared with probably just needs a moment to process, to collect themselves, to think through a response. But, in that one moment of quiet, my mind becomes a storm.
i interpret it similarly, except that (partially because i’m neurodivergent) i have a hard time keeping conversation with people i don’t know well, so whenever even people closest to me go quiet, peacefully or otherwise, mid-conversation or -interaction, i end up blaming myself and plotting out a worst case scenario contingency plan.
I feel that. I just told one of my best friends that I might have a crush on them and now I wish I just never told them because it makes everything so... different
@jax i am people pleaser and in a lot of occasions i have felt like i need to have my friends and my loved ones very close to me all the time to make sure they like me. When they go under the radar for a bit i question if they forgot or dont care about me / dont like me and then hate myself because of that emotional dependence on others. I also hate myself because i feel like i drive people away, good old fear of abandonment
Oh that’s interesting! I interpreted it as the end of a fight, you’ve said something that stuns them, in a bad way, and you hate yourself for not thinking before talking.
this is exactly what i thought of ah! also as whenever i keep noticing tiny things like a pause or a word someone uses. and i get worried trying to analyze every little detail and what they meant.
@Rhyme Melodies yess i recently realized how much i’m dependent on my best friend. it’s so annoying and i hate myself for it. and i try to do things on my own but i need her input about everything lol. and if she doesn’t talk to me for more than a few days i’m like what happeneddd. i get scared that people don’t care as much as i do lol. constantly asking her if i’m annoying or if she wants me to stop talking.
I replayed this like 10 times while clearing out my room and it’s now 3:30am. Something about the chill talks, singing, and explanations kept me from worrying about getting rid of things (I have a hoarders tendency). I can only say thank you 🥺❤️
I've always massively related to Guiltless, it hits so close to home. The themes of a parent lacking in maturity and responsibility, resulting in petty arguments over nothing was something I'd never heard discussed in a song before but I so deeply related to it. For me, it helped me understand the process of learning to accept my life and family for what it is and who they are, and learning to that sometimes you just have to put up with people - eventually it's not worth having the same pointless argument over and over.
Four tequila’s down was painfully and beautifully relatable and caused a lot of reflection on why we make the choices we make and weather it’s valid to do so sometimes.
I saw it as the pov of being a rebound. Cause that's what i felt like at that moment. I felt like he was only with me so that he can forget the one he actually liked or bcs he can't get her in the first place. Thus "Something in me says, that this is okay" means "I know you're using but it's alright cause your "love" feels good" for me.
“It feels oddly good to hurt” us one of my favorite lines! I totally understand what you mean, I’ve always said to my long distance girlfriend that I love her with a deep ache in my bones. She’s wonderful we’re wonderful but our love has an achy heaviness to it too.
“But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz, in 'Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe' is a line that has hit me over and over again since the first time I read it, because love IS heavy, isn't it? So "it feels oddly good to hurt" matches up beautifully with that
‘build a problem’ came out during the lowest point of my life so far. ‘before the line’ specifically explained a lot of things i was feeling, and it helped me realize i was not alone in my feelings. that album was such a blessing, and was instrumental (pun intended) in helping me get better. so thank you!
To me, the lyrics from Monster "I craft my words to fit your head/'Cause no one listens to the dead" remind me of being in an abusive relationship, where you have to carefully speak your abuser to make them happy/appeal to them otherwise they could seriously hurt or kill you. Kinda morbid...
I was struck by the fact that "When" was back and on this new album, it was my favorite song for a long time and it had for me a very special meaning (probably not exactly the one intended) and to hear it again (plus the videeeeeo of it in the car you guyys so good) after a while - after new experiences and life changing me - blew my mind ! everything sounded more right... the line "begging the past to stay, memories painted in much brighter ink, they told me i loved, teach me how to think" used to be the one i didn't relate so much to or the sentence i couldn't really "make mine" in the song but then, years after, i finally f** get it !! I know that feeling now, so well ! and man to realize that broke me... Crazy how a song you know by heart can still surprise you....
sorry is my favorite song atm, the lyrics are lovely and a bit sad but it’s honestly the instrumentals that make it my favorite. the way they build up can make me a little less spacey for a minute. a friend of mine described the build up as “like taking a breath” and yeah. i just love it sm ahhh that song
“black lipstick will never be a sin”!!! also just wanted to pop in and say that “when” means so much to me in its entirety. its such a lovely beautiful song and i loved hearing it when i was much younger and it came out but now that im older (and actually older than 16 lol) i can really Fully feel all the feelings its talking about and it holds a very special place in my heart :’) sick of losing soulmates will also always be a favorite of mine. idk how to explain it but the whole song just feels so beautifully delicate which is how i view the relationships it makes me think about in my own life. that being said all your lyrics are gorgeous!! ive been a fan since 2016 and its been such a pleasure seeing u grow in ur songwriting abilities
for meeee "black lipstick will never be a sin" means like you might wear things that others think are ugly/unsightly like black lipstick, "too much" eyeshadow, certain clothing styles that you'll cringe at later, but it'll never be a sin, it'll never be wrong, you were happy and having so much fun
Burned out hit me so hard when you released it on YouTube for the first time. Like that I might just leave soon felt like you were speaking my thoughts. It obviously means something different to me as someone who doesn't have a platform. But thank you for making this music. It does more than you know!
When I listen to cool girl I think of the relationship I have with my dad. It’s so interesting to me that we all apply our own meanings to Dodies songs and I’m so happy she lets people interpret her art 🥰
Although I know that "Rainbow" is actually about being bisexual, I've really related to it recently as I've found out that I'm on the autism spectrum! Its funny how songs can take on a life of their own.
My personal meaning of the lyric "A dark politician will end up alone". I imagine someone (like a parent or family member) sharing their "dark" almost threatening opinions on sensitive subjects, leaving everyone around them feeling uneasy and threatened. And everyone eventually leaves the "dark politician" and he is now left alone.
For me it had that meaning of being a very manipulative person that's trying to convince her that it wasn't really that important or they're not to blame or she's just making it too big of a deal idk. But I think it plays on the idea of politicians being convincing and deceitful sometimes
Fun fact I used to think the line in when was “kissing sickly sweet LIES cause they say they like my eyes” and as much as I love the actual lyric I still like to sing my version sometimes hehe
I'd be happy to read it if it ever happened! I feel like i'm always learning new things in dodie's songs. Love the eternal feeling of new discoveries <3
dodie, literally every song of yours is a freaking masterpiece and i cannot wait to hear them in person for the first time at your europe tour!! you don’t have to feel responsible at all(for me at least), but i am glad to be your daughter and love you and your music as much as i do!!
I've never related to Burned Out more than I do right now but not in the 'I have a public responsibility/platform,' it's more of an interpersonal relationship type of way and how my own mental health affects all of that. like the "I can just talk about it..." bit is SO GOOD cause it's so true, it's fucking hard to talk about it, even and sometimes especially to close friends. needless to say, it's my favorite song of yours. and Rainbow omfg!!!! I fucking love music!! especially yours because it's so,,,, RAW and charming and beautifully sad ;.;
my personal favorite line from any of your music is “and there will be a day when you can say you’re okay and mean it.” this line (and entire song) has helped me through a lot of low points in my life, and i know that i’m still nowhere near as happy as i know i can be, and this line has given me hope through many of those moments. i plan on getting it tattooed on my left inner forearm styled like this:
; and there will be a day when you can say you’re okay and mean it
thank you so much dodie for all that you do for your community, you are by far my favorite artist, and i hope to see you live in concert in 2022!
i think my favorite song from the album is "bored like me" and i def have my own meaning constructed (basically indulging in the mystery of another person and wishing to stop dancing around the idea of being together and just going for it) and i think i've accepted it as fact; i'd love to know if there's anything deeper to the song beyond the more "easily interpreted" surface-level. whenever i listen i always tend to envision two very sexually frusturated people doing the tango lol
This video feels so comforting! The lighting, the softness of the mic and the calmness of the notes being played. It just feels like a warm hug. I had to start self isolating the same day as dodie and ah it just feels nice to know someone is going through the exact same thing as me and lots of others xx
hey dodie !! thanks for talking about your derealisation so openly. i am also one who has the floaties and dissociates A Lot so it's really nice to just. hear it said. bc it's not often noticed by people which makes it feel not real, which makes it worse lmao. so thanks !! very rad of u :) <3 also covid-wise, i hope you feel better soon !!!!
I love learning what artists meant when they wrote their songs!! I feel like there should be room for people to explain how they meant the line AND for the audience to have their own interpretations in their head :-)
To me 'Cool Girl' feels quietly and subtly feminist. It feels like the story of someone who feels pressured to conform, not speak out and be 'cool' by the men/man in her life but the way the music swells and get progressively louder and more intense makes me feel like she's resisting against this and feeling frustrated by it all. But by the end of it she still feels trapped and unable to really be herself. I just love it.
the way I interpreted this line is that when one bites their tongue, they're keeping silent/stopping themselves from speaking up about something they know is wrong. So the lyric is kind of like "how much longer can I keep being quiet and cool until it becomes noticeable that it's hurting me/affecting me?" and then the following line of "spit to the left, carry on, just smile and say you're good" is her spitting out the blood before they notice (brushing off their hurt/confusion/pain) and putting on a smile and continuing to be the "cool girl" who agrees to everything and stays quiet and placid. That's my interpretation of it, I loveee those couple of lines in cool girl and think they're so smart so I wonder how dodie would explain those lines!
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Abi Saad2021-07-13 00:48:52 (edited 2021-09-02 01:03:03 )
my favorite song of yours is "She" because it describes precisely what I felt when I fell in love with my teacher at uni. it was part of my "shit, I think I'm gay" moment and it's very close to my heart but everytime I listen to it it makes me bawl my eyes out..."but to her, I taste of nothing at all"...💔 so I refrain from doing it often. still what a beautiful song, I'll be forever thankful for it <3
fantasizing about a person when you know you should be trying to get over them. then "comfort and pain" reminds me of "it feels oddly good to hurt" in she - the pain that comes with love, especially when its over and thinking back is comforting yet painful
doddlevloggle that concept reminds me so much of stop making this hurt by bleachers. the lyric that repeats in the chorus is “stop making this hurt, just say goodbye like you mean it” and i totally think of it as trying not to hold on to the memories of someone when you know it’s only causing you pain (that’s not what the song is Actually about, but it still works)
Oh dear. For some reason this lyric always makes me think of that time in twilight when Bella did a bunch of crazy stuff just so that she could imagine Edward there being condescending 😓
Thanks dodie😭😭only you would make twilight rerun in my head years after watching it.
I love “rainbow” because although i can see where you wrote it from, i see it as not needing to label yourself in any context, and the worry of being judged before you get to put a word in purely for that 1 label, and so you remain a bright and vivid but non-specific rainbow of your identity and expression.
one thing i love about dodie songs is that so many of the times the real meaning behind lyrics is so …vague? that the listener can apply their own meaning based off of their own experiences. hearing you explain the meanings behind them don’t change that perspective at all.
Love hearing your thoughts behind the lyrics! My personal favorite from the album is Bite Back because it really describes to me that feeling of wanting to help someone you care for but they are too caught up in their own emotions so they shut you out and hurt you on purpose to make you stop.
“you blew me up like a big balloon, far to soon, im left a stuttering teen.” that line honestly cuts so closely to my heart because i feel the weight of it. being a child and dealing with things larger than yourself is terrifying
I just love "She". Just the softness and, eh, wonder, the intrigue and just amazement over another person, "She smelled like lemongrass and sleep", my god that hits me in the heartroots.
I went to one of your concerts here in New York. I am about your age and everyone seemed to be a young teenager and I just looked around and saw so many girls that wanted to be like the version of you that you are open to sharing with us. I remember going to the rafters in that concert to make space for all those young fans and during the concert I couldn’t help but feel how hard that must be to have so many young people watching you, and in many ways feeling mentored by you in a one sided way. I really am very impressed with how you have managed that and learned from your mistakes over the years and when I heard that line “all my daughters” my heart broke a bit because I can totally see how in many ways it truly is an impossible task. As you have said you are human and all I can say for myself is that is all I expect you to be. Nothing more.
one of my favourite examples of taking your lyrics and reinterpreting them is that before the line is my absolute favourite bap song because it makes me think about my pdd (persistent depressive disorder) which basically means there's a line in my life before which i just had regular depression in waves but now i am near constantly at least a little bit depressed. that entire second verse just gets me every time.
love hearing these so much :,) one of my favorite lines is “memories painted with much brighter ink” from when, i have a whole playlist based on it! (which includes “why do memories glow the way real moments don’t” from first thing to go by hayley williams, “i’m dreaming of another time, a time i never lived in” from maybe i’ll go nowhere by ethan gruska, and a million more!!) it’s my fav playlist i have so thank u for the inspiration for it :D
Guiltless always hits me so hard with my own feelings I have towards my dad, I have no idea about the true meaning of the song (and that's totally okay) but AH it's helped me pull together the way I feel so much and I thank you for that <3
This kinda feels like someone explaining a joke after everyone already laughed. I feel like the intuitive understanding is already there. This music is so good. It’s almost magic. It was nice to be reminded of all the color that Dodie packaged in music. If I was her I’d brag about my genius too. She’s brilliant.
just wanted to say im absolutely mindblown by your lyrics (and their meanings), your songs are honestly like poetry dodie. thank you so much for sharing them with us
I always thought the lyrics were “I am not carton ” and I always interpreted that as sort of I’m human you can’t just keep building me up like like an object or a building project
Rainbow is definitely in my top 5 favorite songs of all time ... I have never listened to a song and felt like I was truly understood before and to know that someone else knows what it's like makes me want to cry :') that being said, I've never quite understood what these lyrics mean: "I'd love to watch you gasp
You'd understand in minutes
And I'd like to think you'd miss it
'Cause so would I"
Thank u for creating a space for me to feel loved <3
For some reason I just adore “All my daughters” When it came out when the whole world was on quarantine I was dancing to it in my room and it helped me to process all the feelings I was going through
For me, "All my daughters" means my "inner child" parts, who are traumatised, and who need me for guidance, but I, as my adult functioning self, keep pushing them down most of the time. I'm not who they think I am (I try to keep a facade for other people but I really feel broken) I try too hard not to give a damn (I try hard not to listen to the horrible parts of my past and just be cheerful) But I feel it/ How they love me/ All my daughters (but the sad and scared parts of me keep poking me, needing me, because they really want to be healthy and to be loved and heard) capable
I'm absolutely in love with the way you craft your lyrics, there's something so physical and raw in almost every line, be it the egg analogy or the trying to grow bones by yourself, etc. Love it! :)
when i listened to cool girl the first time literal MONTHS ago, it was a darker time in my life- so hearing it between these new bops was very odd. so it has two meanings to me, living in two moments on my timeline at the same time.
whenever I hear "surely you know to close them instead" it reminds me of the imagery of closing your eyes when you kiss someone, like, stop worrying, just throw yourself into it, just kiss them - that line in particular reminds me a lot of I kissed someone (it wasn't you).
"I wanna pick you up and scoop you out" is one of my favourite lyrics of all, I love how carnal it is but also how genuinely adoring. I struggled a lot with dependence at the start of my relationship and I think the song really represented that for me
I think for the most part I understood the meaning of all these, yay! I've always loved your lyrics, they're so well thought out and beautiful and they flow so nicely :)
One of my favorite things about your music is that you explore these fleeting feelings and make art out of them. I don’t know any other music artist who writes about these kinds of feelings, and it’s so validating to find someone who does and does so with SUCH care and introspection. Truly masterful
Whenever I listen to If I’m being honest,at the “could you love this”part,I always imagine that I’m saying it to my future self,like I’m asking her to forgive me,asking if she could ever love me. It’s crazy how different of a meaning someone can get out of a song than the one that was intended originally.
Thank you for explaining all of these lyrics. It’s really cool seeing the actual intended meaning and how it differs from how your life affects your perception of them. Also thank you for writing Before the Line. That song now has a special place in my heart because I’ve been going through a very similar thing and to hear my thoughts being put into a banger like that is a comfort.
Oh my gosh, as a long-standing fan, it was so fascinating and lovely to understand some of those lyrics. Before the Line has a whole new level of meaning to me. I’m really really happy you decided to make this video.
Thank you for answering my question and all of them really, I was having a shitty day and this made me feel heaps happier! Your music is so beautiful and I connect to it on so many levels <3
I grew up watching you on YouTube and I think its amazing to see how you've grown you shared your heart on here years ago, and I'm proud that you've found a better balance between your vulnerability and private life. I have all of the respect for you dodie.
I tend to have my own interpretations of Dodie’s songs and I kinda apply them and interpret them in my own life. Guiltless is especially important to be because it’s super validating with my relationship with my parents, especially my mom and how that affects me in general. It’s something I listen to to help me feel valid on days where I’m struggling and it tends to be comforting to know that someone described something Kinda simular in a way to what I’ve been through. There’s a lot of her songs that I’ve referenced in therapy exercises and how I interpret them to apply to my own life and feelings. Dodie is a brilliant artist, she’s always inspired me, and I think the fact that her songs are so raw and human, is so lovely. Her music has helped me through some rough times, I’ve loved her music for over 5 years, and I honestly think I won’t ever stop listening to it. Thank you for all of your inspiration dodie :)
I really love your lyrics! I dont really have a specific experience that makes me connect with those lyrics.It just the feeling of raw and authentic and poetic makes me really connect to them. It's like reading poetry and you dont really know what the author meant but you have your very own interpretation and for lyrics to be able to do that is really really amazing. Thank you for doing this,Dodie. Get well soon!
I love how we can all interpret lyrics in different ways! Like for me, Sick of Losing Soulmates has always felt like its about being in love with someone and its kind of an unspoken mutual love but for various reasons you can’t ever actually be together. I was going through that when I first heard it so maybe thats why I feel that when I hear the concept of being “sick of losing soulmates”
'Sentences sit in her mouth that are templated' will always be one of my favourite lyrics, I love your music and this video - thank you for sharing! 🥺❤️
I definitely relate to feeling like the friend who is open and vulnerable and ready to communicate. It's frustrating that some people feel the need to build walls to develop a mysterious personality. Granted, some people do it for protection. I love it and hate it at the same time.
Your line about dark politicians ending up alone always has me tearing up <3 I have CPTSD and am going no contact with both of my parents who are abusive and refuse to change - they are manipulative and gaslight me regularly - dark politicians will end up alone and the entirety of guitless made me feel so seen its like my anthem - thanks for all that you do dodie <3
When I'm sad and my head is full of furndocks dodies music always makes me feel better. Knowing someone can have some of the same things I struggle with and still make things so beautiful that make me and so many others happy really helps to get through the bad days
I love that I stumbled upon dodie. I’ve always felt a deep connection to the music I listen to but some of dodie’s music speaks on a deeper level than most. I’ve never heard music that directly addresses struggles like depression. I have a handful of artists I listen to cheer me up or keep me going and dodie is definitely one of them now.
love love loveeeee this vid!! i find songwriting so incredibly fascinating, i always want to know about every detail. i wish i could sit down and listen to all my favorite artists explain every word and meaning and sound and breath and every decision that goes into a song, in depth. i love watching songwriters' processes too. i understand and respect why some artists choose not to share any of their songs' meanings, but gosh sometimes i wish they would bc its so interesting to me (also bc im a little nosy shh). knowing the stories behind songs makes me love them so much more
Thank you for making this music and sharing it with us! Every time I listen to your songs, i cry, because they bring back beautiful memories, and nostalgia for a past I haven't even had. I'm so grateful for what you music has done for me :))
I’ve been listening to you for years, and one of the first songs I ever heard was When. I thought it was a pretty song then, but it didn’t mean much to me the way that it does now. I started listening to you around when the Intertwined EP was released and I was young then. 2016 was on of the last happy years of my life, and things have been very hard since then, and some time in 2019 I got spotify premium and I was thinking of who I wanted to listen to and you came into mind. when came on and I started listening to the lyrics and it brought me to tears. I’d never related to a song that much, and at the time, I felt so alone and broken that I thought I’d never find anyone that felt the way I did. I was reaching for love that didn’t exist just because I needed to feel loved, I was constantly in my own world, and I was wishing life away. I was never happy with the present. all I ever wanted to do was go back to 2016. your music has saved me so many times. I love you so very much and I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me and so many others.
Thank you for sharing! I absolutely loved this. I love hearing from you and how music is created from the good and the bad. It's a very vulnerable experience. <3
may i just say that seeing everyone’s different personal interpretations and meanings that they’ve applied to various lyrics is so so cool this is such a great comments section
Hey queen, I recently lost my dad shortly after your album came out and I continued listening to all the songs for a month to feel him with me (it had been on repeat for a solid 2 weeks before he passed). One last time please has got me in tears every time I hear it still and it has a very special comforting place in my heart, as does the whole album. It is a work of art that I am super grateful for and I can't wait to see you perform live in tilburg next year xx
I think Arms Unfolding is one of your best songs. That lyric is so beautiful. I’m so happy for your success, my friend. I can’t wait to hear how you progress as a songwriter.
When I first listened to Rainbow, I was in a pretty dark headspace. I felt really alone and isolated from the world and felt like everyone hated me. The chorus, specifically the line saying “When I’m so used to feeling wrong, well it makes me feel alright” made me burst into tears when I heard it because it resonated with how I was feeling so strongly and intensely. It made me feel so heard and like someone saw me and said “don’t worry, I’m going through this too. We’re going to be okay”. My self-esteem was at an all time low and this song helped me start to get out of that and feel okay about myself.
I really relate to Hate Myself because it felt like you were describing my relationship with my first boyfriend to a tee. He was so quiet and introverted where it felt like he didn’t really like me all that much and all the lack of talking made me feel unworthy. I didn’t know anyone felt like that or had that experience so when I heard that song, it validated my feelings and helped me move past some of those feelings of unworthiness and feeling lacklustre and not good enough.
I usually connect more to the music than lyrics with most songs except for dodie’s music. I connect to both but particularly the lyrics. I feel so heard and understood when I listen to her music. So thank you dodie, thank you for allowing me to be heard and to feel less alone. I love you and your music so much❤️
Ahh Dodie!! I always love to hear people break down their lyrics and it’s just so neat to hear your thought process when you wrote these lyrics and finally be able to understand some of them better, thank you for this video <3 ah this is so neat!
Dodie is so uniquely relatable to me, there are a couple “celebrities” that I relate to on a surface level but the way that I relate to dodie is so much more fulfilling. She makes me feel not as weird for feeling the way I do
I've been derealized since I was 10, I'm 22 now. Your words and music and talking about it--it's such a painful but welcome comfort to not feel so damn alone in this. Thank you.
i LOVE this video, thank you so much for sharing and talking about the lyrics. honestly i love it and them so much. i love the care you've put into everything, it's so, so beautiful. truly 'build a problem' is one of my favourite albums of all time, thank you so much for it
also, onto like, my ~own thoughts~ "when" and "before the line" are both beautiful, beautiful songs and i love them with my entire heart. but there's an odd sense of bitterness in me when i listen to them sometimes because i don't really have a clear line of when things started to go shaky with my mental health and before then. i don't really know when that was. i speculate 12-ish, but there's no Clear Point. and i don't really know why i'm spilling all this here, maybe in case someone can relate, maybe because i don't really talk about it. but it hurts sometimes, knowing that my teenage years haven't been clear and light and free even taking into account all the normal teenage emotions
I love when you share your thought process behind the lyrics, it somehow makes me love them even more. I care a lot about meaning and really feel like I can relate to any situation. My girlfriend is the opposite, she doesn’t care at all about lyrics, as long as the music is fun. We’ve been together for 9 years, and I always try to explain the meaning I got from each of your songs to her, while we sing along in the car. She loves monster and in the middle, but it’s a work in progress
Thank you so much for sharing! ❤️ Your lyrics have been a source of comfort for me dealing with my own mental illness and has helped me articulate to other people what it's like to be on the inside of myself when I'm going through an episode better than I ever could have.
I'm surprised about burned out! About "it seeps through her cracks and so I start to choke" my gosh I love it so much, and also it relates it to Before the Line for me now, that's so cool!! Also ohmygoodness I love Monster so so much, I've always seen it as a big catharsis, of going like"you've hurt me so much and you didn't even notice and now that I'm finally standing up for myself you vilify me, so I'm leaving"
i connect so much with the succession of songs on ‘build a problem’ from track 7 (‘?’) right through to track 11 (‘four tequilas down’, ‘.’, ‘sorry’, and ‘when’) so much. it reminds me of a time a few years ago when i was so desperate for love that i ruined a few close friendships to get what was fleeting and not real and not worth the sacrifice. i never got closure from any of the people involved because of how ashamed and embarrassed i was with myself, but these songs explain the situation from the very beginning to where i am now so perfectly and concisely. from the excitement of being with someone new even when you know that what you’re doing is going to hurt a lot of people eventually (‘who gives a shit, we’re messing around, she’ll never know’), to the regret and the shame for the hurt you’ve caused (‘i’ve known, i’ve always known, in the end i’d be sorry, but that’s all i am now, that’s all i can be, is sorry’), to questioning why you continue in these thought and behavioural patterns (‘never caught up in the moment, busy begging the past to stay’). sorry for the long post, i just really wanted to express my gratitude in finding music that feels like a complete stranger peeked into my brain and found the words to describe a situation that I haven’t been able to express x
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sophie vega2021-07-13 04:29:34 (edited 2021-07-13 04:32:05 )
when i hear “but it feels oddly good to hurt”, i think about the uncomfortable comfort of being depressed (despite that not being what the song is about lolz). the line “gotta get in my head, i’ll never be sixteen again” just hits home. always has, even before i turned sixteen, but very much so now that i am nearing eighteen. i love your music so much. thanks for what you do.
I absolutely adore this video! I love to hear what you where thinking when writing these beautiful songs and comparing them with my thoughts taken from experiences I have had in my life when I first heard them! Adored you from pas de deux days and love the build a problem days even more than I thought possible
Ahhhhh I love this! I've done a lot of Genius searches looking for these kinds of breakdowns, and I appreciate and respect the balance you've found of "this is about everyone but it's also about me too" I think that's really neat. Also unrelated but your hair looks super pretty in this video lol
I love the little acoustic bits ! It makes the vid cozy and it amazes me how you sound like the recorded tracks (is that even english ? probably not, im a non-native speaker and it's 2am) Anyway i'm so so so impressed by your writing skills ! love from france <3
I’ll be honest, I wish I could know more about how you wrote When. It’s my favourite song of yours and the one that makes me most vulnerable. It’s the song that made me realize I had depression and wanted to end it all. The idea that “I’ll never be 16 again” was so… stifling to me. It was much before my 17th birthday when I got diagnosed and it felt like time was running thin for me. That song helped me make the decision to make an effort in getting better in my life, so I thank you. Also the whole first 2 verses are so relatable cause I struggle with loving and human emotions.
I had been reading the line "when you go quiet I hate myself" to be about the burst of anxiety when you're texting someone and there's a pause in the conversation and you start to overthink and worry like "oh no I said something stupid and they're upset"
i love dodie's lyrics and i love these videos, like when she explained intertwined I fell in love with the song, also my partner for my birthday got me her book so i'm understanding more of the old lyrics, i love Dodie so much 🥰🥰
I’m highly considering tattooing “I’ll grow the bones myself then” It’s like both vulnerable and empowering at the same time which truly feels like me It’s what I feel every time I hurt and I also love All my daughters so much.
for me, i thought of before the line as a song about losing your innocence or cynicism of this shit shit world, and i thought it was especially relevant given everything and i absolutely love how "i used to smile at every star and thank the sky, now i look up at all the duds and wonder why i feel like all of them are gone" so beautifully illustrates that
this was soso cool to watch! so many of these lyrics had different meanings to me personally which is so Sick bc you've managed to make them so personal and so relatable at the same time? and it's amazing how much thought and dedication you put into these songs damn thank u
this was so insightful, thank you dodie. it helps a lot with my own songwriting. i would like to know more about don't quite belong :) for me, its an anthem for being neurodivergent, like others have said.
You’re songs are so raw and genuine and complex. It’s just incredible. I’ve never heard anything like your music and I don’t know if I ever will again.
whenever i listen to your songs about the pressures of being someone that people look up to like burned out or all my daughters i always relate to them so heavily. because i a lot of the times feel the weight and pressures of taking care of and being there for everyone around me even though i don’t have my life together
thank you for this!!! one of my favorite things about your music is your lyricism, so being able to understand them past enjoying really pretty wording is amazing!! :D (especially bc i struggle with analyzing lyrics, i’m fine with books but music has never clicked for some reason lol)
"Hate myself" is a very emotional song to me, as I am usually the one going quiet in my relationship. It feels hard to talk when you are overwhelmed, and even my lovely boyfriend cannot change that. But it made me try way harder to communicate when I feel bad. And now I've actually gotten better and I feel happier. So thank you, Dodie! ^^
"I'll never be sixteen again" has been haunting me since my birthday in January. I know this is it, these are supposed to be the golden years and I'm not doing anything with my life.
Before the Line is my absolute favourite, due to my experiences with depersonalisation and dissociation. The first time I properly listened to the lyrics, I cried and dissociated a tad, but I think I needed to hear them... To remind me that I am not alone. My heart truly sung when I read an interview in which you described what the song was really about. Thank you Dodie. Stay safe, Win Xx
“And when I come to you and say my peace Don't give me eyes like this is my problem, please Folded arms and furrowed brows It's just too late to admit it now, hmm”
this is about my own interpretation of when So I’ve been listening to when since it was just the live version on the intertwined ep and I’m so happy its got a revamp as it’s one of my favourite songs but it came at a very interesting time. When I listened to on the ep I was quite young and couldn’t wait to be 16 and was waiting until I could listen to the lyrics and relate. The album came out when I was 16 turning 17 and it came with a very different meaning because of lockdown. I was 16 but not having the experience I wanted and I listened to when, the night before I turned 17 and just thought shit. I’m never going to be 16 again and the entire time I’ve been inside. Anyway yea lol just thought that was weirdly poetic.
I've been listening to you for so long now and what's hilarious is that the music you release usually aligns perfectly with whatever I'm going through at that moment lol it's great
Also, it's so strange that I feel more seen by a Youtuber I found as a kid than I have in most of my friendships. So thank you for being so open and ready to talk Dodie
Hi! i loved this video and you have been a huge inspiration to me for so many years, your lyricism is almost unmatched you are just so good at writing and expressing things, this video was super cool :D
:000 i’m so excited to watch this video!! there’s so many artists that i wish would do videos like this because i think they’re really interesting and u were definitely at the top of my list!!
"Guiltless" has helped me realize things about my own life. "When" has made me wistful for my younger years in the same way the narrator of the song does but likely for different reasons. I'll echo what someone else said about "Don't Quite Belong" being a neurodivergent anthem because it absolutely is. "Sick of Losing Soulmates" hit me (and was actually the first dodie song I ever heard, but it was the acoustic version) right as I was beginning university and a lot of high school friends were leaving my life for various reasons so I attached to it very quickly.
It's always nice to have the pov of the songwriter concerning lyrics, we all have different interpretations and connections with certain lyrics but sometimes having other way of perceiving them is nice
I totally don’t mean to be like “well I understood Before the Line 😌”, but as someone who also has derealization and trauma, it was surprising to me to see so many people asking about that song, because it clicked SO hard for me on the very first listen. You captured the experience of trauma splitting your life in two SO intensely that I had no questions about the promise, the floating, all that. Cuz that’s my life 😭
Loved this video so much. Thank you and please do more if you're open to it! I love the way you write and to understand something (to a certain degree) straight from the artist. <3
i just think it's so beautiful that everyone can take solace in your words and hold on to what they mean for them while still being curious as to what you originally meant, respecting your intentions and your stories but respecting that art is fluid and perceived
‘before the line’ makes me relate to the grieving of my mother’s death. ‘I’m still clawing for the strings, oh I’d do any fcking thing’, ‘and I am lying when I say it’s time to let her float away’, ‘I made a promise but I break it everyday’, and practically most of the song. it makes me feel the grief all over again, the same feeling I get when I listen to ‘sorry’.
so cool! so glad to hear my interpretation was real close to your intent (I've always loved the line "Red pushing down on the green" and i felt vindicated by my interpretation when you explained it), and i gotta say i've always felt that like despite the palpable anxiety in "Hate Myself" there's a little bit of like, self awareness ("I'm not magical I can't read your mind/but how can you not hear the whole conversation I have sitting still with a brain on fire" always read to me as "I can't read your mind, but how can you not read my mind?")
i understood most of these lyrics similarly to how you explain them in this video and i thing its a testament to how well you craft lyrics to be beautiful and open but also that communicate complex ideas (or ideas in general) clearly.
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Julia Warren2021-07-13 04:18:43 (edited 2021-07-13 04:19:08 )
My personal favorite lyrics of yours are the ones in "If I'm being honest" and "sick of losing soulmates"... Specially the last one, because I feel very connected to that song, and have a lot of memories attached to it ... "Time and hearts will wear us thin
, so which path will you take, cause we both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin" - I love this part because it tells a complex story without being lengthy, and gives you an insight on the relationship of the "characters" involved, without the need to go on and on about their history... It's simple, it's poetic, it works.
Pero adoro todas tus otras letras, mujer! <3 Also, your hair looks beautiful :D
I've been listening to your music since I was 13... I'm 19 now and one line that has ALWAYS managed to make me tear up is "I'll never be sixteen again" I remember singing it over and over under my breath when I WAS sixteen and just starting to space completely out of my life. I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could, but failed miserably, and then it was over.
I remember that when you released "Burned out" you said that the line "I might just leave soon" doesn't mean anything related to suicidal ideation. It's good to hear you talking about it after all this time. Remember that it's okay to talk about that <3
I feel like I've always felt and understood your lyrics. Like whenever I listen to your music I'm like "huh, I don't remember giving Dodie my diary" lol
I went through something with a few people I was close to a few months ago and “Hate Myself” perfectly describes how I feel right now. I still blame myself for a lot and it’s nice to know that someone else has felt like that. “Secret for the Mad” has also been a pretty helpful song. Thanks Dodie
To me “before the line” came after I came out to someone who I didn’t want bc I knew I would loose her but had to, and right when I first started dating my first gf. It felt like I had two different versions of myself and there were parts of each residing in the same body before and after the line in my life where I realized which was right. Literally every lyric felt like it fit just right.
Also in “she”:”it feels oddly good to hurt”. After always wondering if I had a crush on literally every guy I had a simple conversation with or thought was nice, finally putting a name to a feeling I thought was friendship was so nice. But it hurt. Bc I knew that suddenly, nothing was so simple any more. I ached bc now everytime I was around her, I knew what I really wanted, and knew it would never happen.
I just want to say thank you for writing guiltless. I feel like it’s an under appreciated gem of yours, but I suppose it only relates to someone who has also been through that pain. It’s almost sad when someone does actually understand it and relate, as it means they’ve been through the same pain. I know it’s a song you won’t explain the lyrics for as it’s so personal (though I feel it is easy to read between the lines of that one) but I just wanted to let you know my first tattoo is going to be “guiltless” as that songs means the absolute world to me. I didn’t think anyone could ever put that feeling into words for me. “You opened a door that a kid shouldn’t walk through” is one of your best lyrics ever and is so simple yet so true !!!
when I first heard the chorus from all my daughters it made me think of the younger versions of myself/my inner child and how I often feel like I am not who they thought I would be etc.
Dodie, this whole video made my week. You are so wonderfully excited about your work. I'm so bloody proud of you because you are proud of yourself. Keep doing this thing that you love because you love it. You've reminded me why I love writing too. x
A lot of your songs, I’ve always related to in one way or another through the years but especially now the ones you released on build a problem I’ve found myself relating more and more to going through a break up and having an out lit of like knowing that comfort that someone else out there knows what I’m going through. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone when it comes to stuff like that. Idk
this is quite a throwback but “i won’t be done” is one of my favorite demos you’ve posted. i know it’s supposed to mean something entirely different, but for me the chorus means that yourself and others may stop believing in you when you’re in a super dark and seemingly inescapable place, but when the time comes, you’ll pick yourself back up again and say “fuck you, world. i lived, you haven’t seen the last of me yet”
These. are so different from what I felt when i first heard it. I feel like the next time i come across those lines they are going to be new songs entirely. I think we know you wrote them for your life, from your experiences but the same set of words means such different things to all of us and I find this video and its comments, so fascinating. :0 Personally, your songs have always been this vibe of sunny rain, the resilience of "so what" either you choose to fight it or to yield; your songs make me feel like I win me, whichever part of me, the bad the good, I feel like I win even when I lose. Am i making sense?
This is wonderful-- thank you! I think it's up there with the video from years ago about working on your head/chest/mixed voice as one of my favs Edit: "My Singing Voice"
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Dana Perez2021-07-14 16:25:26 (edited 2021-07-14 16:27:08 )
When you were explaining the lyrics from the line I wanted to cry, I felt understood
I love that She was included at the end- as someone who has developed crushes on numerous straight girls and is currently in love with one, I can definitely understand the lyrics and the meaning behind them
I did not expect to have a happy breakdown. Like, I finnally admit the truth. The truth is good, but it doesn't come easy. Thank you for this realization, dodie. And you do feel kinda like a 2nd mom to me, but please don't let me be of burden. Thank you for caring so much. I love you, flaws and all ( even the ones I don't see) thank you for being so kind. I cant wait to see you next year in Nashville!
When I first heard “in the middle” i laughed to my self that it could sounds like a song about a threesome, but I suppressed that and I just jammed to the tune and music. Well now that I found out it’s true…I feel like my younger self has been lied to
I absolutely love Special Girl. It's a bop and the lyrics are perfect for me, e.g. "Oh I think I was doomed before I began. Mm, sorry, I just know the way that I am. Oh well :)" It's not a very happy lyric, but it perfectly captures the way my last relationship ended. I predicted it from the start, I even semi-jokingly warned him that it would end how it did. Self-fulfilling prophecy, maybe, but you can't change the past.
i really love hearing about song lyric meanings, especially some more sad songs like these. music is emotion to me and so much emotion is given in these songs. love em
The first time I listened to the album I pulled up the notes app on my phone and wrote out all of the lyrics that stuck a chord with me 🙈 "Toe a line between sexy and sick" is bouncing around my head the most. I love the way you write.
As someone who was once of the "daughters" who idolized you from the time i was 13, i think it's when you started showing the more human sides of yourself (or maybe as i got older i understood them), that i started admiring you in a more authentic way i feel like <3 thanks for being here all my teen years - sincerely, a now 18 yo fan who you got through most of their teen heartbreaks
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The Force Field2021-07-13 01:19:50 (edited 2021-07-18 01:55:04 )
“A nod of pity for the plain girl”
I misheard this lyric, and my wrong lyric changed the meaning of the song… I heard: “I’m not of pity for the plain girl”.
I thought this was a girl-with-the-rainbow-backpack situation. You were mean to her because it seemed to validate you in the eyes of people who tormented you otherwise. You would say in front of them that you were not of pity for that plain girl with the rainbow backpack, because they wouldn’t call you a legend anymore if you said that. But you said that your heart ached for her, and you actually felt terrible about it. You were clearly in denial- you did feel bad, but you would say out loud that you weren’t of pity for her.
Then I thought about how this lyric affected the entire song- it is from the point of view of a person that is not only self conscious, but who is trying a little too hard to fit in. “I’ll close my mouth, I won’t say a word”. You will be quiet and let them do the talking, stand by as someone in pain gets salt in their wound. “Can you see the panic inside”- you might have been nervous that the others would figure out it was an act, that you did, in fact, care for the girl in the rainbow backpack. “What goes on behind the words?” This just added a million layers to the song. You told this girl that she was cheesy, made fun of who she was and what she did to fit in. But behind the words was a girl who was also being tormented, and someone who felt like they were not choosing to be mean to this girl- it was just how things happened to unfold, and you didn’t actually think she was lame. There were things going on behind the words.
“I’ll just call a taxi- I’ve got to be up early tomorrow again”. In this situation, anxiety and the desire to escape were probably things you felt very strongly. I would not be surprised if you said that your mindset during this time period was “make it through today and then you can go home and stop pretending.”
oh my god for 'im walking if it doesn't sting' my brain emphasized that phrase differently to where everytime i heard it i thought of standing in lines at an amuesment park with other people and they complain about how they dont want to walk because it hurts them(they'll only walk if their feet don't hurt, otherwise to them it isn't worth it) something that i would always get annoyed at because i like walking with blisters because it makes the ride so much more worth it; so i never got that line because i felt like it said the exact opposite of what the rest of the song was saying ???? WTF ?? but nO the 'im walking' is refferring to the phrase 'im walking' as in like 'im out'. as in why would i do that if it doesn't hurt. how did i completely misunderstand the lyrics but still get this same idea of pain adding to an experience thats so funny to me. i understood the song but one line will just fly over my head; that happens to me so often
I always interpreted it as wanting to be independent and not show pain e.g. after an injury to your ankle. "I'm proving that I'm a special girl because I'm strong enough not to show my suffering and that makes me somehow better than other people and therefore a valuable person." Kinda messed up tbh but that's why I relate 🙃
the way she described before the line I related to it so much. I’ve loved the track since I first heard it. I’ve liked dodie for a long time but this is definitely one of my fav songs of hers, Something I’ve needed in high school.
always wondered ab “ignorant trauma in one afternoon”, feels like you experienced a traumatic event in a day when u were younger that u didn’t realize was traumatic until much later in life
Burned out for me is a representation of me wanting to leave my own life not in a suicidal way but more of leaving my current life cuz I feel so tired and the 'I am not cartoon' line feels like I'm not perfect and that people perceive me as a cartoon 'happy, approachable' all that
hey dodie :) thanks a lot for this video! loved your introspection into the lyrics, I'd love it if you did more like these. btw, idk if this is the same for everyone but I hope it is; I don't think most us think you're perfect or expect you to be! It is pretty hard to believe or see when every single mistake is nowadays leading to people getting cancelled on the internet which suck, but I hope you get what I mean on the more personal level. we don't love you because we think you're perfect, we love you and your music and your lyrics because of how vulnerable you make yourself in your art and how you express your issues or thoughts or problems or just ideas through your music. it's that realness, that imperfection inherent to humans that you let yourself bring to your music & lyrics that I'm sure is what makes all of us love it and you and your art :)
so thanks for that! I'll never tire of scrutinizing your lyrics, I love how metaphorical and abstract but just oddly specific feeling-wise they can be. thanks for sharing all of this with us!! love from Argentina!
After watching this all i want is to make a musical out of dodie’s songs: they’re just so beautiful and so full of meaning!! Like these stories deserve to be brought to life so ppl can sit in theatres together and cry over them rather than on their own with their headphones in lmao
the first time i heard guiltless i immediately sent it to my sister. "i'm not bitter, I'm just tired. no use getting angry at the way that you're wired" summed up my feelings about my dad so intensely and succinctly that it still takes my breath away when i hear it
It's so weird to think boys like you came out almost 2 years ago now - as far as music goes I've never felt such a strong emotional pull as any of your songs not just build a problem but all things.
Hey dodie! What sounds/plugin do you use for the keyboard sound in if im being honest, i absolutely love it lol Probably my favourite of yours and the lyrics are brilliant too
As someone with OSDD, derealization and depersonalization are a huge part of my life, so many of Dodie's lyrics describe things that I wouldn't now how to explain. But others have just a whole different and special meaning for me.
When I hear "all my daughters" I think of the littles; the chorus of Burn out brings the hope of getting to know the other parts of the system and yet the song express perfectly the darkness of the parts that still are living and reliving the traumas. But my favorite os and forever will be "Ready Now", it shows perfectly, for us, the whole process of EMDR therapy and our experience with it. I actually play it for grounding, when many of us are in a bad week.
I guess sharing our experience is just a way to say THANK YOU, DODIE! You and your music mean s lot to us💜
I am so SO grateful for this. BAP has become one of my favorite albums of all time and this video just connected me even more i cry tysm Dodie 💗 personally All My Daughters -- 😭
Been listening to all of Dodie's music on a loop to get through the workday for weeks, and I've slowly gotten more random revelations about them the more I hear them, and it feels like a victory that I've interpreted so many of these lyrics the same way Dodie meant it! 😱😍 peak parasocial relationships wowow
I made a playlist of songs that represented what I was feeling at different stages of this roller coaster of emotions/situationship. Using the songs to process what was happening, and how it kept changing. Literally half of the songs are Dodies songs and they fit very well 👌
Ugh dodie I listen to this album on speakers, laptops, headphones and everytime there is just something extra and gorgeous I hear. Your words are beautiful but man I love the little details xxx
I’m in a polyamorous relationship and i’m the middle feels like such a poly anthem to me with the positivity of introducing two people you are seeing or have seen together in a romantic or sexual way. Rainbow has also touched me deeply because of my relationship style. “please step inside my soul… you’d understand in minutes” speaks to me so much, I get told by everyone that I am not okay with my relationship and i’m being forced to accept polyamory but if they could just live as me for a moment and feel the amount of love I feel each day for my partner and his partner and see how healthily we communicate to each other they would understand how good our relationships are.
I always interpreted the last chorus of Four Tequeilas Down, where ‘they’ is replaced with ‘she’ as the singer saying that her past self, or the version of her that knows better than to do this, will ‘never know’, even though that isn’t true. She’s trying to make herself feel better, maybe, about doing this, trying to seperate herself from the voice in her head that tells her it’s wrong, which is a contrast to ‘them’ from the previous choruses, which I thought was reffering to the other people caught in this relationship mess, like the S/Os of the singer and her lover, maybe. One’s actual people, the other’s just herself. That’s what I think, anyway
The idea that the artists' meaning of a song or writing doesnt matter anymore after it is put in the world is a literary concept called "death of the author" very interesting to look into
I never really considered "before the line" to about derealization since I listened to it very often
I thought it was more, of a suicide of a person, with the lines "I'm still clawing for a string, oh I'd do any fucking thing" and "I think that this really is it, I'll have to take what I can get."
Guiltless as a whole really helped me express my emotions about my father! At a time when things got really bad and he just saw no wrong in things he’d done and continued to do, this song just felt so perfect. “Ignorant drama in one afternoon” “I could never let you know, you’d never get it” “Now I’m the one who can’t let it go, don’t say it’s genetic” “Is it real? You believe you’re guiltless” All is well now. That all happened when the song first came out 👍🏽😂💗
The English major is me is absolutely living for this analysis (and I really respect how sensitively you discuss these lines with enough distance to keep yourself safe and comfortable without losing the humanity of the music)!
i have been listening to your music for a while now and something that always fascinates me about it is how the song lyrics may change meaning depending on how im feeling. ive gone through my darkest moments with dodie, and my happiest with dodie, and theyre always the same songs. they really remind me how music can be so personal and unique to everyone. dods thank you for creating this little sanctuary for me to feel my emotions in all their glory <33 - from a very devoted fan
I love the way you write so much honestly. Your greatest curse of derealization actually makes the most wonderful combination for writing music. You write as if you’re in the outside looking in. Creating very magical and almost disturbing visualizations for feelings we have all felt but never had the words for. The way you write about personal issues and humanely things is so “romantic” in a sense. Man I wish I had a big enough vocabulary to explain how I feel about your writing style, but this is all so can do haha. It creates this warmth of being found and understood inside myself and in probably everyone else. Thank you for explaining your wonderful work to us! Being so vulnerable and open.
It’s so lovely hearing you fish about your lyrics ☺️🥺 Also I’ve been wanting to ask for ages, would you consider making a video about your clothing style because it is absolutely how I dress in my mind but don’t have the confidence to in real life!
My brain takes turns being obsessed with different songs on your albums. The meaning behind one of them will just suddenly hit me and it will be playing in my head for days. I absolutely love before the line. The emotion and struggle in it is so tangible and so relatable.
small things and big things, i relate to you so much dodie. when i’m in a bad place i often contort it into high sexuality. i also feel the urge to make people open up to me and have scooped out plenty of people. and i feel the need to scream at the world but also feel the line about the daughters. i’m so delicate but i’ve been through so much <3 love you dodie
Just don't ever lose sight of the good you bring to the world. No matter how dark or detached you may feel on down days, know that feelings fluctuate - are fickle - but you bring insight, acceptance, bravery and joy to others every day. Changing the world a little bit.
I was so shook when I thought you were going to answer "a dark politician will end up alone" It always felt like an intensely personal line, especially when I watched you sing it live. For me personally, I apply it to my sister, who was my abuser growing up. She wanted to work in the government, and yet she's fucking psychotic. The song always fit her quite nicely.
“im walking if it doesnt sting” 💕💕 i love that line so much because its like… youre so used to being hurt and living with pain that you feel like you need it to live, and romanticizing it as a way to deal, treating it as if it makes you special. you begin to see yourself as a character in a soap opera instead of a real human. truth is, you dont have to feel like shit all the time in order to be special. but it makes you feel happier in the moment GOD THAT SONGS SO GOOD
i said this before but all my daughters is just so important to me in a way that it wasn't intended to be i think its amazing how words are so versatile and how our brains work u know!!!
as an english grad i LOVE picking apart meanings for any media, especially songs, and i'm proud to say that i was about 80% right in my estimates of what these lyrics meant :D
oooh i love that ur intention w All My Daughters ended up being so different from my perception of it! I think of all the daughters being like little versions of you that embody like your best qualities and the parts of you that are pure and human and that you want to protect. but you’re screaming underwater, because like that maternal character that loves and cares for those parts of you, the mother inside you that wants to protect your inner child, is desperately fighting the waves of depression and self-hating thoughts that mental illness bring. <333
This video reminds me of what I loved about English lit at school I love it!!! I thought the line in if I’m being honest when you posted on your story earlier “I think you like how I plead” and to me I feel it really captures the feelings of inferiority when you have a crush to the extent where even perhaps they haven’t done anything wrong you idolise them so much that anything that doesn’t match up to the perfect picture in your head feels like instead they are mocking you
this video was so cool!! your lyrics are like, the best ever lol. Before the Line and When both REALLY resonated with me so like. thanks for sharing your music, it means a lot!
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Eden Gallagher2021-07-13 20:35:52 (edited 2021-07-13 20:47:19 )
timestamps 1:04 If I'm Being Honest 1:46 in the bed 3:45 Burned Out 5:21 Guiltless (almost) 5:41 Before The Line 7:30 Four Tequilas Down 8:40 Special Girl 9:32 Cool Girl 10:06 In The Middle 10:53 Monster 11:18 Human 11:35 Sorry 12:21 all my daughters 14:45 Hate Myself 15:36 She
Umm I know you're most probably not gonna read this.. But I LOVE YOUR MUSIC and it's just that you're so freaking talented it's crazy.. AND OH MY GAWD YOU'RE SOO UNDERRATED.. I just want you to know ILYSM and GWS :) <3
"A dark politician will end up alone" there's that person in your life where, every time you have an opinion about society or politics or life in general, they shut it down. they tell you that you must be wrong and they know more than you. it seems to be that whatever the topic is, your view is wrong and there's is right. you have to listen to them ranting about their views without getting a word in, wondering if you were being stupid. you dread talking about politics with them because you can never prove your point.. they are smart and they know it. they enjoy it. they get a thrill out of making you realise how little you know. and they're uncomfortable with the idea of you understanding, of gaining knowledge and standing up for yourself. because if you know as much as them then how will they make you feel small. they sit with their newspaper in the arm chair and you are scared of them and you hate it. that's what it means to me anyway lmao ill see you all in therapy
the line "i am burnt out I smell of smoke, it seeps through her cracks and so I start to choke" has always been one of my favorite lines ever since you first put up the song. It really resonated with me at the time bc I was going through a really stressful time in my life where I was spreading myself waaaaayy too thin and I was really unhappy and was having massive panic attacks all the time, but the lyric honestly always kind of calmed me like "it's okay, see other people go through this, you'll be okay, you just gotta take care of yourself and take some time to fix your machine that you overworked" and I ended up quitting a job that I hated and finding one that brought me joy, taking more time for myself and self care when I was feeling anxious, and became happier with myself and my life, so, uh thanks for that lil line, dodes. <3
this isn’t anything about lyrics but thought i’d say that i am a long time viewer/listener/subscriber/ whatever n watching u clearly grow not only with your music but also just as a person is so cool and nice to see:’)
I wanted to get a reference to party tattoos tattooed to remind me to take myself less seriously! Wondering what "We're not bruised they're just party tattoos" means to you and how you came to that realisation? X
I’m really interested in the lyric “Now every morning since the line between my lives I greet the sun, and ask, "have I already died?” Since you mentioned that Before The Line was reflecting on your childhood I feel it even deeper now
I've always wondered about the line in Rainbow "I didn't think it fair, I was not to be trusted, how can I be proud of what a million people shout at me I'm not?" The whole song is such a masterpiece though ❤❤
I have definitely applied all of guiltless to my relationship with my parents and honestly in some ways it’s helped me heal but sometimes it just brings out all of the raw anger I have directed at them that I keep locked away because well, they don’t think that what they’ve said has hurt me so much and it’s literally built this wall between us and I’m incredibly bitter about it but… there’s not point in trying to get them to see how much it affects me so I’ll just keep it to myself. But it does really feel wonderful to blast this in my car with the windows down and just let all of my anger out while singing along.
It’s SO interesting because ‘something in me says that this is ok’ for me means that we are HUMAN and we are fucked up but it’s what we need in that moment, to feel the negative feelings, and it’s a comforting thing
I N E E D E D to hear the explanation of All My Daughters. It has so my complicated and intense emotions like desperate, guilty, angry, absent, and overly responsible. It is definitely my favourite track in BAP, and probably one of my top 5 or even top 3 songs by you. These lyrics all give me shivers: "Everyone but me just knows / How to let go" "Oh my god, I need it back "And all this shit proves I'm alive" "I'm not who they think I am!" "How they love me / All my daughters / But I'm screaming underwater"
And then this string of lines hits me hardest, to the point where I wanna listen to the song just hear it: "I'm on a train, I'm in a car / Washing my hair, I'm in the dark / I hate the world, and it doesn't care" For me, these lines struck because of how horrible sleeping is for me. More often than not, I cant stay asleep, I wake up maybe 2-5 times a night and after the second time, I lose track of if Im asleep or awake and it carries on throughout the day. The constant change of setting in these lines are so accurately depicting what it's like. It's disorienting and confusing and all you can do is just go with wherever you are...
your songwriting is very intimate and i love hearing your inner thoughts about the lyrics. i write a lot of poetry but the way you put yours to music is so beautiful
i'm 17 now and i grew up watching your videos and your songs are such a place of comfort for me. i understand you're flawed and not perfect, but I appreciate that. you helped me learn so much about myself and you always felt like a big sister to me, thank you so much. (also thank you for all the videos you've been posting recently i forgot how much i used to love watching them and you've really helped cheer me up.)
I've felt so close to so many of these songs because they came at very specific times in my life, or describe very particular feelings that I thought no one felt, or cared to explore. Even the more personal ones I could relate in some way or feel as if they fit in my own situations. Personally I love when I get to find out the meaning in which the author was thinking when writing, because it doesn't take away from my own experiences and the way i relate the work to them. This is simply a wordy way of saying that i love this video and i love your songs in so many deep ways ♡
Love you dodie! My boyfriend bought us tickets to see you in September, our first date was to one of your concerts, we will have been together 4 years soon 😁
I always saw the line "A dark politician will end up alone" as the idea that politicians are always telling people what they want to hear, and a "dark politician", however true the things they are saying may be, is never going to be appealing to the general public. In the same way, the narrator of the song doesn't want to reveal the truths about their own past and pain because they're worried they'll scare people away by being down all the time. I don't know if that's what it means to Dodie, but that's at least what it means to me :)
I am a huge fan of hearing you explain your thoughts. Your imagination is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this insight into your music! It must be difficult to describe your lyrics in a single way when they are so full of meanings. I look forward to hearing how other people interpret your music to explain their own lives. I think I could always enjoy listening to you describe your world. Thank you for sharing your strength with us!
Really interesting to hear all the lyric explanations. I dont have any specific questions about lyric meaning but id love to know more about editing and crafting lyrics. I am currently trying to edit a few of my poems nd its so hard to hone what is important in the words... sometimes when i edit i cant tell if i prefer the new draft or the old one as it will morph into something totally new as i shift focus or tweak words... so yeah id love a video on editing songs!!
Just the entire song "When" is such a beautiful song to me and one that screams at me that I was trying to find something that I didn't need. The song to me reflects my being Asexual/Aromantic. I spent so many years looking and waiting for someone to come along and me feel that "spark" people talk about when they fall in love with someone and never once felt it that I missed that there are so many other kinds of love out there and sure I'm still waiting but I've finally stopped neglecting other forms. Because all forms of love can end if they're neglected or ignored or even just naturally. I don't want to miss the types of love I do feel. I don't want it to be over while I'm still waiting and asking when. Love "When" both the Build A Problem version and the older version from 5/6 years ago
OK but I love dodie's lyricism and would be down for a video where she interprets lyrics from songs by other artists she likes. Just for funsies of course. We all interpret songs differently :)
before the line is a very depressing song for me but watching this made me feel a bit better about it. cuz dodie's not the desperate agonized protagonist in before the line, not always, and these moments won't always be all-consuming
would you ever be up for facilitating a songwriting workshop or something? You are so freakin' talented and it could be pretty awesome. I run a wee writing org for sapphic writers - if it's something you'd be up for I can keep ya posted when our funding pulls through :-)
as someone w dpdr who also writes lyrics/music and who loves u and ur music thank u for doing what you do it is very inspirational and i love u very much
i cry to before the line almost weekly and it makes me feel less alone because i get the same feeling with anxiety and unrealness of everything. thanks for being so honest <3
I love 'all my daughters' so dearly. I felt acknowledged by dodie, that she sees me in a way. I have a past I'm not proud of and have done bad things but for her to say she's done the same makes me feel not alone. I've spent many a night sad and crying to dodie and I remember meeting her and sobbing on the floor just in awe of her and her admitting she has dark parts to herself is comforting.
I'll never forget when I got to give her a hug and said " omg you're real" and she replied with a laugh " ah, yes I think so" Dealing with dissociation so often myself I felt the same in that moment
I just wanted to say that as someone who was fully dissociated for 2 years and still periodically dissociated now, your songs have spoken to me. Your voice gives them such a dreamy quality that resonates in that place and me that barely stays tethered to Earth.
Having conversations with people is hard so I think of the line “when you go quiet I hate myself” as, I said something wrong and they think I’m dumb and they won’t wanna talk to me again
Hello. I hope you are doing well. Thank you for doing these videos even if you arnt feeling the best. You are one of my favorite artists. Keep up the good work.
You always put so much thought and meaning into everything you create on so many layers, and that’s why I truly love your music so much. It feels like a warm blanket in the dark, or a hug from a friend who truly understands your pain, and is there for you. You’re songs make me feel something. Its help me get through a lot of dark times, and It’s nice to break free of that constant numbness even if it’s just for a few minutes whenever I hear your music. Thank you <3
despite before the line being about something else you still managed to nail my depression on the fuckin head with every lyric i had a moment of like "am i being stalked" bc of how accurate it was so ty for the music lol
Listening to this and keeping track of every time I had the same interpretation of the song like "Ah yes, I'm going to get a good grade in listening to music. A thing that is both normal to want, and possible to achieve."
gahhh i was writing some stuff recently and thinking about where i got my lyrical style from and THEN this video pops up and it shows how influential ur music has been to me over the years :0 fuck this is so cool ur a huge inspiration
ooo this is fun hehe I can relate your lyrics to my own experiences sometimes but I also love wondering what they're really about and i was right for some heheh <3
I feel like musicians revealing the meaning behind certain lyrics is like magicians revealing their magic tricks. It is fascinating and interesting, but somehow it takes away the magic spark of your own imagination.
One of my favorite Dodie lyrics is in She, “Cause she tastes like birthday cake, and storytime, and fall But to her I taste of nothing at all” as a gay person who had a crush on a friend that line is just so gutting and beautiful
my fiancée has always thought "I wanna pick you up and scoop you out" sounds like a subtle threat, so anytime the songs songs my head, and I sing it, she always shouts "this is a threat" after those lyrics 😆😆
awh dodie you have the most beautiful lyrics♥️ I’m an English lit student and am constantly just enchanted by themmm, makes me want to write poetry essays on your songs hehe
u have a way of phrasing things so perfectly like its emotions i can visualize i can feel like "hate myself" was one of the first songs where i was like oh my god ur in my head like "how can u not hear the whole conversation i have sitting still with a brain on fire" like just sitting through someone explaining its not u its them but ur thoughts are screaming that its u its u its u. idk u just itch a perfect scratch in my brain with ur diction i love ur words so much
Thank you for sharing so much of the underlying meeting of your songs! I would love to understand these lines from "Rainbow": So please step inside my soul
I'd love to watch you gasp
You'd understand in minutes
And I'd like to think you'd miss it
'Cause so would I
Guiltless really hit me at a very pivotal time and even helped me understand my traumas and get through it. i hope u know that i don’t expect you to be anything more than you’re willing to offer, and you’ve already given me so much!!
i always thought the promise that you break every day is the promise to never grow up!! it's interesting to find what it really is, works equally well with what i always imagined :))
Burned Out for me ended up being about survival and heartbreak. I was learning to sing and play it in 2018 when someone I considered my teacher, mentor and, what I then thought was potential friend, groomed/sexually harassed me after a class. It was the last time I saw them, and even though I reported them to the police (finding out they had similar reports against them), I was unable to press charges. I was scared and angry and disgusted with both them and myself and though they revealed their true colour to me that day, I was so heartbroken that I’d lost them too. Thank god for free police-referred therapy. But also thank god for Burned Out. Because going home and playing/singing that the next day was so cathartic, a way to tell my story through song while I was still hurt and confused and dealing with it. Idk if that all makes sense. But, truly, thank god for Burned Out.
this was such a treat thank you. like bruh your explanation for "something in me says that this is ok" made me pause and just .. BRUH. that's deep as heck.
when Hate Myself came out I immediately did a cover of it (that you've also seen lmao) but after listening to it many many times and learning the meaning I don't think I did a really good job with the interpretation eeeeeeeeee well
i'm thankful you mentioned to us as viewers to be careful with what we share and to respect you (and others also). you never know were your will go or how people think about them
Monster was such an important song for me when I was coping with being cut out of someone's life, which resulted in an entire shift in social groups for me. "I craft my words to fit your head / 'cause no one listens to the dead" to me referred to how I was dead to this entire group, and that the only way they would listen to me was if I said something that fit the narrative they had written for me (and they were uninterested in anything else). of course a lot of this was probably in my head, but it all felt very real. it's such a banger tho
Thanks so much for makin this vid i think its so interesting. Also i get what you mean about art, people always ask me what im trying to say with my paintings but i mostly wanna know how it makes people feel, and is weird i mean Monster is one of my fav songs ever and i always perceived it as always being the monster just people realising your personality and seeing it as a monster instead of a lovely creature.
For “I wanna pick you up and scoop you out” I thought of it more in a twisted way where your scooping that person out of there own world and putting them into your world, without telling them
one of my favourite songs created by you is “i kissed someone it wasn’t you”, specifically the chorus: put me in a car, i just want to go home put me in a bath, i’ll forget you’re gone
it just sounds so hauntingly beautiful(?) (not sure if beautiful would be the right word because this song isn’t about anything beautiful going on) i think i understand the metaphor ‘put me in a bath, i’ll forget you’re gone’, the warmth of the water replacing the warmth of the lover that is no longer there, also being in the bathroom tends to be a place of wandering minds so we could be distracted from thinking about said ex lover.
idk! that’s my theory, i’d love to hear what other people think about this song :]
Honestly, most of your songs have a lot of meaning to me, but I feel the one that has most heavily effected me is Guiltless. For me it's about this person who really hurt me as a kid and preteen but didn't really know it. And now I have to move one and deal with that pain and trauma while they're just fine and off living their life. It's like they don't even know what they did, but how can I blame them? "No use getting angry at the way that you're wired." I feel like every lyric has some correlation to that pain for me, and it's been so therapeutic and beautiful for me. Especially the bit at the end where all the lyrics start up at one time and it really feels like that kind of panicked tirade I have when I think too hard about that situation. Idk. Just my thoughts. I feel like I might have got too personal oof Anyway in the bed is my favorite song ever it's so goooooooooooooooooooooooooood
i sent an ex "cool girl" shortly before breaking up with them and it was amazing to not have to spell it all out bc they got so much from listening to the song. i broke up w them through a song i wrote myself and they were complimenting my lyrics and performance through tears lol. i also sent "hate myself" to a diff ex who i hurt by being the silent part of the relationship, i was going through an autistic burnout and didn't have the language to understand it let alone explain it, i was literally nonverbal and undiagnosed. my ex really related to the song and appreciates my belated explanation. thank u for helping me communicate in my relationships dodie i love ur art
PLEASE I DEFINITELY ASKED ABOUT “A dark politician will end up alone “ CUZ IT WAS THE FIRST THING I COULD THINK OF AND SHE WENT “Nah” AND THIS IS SO FUNNY
when i was younger, i used to think that "she" was about looking back on yourself as a child before you were weighed down with trauma and mental illness. looking back, i was projecting a TON bc it's very obviously a sapphic song, but i just made it fit my situation at the time
would be really interested to hear some thoughts on the lyric "ill carry your burden till the day that you die" from guiltless, recently been unpacking something similar (I think) in therapy so obv not looking for something detailed <3
side note but ur lyrics weirdly helped me find some stuff to unpack in therapy so thank you
I have this wonderful (sometimes painful but in a good Greek catharsis way) experience with your lyrics that I don't have with any other music I've heard, where I feel the words and their meanings intrinsically in my body, sometimes before I even understand their meaning in an intellectual way. The way you sing and the topics your broach (specifically the mental health stuff, because same) hit me so deep in my gut and I feel so damn understood. It's this incredible relief, a moment of truly understanding that I am not, in fact, alone in the way I feel. I'm so fucking grateful for that. Thank you for getting it, and for being brave enough to write it down and put it into art and release it, even though it shows you as flawed and vulnerable. You're a true artist. Much love
Much love to you hope you're feeling more like yourself and can taste the world again soon to sing us more tunes about the tastes. (Referencing her Twitter and cov!d)
Before the line was a substance abuse recovery song for me. It was really powerful and I sobbed when I heard it oh how the meaning changes when you have different experiences. Love this. Thank you again.
It is so much fun to compare the meanings I have for your songs with your meanings!!! Sometimes they are very different or way more similar than I thought haha
i think my fave lyric is "gotta get it in my head i'll never be 16 again" from when bc i was 16 when i first heard it and now i'm 20 and growing up is the most painful experience so the way that sentence's meaning has evolved for me over the years just slaps me in the face every time
I still have my only meaning for those songs but i love to see what you were thinking when wrote it. Now i understood in the middle hahaha cooler story than i imagine
the line "I am burnt out, I smell of smoke, it seeps through her cracks and so I start to choke." really speaks to me about the times, especially in my last year of high school, when my health was falling apart. My chronic illnesses were going untreated, I was acting as though nothing was wrong while running on empty, and this line would play through my head in the moments where the pain and fatigue physically prevented me from doing something and I would fall or trip or stumble and I could no longer hide how burnt up and poorly maintained the inside of my body was. Thankfully I'm doing better now and actually taking care of myself, but Burned Out was such a comforting resource for me in a very scary and painful time.
Okay so I've always LOVED 'Red pushing Down on the Green' but I interpreted it as Lust pushing Down on greed. It was the immediate imagery I got from it but you're explanation made me think of stop lights instead... And now I'm thinking about Taylor Swift hahaha 😂
I have always thought that “one will fold their arms, one will do the dance, really is no need, something wrong with me” is an anxiety inducing situation within a relationship where someone has said something slightly off beat, which makes the other emotionally “fold their arms” and clam up. Then, one will “do the dance” of apologising and trying to do whatever they can to “make it better”.
There “really is no need” as the one person should not have clammed up and folded their arms, but then the other thinks there is “something wrong” with them as they’ve put themselves in a miserable situation where they’ve upset someone without meaning to. Sounds like a bit of an emotionally manipulative relationship to me!
this isn't a lyrical thing but i was listening to before the line just now, and it's interesting how it's a song about a before and after, and yet there's this constant drone in the background throughout the whole song. a constant. i just thought it was cool. like, it's the first thing you hear in the song and also the very last thing you hear. i wonder if there's any meaning behind it
can i just say that ‘special girl’ makes me cry because i feel so seen. i sometimes feel too weird for my own good, but that song is like my new self-love anthem. i can be proud of things that i tend to habitually see as embarrassing or annoying.
watching this after non-sexualizing the sexual parts of the lyrics bc of how i cannot relate to them being an asexual to find out more of the parts i didn't know had sexual context i LOVE that you shared their meanings for you but i will still let some of them have a different meaning to me. i love how we can do this in music <3
omg i always interpreted “i carry the time we don’t talk in a backpack” to be about a breakup and not being able to talk to someone you miss and it weighing you down
I don't know your true meaning behind rainbow but I relate to it in several ways. I'm queer and non binary and also suspect I'm neurodivergent and it hits me in all the feels I feel like I don't fit in this world and I'm all wrong and that song really puts in to words everything I'm struggling with
Ngl I've always listened to In The Middle in a totally different way than how dodie wrote it! And now I know! I'm excited to listen to it again to hear the threesome idea but I think it'll keep the meaning I gave it for me ❤
Burnt out means so much for me because I think I try to be more normal for family than friends. I was in such a dark time and I didn't want to ask for help. ( I really should've but I was too afraid.) and my mom could tell something was up and "smelled smoke". I held on to that last line because I felt as it said the things I couldn't say in my writing. ( even though the only person that saw them was me, I didn't want to admit it even to myself) The only place I could be "myself" is my writing, and I was still afraid to put that line in there, because I was so afraid of my family somehow seeing it. I'm in a better place, and I've gotten help, and I still love Burnt Out.
seeing you post so many videos in such a short span makes me miss watching your old videos 🥲 im so glad youre doing what u love but im so caught in the nostalgia aaaaaaa
I always took it as like "if you try to compromise and keep everyone happy, people will realize you're not genuine and leave" but obviously idk how she meant it
thanks for the explanation of "sorry" I didn't really understand it but I like that it' s positioned after "four tequilas down" as if to apologize for what happened before. also how beautiful is "before the line" !!! I fell in love with this song immediately, from a depressed person I could not have described it better, see my emotions disappear like if someone "snatch the light" I LOVE IT 😍
Out of all of your songs, the line that I never understood was "I pinned each and every hope on you, I hope that you don't bleed with me" from Intertwined.
“talk about your taste in women, i’ll be in the middle, you two get along” to me is the feeling of when two friends are ignoring you constantly and you feel like you are there to be loved conditionally and to be humorous when it’s needed
it’s kinda interesting because being a fan of your music for so long allows me to recognize the complex emotions in the songs that i fell in love with 4-5 years ago. i interpret and understand lyrics differently as i grow older and i think feeling that growth is really beautiful
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Ali Darwiche2021-07-13 03:20:51 (edited 2021-07-13 03:21:23 )
Usually, I'd be really mad at covid for making someone I love sick, but... I can't help but love all the extra dodge content... #ForgiveMeDodie 😭🤣
Some two cents from someone who can't listen to guiltless most days because it hits too close to home: I'm pretty sure the line 'a dark politician will end up alone' is about someone (a parent probably, but it can be anyone) who always has the impartial, 'correct' but emotionless response. It's never their fault because they've talked their way out of it. But people like that will never be happy and will never deeply connect with people - they'll end up alone.
By the way, this isn't speculating on any of dodie's personal stuff. This is me relating to art and feeling like I've caught the meaning because I've had such a similar experience.
Lots of lines in All my daughters really speak to me as a fairly young fairly insecure teacher at an all girl's school - how I care about them so much and am doing my best and kids can be so adoring - but there's that constant fear I am letting them down in some way and failing and they don't see the struggle and anxiety that I live through behind the scenes. Yay imposter syndrome ✨✨ Your songs help me to feel through those emotions thank you 💜
I got derealized when I was six, everytime I sing "gotta get it in my head / I'll never be sixteen again" there's this bitter humor to it because I can't imagine having sixteen whole years of clear memories
I can relate, not with derealization, but with being disabled, a lot of people are talking about the experience of a clear "before" and "after"(and that's super valid and their lived experience)but I can't relate, I don't have a clear "before" just dealing with the actual thing and the better spots and the worse...
yeah, i came to say pretty much the same thing (not necessarily with derealisation, but mental health issues in general plus the occasional bout of derealisation). i don't have a clear line that i remember and so both 'before the line' and 'when' just break me a little (in a lovely way 'cause i love the songs) because i don't really have the "before" as strongly as i have what's been happening for so long
@Caitlyn Salter yes yes yes!!! I listen to it and I feel sad and angry and even somehow jealous and then ashamed, and it relates to something dodie said in the video about exploring your feelings safely, and being okay with not feeling the most "correct" way about a situation, I remember listening to "human" for the first time and being like "this is not just being in love, is it? It's almost about being obsessive and how when you're in a bad place and starting a relationship those things bleed into each other and feed each other (I'm very much rambling I'm aware but I just love dodie so much)
@niv fecher yes exactly!!! you've put it into words so well. there's just so many emotions that relate to it and in a sense they're the "wrong" emotions because y'know we're MEANT to have these "positive" memories from being young or whatever, people look back on their youth all the time and say that they were the best years of their lives. but some of us can't do that and so we need to grow up and live in a different way, i guess? and that's okay because it just has to be.
and also very much yes to "human" it's about so many different things depending on whoever listens to it and i think it's really beautiful that it can be. like dodie said about "all my daughters" so many things bleed into one and intertwine that it's kinda impossible for it to be any other way than a lot?? not to be all tumblr 'web weaving' but things really do parallel and combine and everything feeds together! (also yeah i'm very much a rambler as well haha sorry about this it's very long)
The song when allways tears me apart cuz I'm 16 but not having fun when makes me want to tbh. I allways leaned on your music dodie. Since I was 12 I'm now 16 and I've grown up with your music ily ❤️
If I'm being honest is a big same for me. Having so much hope it's not healthy and it's just like PLEASE, PLEASE LOVE ME cause grabbing onto that hope is the only thing I want to do even if it hurts cause if loose hope it'll mean it's over.
"I hate the world and it doesn't care, we just sit there" is the best description of my depression I've ever heard, thanks Dodie, gonna go have a cry now
Aaa- 'Sorry' really makes me shed some tears. I think I understand that it embodies a person feeling guilty for something they did and are responsible of, but I also notice a second perspective, for me now atleast, it can also embody the guilt for something that was out of your control yet still feeling guilty anout it and feeling nostalgic of the time before it happened.
My cat died almost 2 months ago, she was always there for me ever since I was little when my parents got her. When I had my ups and downs, or whenever I was sick, or just anytime in the daily, she was there. Hurts to say this but she was my childhood pet, though I really wish that I could still just call her my pet in the present. I still miss her, a lot, and still I'm not sure how to heal from it yet if I can, but she was such a caring soul. We got her when I was 2, she lives 12 years, I'm 14 so it was unexpected, I wished for her to atleast live until I was older or heck even 16, but even then, I would never be ready for that, I never was ready either. Sometimes my mum, and I even, would wish for her to live forever. She was basically family to me.
It's odd because I remember I used to listen to all of your songs from the new album with headphones while she was right next to me in my bed, and when 'Sorry' came up I just found it a beautiful song that was a bit mesmerizing (and don't get me wrong I still feel that to this day) but now it hits different in meaning and emotionally aswell. 'When' also hits a spot slightly, when it comes for me begging the past to stay, begging for the time she was still here to come back. For "Sorry" it's almost like, well... there's nothing that I can do anymore, nothing left to say, other than- I'm sorry. Whether it be sorry I didn't do something to keep the memories alive, take more pictures, record more videos, or that it happened to her at all. But it's good to think about the good she did for us and in general, the funny things she sometimes did, and the lessons she had maybe even taught us.
I do adore your songs! The melodies are beautiful, fun, and even emotional in many ways! The meanings in these songs are interesting, even if in just a simple lyric, it was quite interesting to hear your side of the meanings to the lyrics and how you originally thought of them! I'm looking forward to whatever you bring next in the future. 🙏🏻❤
This was a really interesting video! Thank you for sharing. I’ve also always been curious why the line in cool girl “Rolling your eyes, to the back of your heads” specifically pluralizes heads?
GOD the contrast from “air so sweet” as the opener to the closing of “before the line”. ow. feels like air so sweet was written from the pov of the girl actually present before the line. before the line was written from the girl PAST the line. ow. ow. ow.
I love how you understand and know that you have such an interesting and smart brain, that´s toooo cool. Because sometimes, especially when you have a mental illness you start to think and feel that everything that made you you moved out and your creative thoughts which tend to feel very interesting and exiting don´t bring you that much joy anymore and you don´t have the confidence to give them and yourself a chance to think and tinker on them....But it´s so important to keep trusting in what you have. Reminds me of your lyrics: I take what I can get
This tells me that you don't have to make sense for your listeners all the time when composing a song. Sometimes it's more about you than them and that comforted me somehow.
i'm pretty sure it's talking about her eyes there ("kissing sickly sweet guys, 'cause they say they like my eyes") and the in the dark line means that they knows the guy can't see her eyes well and so it isn't a genuine compliment, but she's taking it because she's "too damp for a spark"
i'm not great at explaining things lol, but i hope i got it across :))
Hate myself hit really hard as someone who's got severe anxiety triggers linked to being given the silent treatment and also rejection sensitive dysphoria bc of being autistic and having ADHD like,,, fuck it's really not good for me when people deal with shit by shutting down and being introspective I need someone to say "hey I'm struggling rn so I'm not gonna talk for a bit"
I wasn’t surprised by any of the meanings, I feel like if you really listen and have dealt with similar things you can identify very closely with them.
That's so interesting, I had heard 'I'm still clawing for the strings' as puppet strings! And that you want to feel in control of your reality but it feels very powerless, and yet you're still angry about that. Your balloon thing makes more sense within spaceyness tho :)
Intertwined means so much to me as that is my relationship. Both me and my partner have had some really awful periods with our mental health and it just speaks to how I feel
You touched right on something I'm trying to make a song around dodie!! When you were talking about human and how you just want to eat up this whole new person. I feel like I want a song with imagery about how love is selfish for me almost? Like I feel like I'm eating up someone else's life. It's so hard to describe with words, I have no clue how I'll make lyrics of it. But it's so fascinating to learn about someone you feel so close to. Absolutely love the concept, can't wait to write a song about it. Still can't figure out whether it's going to be a love song or more of a critical song about the ways that I love.
idk about others, but for me this is why we love you, not because you're perfect (no one is) but because you are so thoughtful and you put so so so much of yourself into your lyrics and then you release them and let us take what we need from it and put words to so many big and scary feelings. thank you <3
I feel like When is a song about growing up but missing out on the things you feel should happen - "I'll never be 16 again/I'm waiting to live/still waiting to love/oh it'll be over and I'll still be asking when". personally I take it like waiting and idealizing what teenagehood/growing up is like and when you get there you feel it passing by, or what you get isn't the perfect story you imagine. would I be on the right track here? I really love this song and the way I perceive it means a lot to me but I'm curious the actual meaning behind it. :)
always been quite curious about hole in my tooth! ik its pretty short and seems self explanatory but was there ever any deeper meaning or is it just about having a cavity and the dentist being closed lol
Burned Out I related to so much. As the therapy friend for everyone I know, for years I kept everything in so that my friends could fill me up. I prided myself on always being the same for them and being there for them. But I crumbled inside and became hollow. The ending- the swirling motion- oh maybe I'll talk about, I should, Ill never, I cant- I've had that conversation so many times inside.
Your work has strong parralels with Hozier in some ways. Lyrics which are specific and poetic. Writing about really sexy shit but doing it so gorgeously and poetically you barely realise.
i remember seeing dodie live and her introducing in the middle by saying "this is a song about a threesome" and my mind was blown i couldn't believe that i hadn't made the connection before lmao
I’ve always viewed burned out as someone in a toxic relationship/friendship and they have someone around them who’s causing them to crack and let the smoke deep in and the smoke is equivalent to depression and anxiety and just mental ick for me
Since you mentioned she lol. I really agree with that line. Actually I saw you live in pheonix and I was bend over sobbing nearly falling over the barrier for the entire song. I was thinking a lot of my long distance girlfriend at the time and just all the aches of loving her but not being with her and not even being able to tell everyone that I had such a wonderful love. I remember I looked up and you looked me in the eye when the song was done after you said "I see there's a lot of girls who like girls in here" you just gave me this comforting half smile, this look of "it'll be okay". 3 months later I came out and it really was okay♡ You saw me as a daughter there I suppose haha. A weird yet broken one with a giant gold star sticker on her forehead bc the other girls were putting the little ones on their cheeks all cutesy but my one(1) braincell went straight to childhood of always wanting the big sticker 😂
I'm so curious about the line "He'll be asked till he's bored, I would know, I've been bored before" from Cool Girl. I wonder about what it means every time I listen to the song.
I really appreciate that you explain your lyrics because as a person who is absolutely incapable of understanding metaphors, it gets really frustrating when I just have to perpetually wonder what anything in a song means. I love hearing what a songwriter "meant" with a lyric even if I spin it a different way for myself later.
i listened to she the other day in the car while the girl i’ve fallen for was driving, that “even when she’s next to me we could not be more far apart” really hit hard that day
Now I know that monster isn't supposed to be about parents and kids falling out because of mood swings and hormones and stuff, but that's the only way I'll ever hear it
i always thought of hate myself as around the overall struggle of working hard to impress people, stressing yourself out, to no avail, but I rly like your explanation of it
I always hear hate myself as being in a relationship with someone who is emotionally abusive, like someone who can’t leave this relationship bc they are stuck, they know it hurts but they stay And when they go quiet it means you’ve “disappointed” them and you internalize that
I relate to Before the Line oh so much. For me DPDR kinda blurred into my life without a definite line, but this song still hits home. Especially the promise part- everyday I promise myself that I'll be present but surprise surprise that's absolutely impossible.
my interpretations pt. 2 . o) "there was the end i couldn't find, found too late" - this song hits me very personally for a reason; just coming out of a relationship, where I knew all along it wouldn't last, but it lasted for 2 whole years, I knew all along something wasn't right - when I finally put it into words, he was like "yeah, you're right. I don't love you any more. we should break up." I could not forgive myself for not finding "the end" sooner when my intuition was right all along, and intertwining my life with his for so long, just to break apart now. There was the end I couldn't find, that took me so long to form into words and ask him about. Found too late, when I could have stopped it much sooner, when I first felt that we're drifting apart. . o) all my daughters - i thought that song, much like "burnt out", was about the whole experience of being a singer and having a "fan club" of, well, I suppose mostly girls. "I’m not who they think I am! I try too hard not to give a damn, - putting up a public image but I feel it - but secretly drowning underneath How they love me All my daughters - despite all the love that u get from your fans (like me, haha) But I’m screaming underwater - it doesn't much help heal the scars and pain in your personal life. . pain demands to be felt, as j. green put it I will hurt you almost definitely ask the people who have left me" - when you don't want to let anyone too close, . bc you feel guilty and like you will hurt them bc of your own emotions and stuff goin on in your life... idk, something like that beautiful song btw, love it. . "I hate the world, and it doesn’t care ... we just sit there" - I would like to quote something I wrote today: "Pain, right. Such a universal human experience, and yet, when it's happening to you, you feel so important. You want to be consoled. As if the world had stopped spinning just because you're hurting. Well, guess what. The world doesn't care, or give a shit, and it's spinning. Life goes on, and your pain is not the least, or the worst, that the world has experienced, or will ever experience. Well, it's definitely not that special. But to you, it's everything that you know." . . . o) "it feels oddly good to hurt" - when you're in love, it's both an alluring, strangely rewarding and also painful experience, regardless of how the other person feels. There's always that anticipation at the start... the hope, the longing. But you like it. You let yourself hurt, bc the rewards of being close to that person far outweigh the "costs" of the pain you feel at other times, when something goes amiss.
6:56 -7:04 completely relate. On good days I'm very reflective and mature about the events that have shaped me and the I'm stronger now and then on bad days I'm like bull. And cry in self doubt and pity. I love me lol.
this maybe sounds weird but dodie explaining "I made a promise but I break it every day" almost just gave me permission to feel that line the way I do? like it just suddenly got through to me in such a direct way because /I/ made a promise too and I wonder if part of the reason why I made it was because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it forever (which for me ties into how I feel about "I'm still clawing for the strings/ I'd do any fucking thing") anyway I adore before the line and this vid and dodie and also anyone reading this :)
dodie i love you and i want to tattoo the lyric “I’ll never be sixteen again” would you please write it for me in your handwriting??? Or maybe from the first time you wrote when? I love that song with my heart and I love you for writing it<3
I adore "Baby I'm a funny thing/I'm walking if it doesn't sting" because to me it's about carrying on and being hopeful even if you're sort of broken. It's got a sort of self-acceptance to it which feels very optimistic
i used to listen to arms unfolding right after my breakup and fantasize about someday making things work with my ex. since then i've realized many things were wrong with how i was being treated in that relationship, and now i listen to arms unfolding through a lens of self-love -- learning to love myself again after someone taught me otherwise
I always associated Guiltless with my father. he abused me throughout my childhood up until a few years ago when he finally left home after my parent's divorce. he was diagnosed with depression and blamed all of his awful behaviour on it without ever taking responsibility for his actions, "is it real? you believe you're guiltless." the dark politician line makes me think of him because he now blames me for holding him at arms length because I "can't heal" and isolating him from the family, "end up alone."
i always thought that the "i made a promise but i break it every day" line was kind of a reference to "i promise you it'll all make sense again" from secret for the mad, like saying that maybe secret for the mad was wrong and some things just don't ever get better and make sense again
the "it feels oddly good to hurt" reminds me of a line from the anime nana: "...pain comes with love
; because love is painful feeling, to the point of wanting to drown."
Dodie! Hi. Might I ask that you do a similar insight video about the musical arrangements in some of your songs? You're a very clever musician, but I suppose you knew that though, huh? Thanks for doing what you do the way that you do it. It's wonderful!
In "if I'm being honest" I've understood the "red pushing down on the green" as like, having a crush in elementary school and the moment you talk to them it feels like you're about to throw up from nervousness (green) but the blushing/the shame (red) prevents it. Maybe my crushes were just weird lol
my favourite song off of bap is guiltless and my favourite lyric is probably "i'm not bitter, i'm just tired / no use getting angry at the way that you're wired". i'm not sure if i really GET that song because there are parts i absolutely cannot relate to (e.g. "i don't think i'd feel better if i opened your eyes" - i'd feel INFINITELY better if i opened her eyes, i feel like it would solve everything in a way) but THAT line i definitely get. maybe it's because i overshare way way way too much? like i am constantly going around yelling "they fucked me up". i'm curious why you chose "i'll carry your burden 'til the day that you die" instead of "'til the day that i die" but i completely understand if you don't feel comfy explaining that <3
my favourite dodie lyric of allll time is "you blew me up like a big balloon far too soon, i'm left a stuttering teen" i lov the way it rolls off the tongue so smoothly. ALLITERATION, BABEY!!
ik it wasn’t discussed in this video but bite back is one of my favourites because the lyrics feel like a conversation im having with my brain: “there are knots that i can help undo, my dear i’m only trying to help you” the depressed/angry side of my brain is too volatile to listen to the other rational, self aware part that understands what is happening. same with “i couldn’t reach you, no not tonight, i’ll try tomorrow and hope you’re kind”; it feels like i’m telling my brain to give it a rest for today and i’ll try again tomorrow and hope the mental fog has cleared up a little. it’s one of my favourite dodie songs :-)
i love Rainbow so much but there are many lines in it that i've been trying to interpret, like "my title just talks over me", "i was not to be trusted / how can i be proud of what a million people shout at me i'm not", or "i'd love to watch you gasp / you'd understand in minute and i like to think you'd miss it / cause so would i". i'd love to hear what you meant while writing those lines!
I always wondered and speculated about Guiltless, but you had already made it very clear that you didn't wanna elaborate on the lyrics even when it first came out, so that is the only song I am "missing" but not actually expecting you to talk about it
I think it’s wild dodie sees her online persona as someone who was perfect and aloof. What gave me hope was seeing someone bend so much and break at times but come up for air to tell us every time that it will be okay. I hope she knows that as someone who was incredibly young and in need when I found her I harbor no resentment towards her imperfection. I am so proud to have been one of her ‘daughters’
I personally interpret Guiltless as a song about parental trauma, and specifically the kind that isn't extreme, but you look at how you're kind of messed up now and realize that it was something your parents did to you (maybe without realizing). You blame them for it obviously, and have that built-up resentment, but you know that if you tried to explain it to them, they would get defensive and deny that they ever did anything to hurt you (even inadvertently). The line "I'm not bitter, I'm just tired / no use getting angry at the way that you're wired" always hit hard in that context because it's a perfect explanation of that complicated relationship and knowing that you'll never be able to change their thought processes.
for me personally, ‘a dark politician will end up alone’ signifies that, generally in life, anyone who tries to dictate all your actions will end up far worse than you will
i love the song All My Daughters but it means a lot different to me than Dodie described. to me "daughters" represent all the sides to myself that i created to fit different peoples' expectations of me. so when the song goes "how they love me, all my daughters but im screaming underwater" means a whole lot to me. Funny how songs and art can take different interpretations to different people.
something you've always talked about in burnt out is the line that goes 'but they love you over and over they love you' and how people just sing back to you seeming not to get that that line is about the pressure and whatever that creates, and when that happens all we can do is try and reassure you that we know you're only human. But, when you're in an audience how can you get that across other than saying we love you?
Before The Line for me, is basically my trauma from my childhood and just being so angry at who caused it and ‘The Line’ is between me as a child and then me after the shit happened. And im desperately wanting to let go of it but I just can’t. And me wanting to go back and experience a childhood that wasn't tainted.
This is very off topic but my Nan read "secrets for the mad" whilst she came to visit and despite knowing nothing about you, she really liked it and read the whole thing 😊
i don’t belong here really hit me hard and meant a lot to me as a newly diagnosed autistic person, the idea of not fitting in with peoples secret social codes resonates with me so much
I love that you still stick to your guns about not revealing all the details of your trauma. Nobody is owed the details of your trauma. You don't owe your audience your entire existence.
I feel like with guiltless lyrics it’s one of those where if you get it you get it and if you don’t that’s alright but you won’t quite be able to, and it’s tricky / painful to explain
Yeah, the first time I heard that song I started sobbing and sent it to my mom with just the words "it's him". That song helped me understand a part of my life so much better, but I still can't write about that person-- thank god we have dodie to write about it for us lol
Okay I've thought about these a lot so while I'm here, let me note my personal interpretations of them before I listen to you explaining each one of them.
o) Red pushing down on the green - I thought this is like, you're so sick from anxiety that you're green (you want to vomit) but you're also like super shy/ashamed so your face is red and it's just a mix of those things XD just like extreme anxiety and self-consciousness about being in front of your crush o) i look idiotic with my limbs all knotted, it don't feel right - yup literally imagined, you're hoping so hard that you sort of get carried away and uuhh.. well, basically, you're trying to pull yourself out of it cuz it's kinda shameful (not really but it feels that way when you're crushin, I would know) o) what in the world do we have at a quarter to four - I guess I thought that meant like a drink:D likeee... it's so late already, past the tipsy stage, but too late to keep drinking; or likee maybe you're trying to think of like "ok how am I going to continue this steaming imagination":D o) this whrring machine -- the mechanical motions of you knoww... your hand if you can't cool it down steam is still steam -- even if you can't get the release (assuming it's with someone else now) the process or the imaginary scenario is still hot and steamy and very enjoyable o) "i am not cartoon" -- ok this one is something that i've thought a lot, bc burned out really struck a chord with me at some point -- basically it sounded like the song was about someone else (like a manager?) putting the weight on your shoulders, asking you to keep producing and um keep doing shows and everything despite the stress of it all; and you're basically saying "don't build hope on something broken, i am not cartoon" because you're a real person with feelings and problems and stuff to deal with outside your musical career, despite it being deeply intertwined, and, you know, you're not a cartoon, you're three-dimensional and you can only take so much before becoming "burnt out" or breaking. and "i might just leave soon" is like a threat to whoever is putting the weight on you, saying to them that you might just quit the thing entirely if they don't stop and stand back, cool it down with the demands and respect you as a person, giving you room to breathe. "it seeps through her cracks and so i start to choke" yup, the way you explained it is exactly how I imagined it, too o) " a dark politician will end up alone" -- two parts to this: someone who likes to debate and conquer, not really caring about what the other person in front of them is feeling or has to say, and is basically manipulative with their words like a politician, and the other part: you looking back on it and saying now that they will end up alone because of how they treat you and how they are as a person (cruel, guiltless and manipulative). o) "something in me says that this is ok" -- um okay i just realized that I might need to go listen to this song with a fresh perspective due to a certain situation in my life... but anyway... I guess sometimes the primitive urges take over, esp when you're under the influence, and you're basically convincing yourself that "it'll be fineee, this is ok" but.. then later you realize what a terrible thing you've done, and no, it was not ok, you were just silencing out the voice of reason...
ok i have to stop now, i'm about halfway through but i'll be back later probably
PLEASE DODIE PLEASE WHAT'S "I KNEW YOU ONCE" ABOUT like what kind of a relationship? I've applied it to so many situations and had so many different "you" people but I always always wonder what it's about. My tippy top favourite song of yours. Also..... BLESS YOU FFS
The anger and frustration in Before The Line...my GOD have I felt that....ugghhh it's incredible how the music and the lyrics just perfectly capture that. Can't tell you how many times I have blasted that in my earphones alone in my room and just raged.
im gonna say what i thought In the Bed was about because im lowkey proud of it lol but i thought that was about trying to be intamate with someone after sexual assault, like wanting to be with someone but everything inside of you telling you not to or feeling sick about it. the lines that made me feel that way were "Hot little hints/Toe a line between sexy and sick/What's the deal? How much to feel?","Poor lonely mind, it's getting confused", "Disconnected, but beautifully raw". Yeah
Its actually pretty easy to understand what shes saying by her lyrics, the fascinating part is what it means to her. Like guiltless, obviously its someone she knows, but theres no prying. And the demo for let go, im very interested in knowing what her meaning is.
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no jes2021-07-13 10:45:52 (edited 2021-07-13 10:46:03 )
To me Hate Myself is about being very anxious and overanalyzing a relationship with someone you care about. "When you go quiet I hate myself" really hit home for me because I'm often afraid of silence during a conversation. I start to overthink it like "Did I say something wrong?", "What if we're not right for each other?" etc. even when it's just...silence. Like, it's normal and completely fine. The verse "build a problem that neither of us needs, something wrong with me" to me means that, sometimes, my anxiety blows things out of propotion and builds problems for myself that aren't even real. I know that this interpretation might not match the entire lyrics but most of it reminds me of my inner monologue when I get anxious. Listening to it soothes me because it makes me realize that these thoughts sound irrational.
first coupla times i listened to "if i'm being honest" i thought u were singing about becoming famous and existing as this beautiful desirable public figure and how it soothes your ego but makes you insecure about trying to meet the expectations. "all of my best bits collected displayed" i thought of instagram, "red pushing down on the green" i thought of approval on youtube videos. "could you love this?" hoping people will love the art you're putting out into the world... yeah
So I guessed a lot of them correctly, but for some reason I thought All My Daughters was about like, all the different people you could be, all the different choices you make and how there might be alternate universes where you made different choices, and all those versions of you in these alternate universes are cheering you on during a bad time or something? Like a combination of regretting the decisions you've made so much that it hurts and simultaneously feeling loved by every version of yourself.
Guiltless is about my dad Dodie wrote it for me so I remember that actually the thing with my dad is real and I won't think "well actually maybe it's all me" and put myself back in harm's way
(Not rly claiming Dodie wrote it for me but that's the effect for me.)
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T B2021-07-13 06:34:18 (edited 2021-07-13 06:37:07 )
do you write or rather 'focus on' creating the lyrics or the music first? or is it like an amulgamtion of the two?
I'm only able to write instrumental music and have always struggled with lyrics which is why I find interest in how lyricists as incredible as you write your music.
i know you don't talk about guiltless but that song hurts in such a good way bc on one hand. ouch. that's my ~trauma~ in song form. but on the other hand it feels so validating to have my experience put across so eloquently,, thank u luv u
The minute I saw the pre-order for BAP I knew I was gonna get it I think because I felt there was a story I knew was gonna help me hidden in the lyrics and the names ect.
OH also okay last comment I promise - I know you didn’t mention 6/10 on here but I connect with that song the most out of all your songs as someone with social anxiety. The lyrics just hit so close to home and it felt like I could understand them without needing an explanation ,, like I was telling a friend earlier that 6/10 felt like you just took my thoughts out of my brain and put them into a song. I’m really thankful that I’ve found something I can relate to so strongly - so thank you dodie <3 just thought I would let you know about this!
I know she doesn't like to talk about guiltless. but as a songwriter who LOVES deciphering lyrics.. and also.. as someone who (i like to think) relates deeply to guiltless, it's one of the most perfect songs lyrically, and especially the dark politian line. <3 sending love
I completely relate to Guiltless, and I understand the dark politician line. It is a privilege to not immediately understand :) Also I totally connect to Hate Myself as a painting of my Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and chasing of emotionally unavailable male crushes and mentors and friends, but anyone who I think could be annoyed at me and then they go quiet or don't reassure me that they still think positively of me, my anxiety and worst-case scenario-ing goes wild. And then I really love Rainbow from a neurodivergent perspective because discovering I have ADHD explains everythinggg and normal functional life things are a struggle compared to people around me
My ex was a deeply wounded and deeply mentally unhealthy person. I thought he would try to improve himself or take steps to get help with support from me, but he allowed himself to spiral into a really toxic person who removed himself from me entirely and ended up cheating on me. The lyric "when you go quiet I hate myself" always made total sense because for the second half of the relationship he never talked to me about his feelings or what he thought at all and it made me feel like I wasn't enough for him and something about his situation was my fault. I thought it was because he didn't trust me, but really it was because I should never have trusted him. BTW, dodie, you inspired me to write a song about it - a theme that mixes sympathy with suppressed rage in a melody that sounds melancholy and sentimental. And then a cute Lil song about my current boyfriend who has helped me heal a lot of hurts and lies I believed by showing me through actions what unselfish love looks like. My friend told me "hey you know 'Absolutely Smitten'? Yeah. That's you. You're gone. You're not in this pain of existence anymore".
Hi! I'm not a fine english speaker but I'll hope you understand me! I'd like to say that this video was soo interesting. It's almost magical your traduction of feelings into lyrics, and how different we (as listeners) procesate them from u. my question is, have you ever had an interpretation of one song of yours by a fan that has changed your original perception of it? Like, do all of your songs begin and end in the process of writing/producing or have you ever learnt from the re-reading or seen your words differently due to someone's perspective
«Dreams and Ideas should not be the same thing» hit me like a train, cause I used to enter into not great relationships assuming they would last forever, and “you waited smiling for this” is such a perfect nail in the coffin for the realization that your childish optimism was misplaced.
i am very guilty of going quiet and not opening up so now i feel called out lmao
i guess i hadn't listened closely enough, i associated "hate myself" with a very close friendship that ended quite abruptly a couple months ago and feeling guilty about "causing" the void in my life where our conversations and our friendship used to be
(i wrote "causing" in quotation marks because if i'm being objective it's not really 100% my fault, as it rarely is in these situations. i just started a conversation that was long overdue. still feel guilty about it though.)
The way you think is so interesting! I would love to talk to you and just like talk about random things and what you think about things. You have such a unique view of the world but also there’s so much that I can relate to.
Your music has so many universal feelings that so many relate to, but not many have the courage to put into words.
And hearing someone else put the feelings that you feel into words helps so much more than you can imagine to those who feel unheard and alone. The past few years I've been coming to terms with and understanding depression that I've lived with for quite a while, and in some of your songs there are these snippets of "yes, another person understands"
Is there a list of both her released and unreleased (youtube only) songs? Some of these aren't on her albums and I'm trying to figure out just how much is missing. The internet is not being helpful. Thanks!
I always thought the promise you broke was in reference to secret for the mad where you promise "it'll all make sense again" and I was surprised it wasn't lol
"Talk about your taste in women" - im polyamorous and the first time two of my partners met i kind of expected to be the center of attention because id be the main thing they had in common. They spent an hour talking about Magic the Gathering...
that and the fact people often say "i think we should take a break ", rather than "i'm breaking up with you". the phrase "take a break" implies that the relationship will resume at some point, when in reality it almost never does. people just use that phrase because it's easier to pretend it's a temporary separation, rather than directly facing the fact that this is the end of the line and what they had is well and truly over.
ohh i took "the promise" idea as like promising myself "I'll get better one day" or someone else saying "you'll get better." I made this promise and I break it every day, it's not my fault because other people told me that I'll get better too. ya :)
If I'm Being Honest is not how I stumbled into Dodie, but it's a good deal of the reason I come back: This getting in a tangle to not appear to be tangled up, that was basically my childhood.
"a dark politician will end up alone" for me is about my romantic relationship with boris johnson and how i dumped him ( for legal reasons i must claim this is in fact a joke lmao)
"I'm walking if it doesn't sting, a heartbreak only means that it was worth it" I interpret kinda like when you feel like a project isn't good enough if you don't pour your entire heart and soul into it? But like, as a relationship. Like if you aren't burning yourself out to make a relationship work then you didn't really love them
I love that interpretation, I always interpret it to be: if your heart gets broken it means you felt deep love and that makes the pain worth it. It's so interesting how everyone uses their own life experiences and thoughts to apply meaning to dodies lyrics.
i rlly wanna know about "not what i meant" when the lyrics go "oh i'll work a little harder but walk a little less" and "you saw my number and my number wasnt good enough"
A song I put my own meaning to is Rainbow. I know it‘s about your sexuality, and I‘m part of zhe LGBTQ+ comnunity as well, but I‘ve never felt out of place because of my gender or sexuality. I do, however, struggle a lot with my mental health and being neurodivergent. So someone openly not only accepting but praising that part of me just makes me feel all nice and fuzzy.
6/10 has such a special place in my heart b/c 1) my birthday is 6/10 lol and 2) I have such social anxiety around even my longtime close friends that I constantly feel like they hate me and want to make excuses to leave and go back home where I’m comfortable. Even tho I know that’s not true and they assure me of it, I still have the line “I know that you don’t want me here” playing on a loop in my head sometimes when I’m around them 🤷🏽♀️
i think dodie talking about the song all my daughters very interesting as a young female fan bc i had no clue what she meant by the term “daughters”, and to find out that it’s about people like me, but in a really weird context is strange
I like the idea of writing songs and then giving them to the world, so they're no longer yours, but theirs. I made your song Guiltless about a very different thing that it was written about; I use it as inspiration/soundtrack while outlining a novel I want to write about artistic gymnastics. Because I want to write a story that is realistic, I don't want gloss over the abuse that happens to young girls in the sport and this song captures that atmosphere so well. The softness of the voice combined with the sadness in the lyrics gives me the perfect "I'm hurting but fighting back is not an option" vibe. The line "you opened a door that no kid should walk through" is perfect for this setting. And the chorus, the acceptance of the trauma and the line "I can tell you believe you're guiltless" fits so well, because so many abusive coaches through history have justified their methods with the amount of medals they produce, or with making "better" gymnasts. The dark politician metaphor also works really well in this context. I love this song and I love how useful it is to me for a completely different purpose than the one intended, I guess. I don't relate to it personally, but it helps me create something new.
In 'I Kissed Someone (It Wasn't You),' what did you mean by "put me in a bath, I forget you are gone"? I feel like there are so many different things it could mean.
I always though if I'm being honest was about expectations put on you when you're young and everyone watching you struggle to meet those expectations and trying to figure yourself out and grow up in all of that!
The line in "Sick of Losing Soulmates": "which part will you take cus we both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin", help? Like it can't be repaired?
I always listen to Hate Myself as trying to socialize while being neurodivergent because uhhh ya hit that one on the nail
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sophie vega2021-07-13 04:14:32 (edited 2021-07-13 04:27:28 )
hiii dodieeee!! okay so i swiped up on your story bUt saw that you posted this video already. i was curious about “my heart’s running out of sellotape/cellotape”. i’ve always wondered what that line meant. side note: i kissed someone it wasn’t you is SO good.
I'm kinda surprised that people asked you about some lyrics because I feel they're very straightforward, even when you use metaphors.
But hey! It's nice to get some reaffirmation! Especially the whole "talk about your taste in women" because OF COURSE you mean yourself. Who else?! I dunno, it made me laugh.
For me - i feel very attached to all my daughters and hate myself
I know that all my daughters is directed at me and others like me - and its feel comforting in a strange way . Like were here growing up and shes here singing about all her problems and stuff yet it can relate to our lives so much
I only really realised what hate myself meant for me recently- at first i didnt get it but now it do . like for me its being so depent on one person’s view of you and wanting them to talk and like you but you have a small inkling that somethings wrong and you don't know why - and the worst part is when they wont open up
“oooh don’t say it’s genetic”. i think ab this one a lot bc it feels like something someone would say to a kid experiencing mental health issues passed down from parents
I feel your guilt in so many of ur songs and it hurts to know how much u hurt on the inside knowing you've done some wrongs or wanting to show the world how imperfect u are. In all my daughters, I felt like u feel unworthy of our love because u think we love this perfect image of u but if we knew ur darker imperfect side, we wouldn't love u as much. I hope u find it in you to forgive yourself and accept that u are so worthy of all that love. I want u to see what we see when we look at u and listen to u. U are such a gem and a beautiful human being. We all have done things we are not proud of but learning to forgive ourselves and see ourselves as worthy of all the love in the world is so essential. Ik many of u are not Christian, but I'd like to share something about how my relationship with God gave me so much confidence and love for myself. Just knowing that He creating me purely out of love and that I am the daughter of the almighty, loving, forgiving God is crazy to me. He told me that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. He told me I'm more beautiful and worthy than the stars in the sky. And I believed Him. And now I believe I am worthy of love regardless of my mistakes.
Ooof i relate to the writing songs about a very specific feeling when you actually have a more differenciated view on the topic but that would be too much for a song... i always have to say that disclaimer to my friends before i show them my songs because otherwise i sound like a complete asshole 😅
hey dodie have you ever considered adding trigger warnings to your videos? i know there's pros and cons so you don't HAVE to but i just think it would epic if u made a lil' list while editing and popped it at the start of the video and/or in the description - big ones for this vid (and others) would be "toxic relationships & abuse" and also probably "depression", "derealisation" and "suicidal thoughts". hope i'm not oversteppinggggg??? i just think it might be good because convos with such vivid descriptions of these things might be difficult for some ppl
for me, "when you go quiet, i hate myself" is kinda the opposite of what you said... i'm a very quiet person, and the only time i get to think about stuff is when i completely shut down from the world and there's not a single sound from the outside to distract me. so it's like, "when you go quiet" and you finally stop making noise and i can look back to everything you just said, i start to feel bad about those things and "i hate myself".
before the line is a really meaningful song to me because i have has disassociation on and off my whole life and now it’s on and this is the longest it’s been on and i feel like that line is being created for me right now and the song makes me feel not alone in it
1:21 and all this time I thought red pushing down on the green was talking about the blush on someones face being stronger than the sickness in their face... well hell
kind of related but in boys like you i misheard the lyric ‘turns out you’re just good at this’ and thought you were singing ‘turns out you’re just going to piss’
sort of like someone was going to lean in to kiss but moved instead to go piss. took me an embarrassing amount of time to release the real lyric
Heh... my impression of Monster was a bit darker. 😅 I definitely thought you were talking about placating with your words so that they wouldn't be a true danger to you and no one be able to listen anymore.
In intertwined, what do you mean by the phrase 'you create a rarity of my genuine smile'? Is it a good thing? Bad thing? I've always wondered
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Random Artist2021-07-13 01:21:55 (edited 2021-07-13 01:24:28 )
I always thought of this as being a darker lyric bc it says “rarity” meaning that she rarely smiles genuinely around this person ,, so the relationship isn’t very healthy. (also I think the song may be a bit about being really really dependent on someone almost to an unhealthy point?) At least that’s what I got from it! :)
i feel guilt about being a fan of somebody's for inadvertently pressuring them w my expectations. having been a long time fan of both you and bo, part of me always thought i should look away bc i'm contributing to a problem. i know it doesn't make sense bc i respect people's boundaries and if an artist is sharing their art they want people to see it, but i still feel the guilt. also i think it's incited me with fear about sharing my art online, i see the negative side affects and worry it's not worth it :-( will i regret not sharing? would i regret sharing? oof idk..
Hate myself always was special to me as I often based my self worth on someone else loving me so “if you go quiet I hate myself” meant that as soon as you stop loving me and giving me attention I stop loving me and that I did something wrong i must have done something wrong other wise you wouldn’t be upset/quiet
Sick of losing soulmates hit hard because i attach so deeply to every person i fall for and even when it goes to shlt I try to put it back together bc "theyre my soulmate" and ive lost to many people already. Eventually that turned into detaching from everyone i get feelings for but yeah, and then When was also a monumental song for me bc i experience DP/DR 24/7 and im constantly cursing myself for not actually experiencing life and instead im stuck in this horrid cycle of day to day life without actually living. Anywayyys thanks for making relatable songs that make me feel understood :D
'Sentences sit in her mouth that are templated' Are you kidding? Somebody thought of that? Correction... YOU thought of that! Damn, that's a wicked line! I fucking love your mind!
Always wondered about "to want to know me/is to ask me to ask you to tell but you won't" from bored like me !! I can't figure it out. In other news does anyone know any similar songs to this ?? I really like the wordsoup with the masquerade ball kind of vibe !!!!!!
Why do i understand every single word you said? ✨ 25 years alive is a scary thing for me, ty for making this age semi-ok . I had a massive panick attack inside the hospital 2 days ago. Everything is foggy ☁️ and blooby dlobi 〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜. I think that we only at the beginning. Life is wonderfully weird, ty for existing - you made my disconnected brain to feel that it's ok to fly high without any control and im not the one to blame. ✨
i always rlly resonate with cool girl, i'm quite a loud and probably annoying person and constantly wish i could be the cool calm and collected person that everyone seems to love, i wish i could just be less dramatic abt everything :///
I took cool girl (for me personally) as that but in terms of my gender. im a trans nonbinary person and it just reminds me like cool girl (my assigned gender) being okay with like i don’t know being misgendered and i’ll be easy and quiet and won’t push people to use my proper pronouns or proper name and it’s not a big deal and it’s so damaging and. ouch
It would be sooo cool if you wrote a movie about song composition ! Like : a band that play some covers for fun together, have a chance to play somewhere cool. The drummer of the band is already in a professionnal band and is like "It's fun but I don't have much time and we only do covers so sorry I don't want to", after some discussion he semi-agreed to participate if there is at least a good original song.
The following would be the main character, you, singer and rythmic guitarist of the band, to write the song. We would see all of the processing, trial and error, inspiration chasing, fun scene of discovery (you know like you could be in an argument with someone and telling someone something cool, immediatly stop and writing it down while humming like no-one was near, or walking in the forest and then having the melody but nothing to record etc), stuff like that.
And for the third act, I saw videos of Neely where he was preparing for a gig and people said it looked like heist movies. This would be fun to see every one trying to find a place for the rehearsal and convincing the drummer, finding a simpler way for the rythme because there isn't anytime for the 11/8 part (but the bassist will eventually play a part of it at the end of the song and everyone smiles at each other for the private joke), good harmonies at the last minutes and all.
You know, a slice of life movie with some different flavor as the movie progress !
Hope my english isn't too much broken, I'm baguette du fromage sooo...
thousands and thousands of eyes just like mine, aching to find who they are. always wondered where the emphasis was. as in them finding themselves or you finding who they are?
My name's Sophia, circa 2015 (my first year of hs). My name beforehand was Sophie, and my line is quite literally drawn by what people call me. I was a sad kid, but the world was still vibrant in its horror. Now, its beige and grey.
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n. pitzer2021-07-15 16:51:44 (edited 2021-07-15 16:53:33 )
when she didn't answer my question about guiltless... honestly yes good for you babe
Right now cool girl and all my daughters really been speaking to me because I've been trying to be more relaxed and cool and not bother people because lately I felt like a push people away by being too inquisitive or talking too much and even though it's not something that anyone really said to me after reading a bunch of things wondering why I have trouble in a specific area I've been trying to just be more relaxed but it's made me incredibly lonely. I do think I have a history of people pleasing or maybe changing a little to suit people and I'm trying not to do that and being scared to open up to new people now it's just been exhausting. And when Dodie said " a you bad things" I feel bad too because I've been looking back on my past and little mistakes that I made here and there that led to embarrassment and hurt feelings and things I wish I could do over knowing better and that's been really hard for me but also all the childhood trauma that I faced and how I grew up it's really hard not to shut down after all that happened and I tried to keep going and I try to be a bright person and make people feel Joy but then people don't open themselves up to that Joy so I start to feel even more closed off and it's just this endless cycle of trying to do the right thing and trying to be friendly and good and positive and getting shut down.
One thing that I don’t even know if it was intentional but adds so many layers is that at the end of She it sounds like you sing “She... he... means everything to me.” So it makes me think maybe the narrator rewrites the narrative at the last moment, crossing out she to replace with he out of shame or maybe she moved on or maybe the person saying the final he is the she the narrator has been singing about
<3 queerbbby from ig here. I gave that prompt for „a dark politician might end up alone. I appreciate that you put your response in even tho you didn’t elaborate on it :) 💓
I know we should speculate, but…I think dodie is human and perfectly flawed. She wouldn’t be able to make such magical relatable music if she wasn’t living life, making mistakes, feeling pain, feeling joy and happiness. Most of my favorite songs, the ones that really dig into me, are the really dark sad ones because my darkness recognizes like and is comforted that it isn’t alone. I don’t need more details than that
As someone who spent of lot of life so frustrated that I didn’t get crush’s and thought I was broken this always stung - I wanted so desperately to fall in love
Not necessarily a lyric question, but did you have a particular visual or scene in mind for “Instrumental”? I love that song so much, it reminds me of a mix of the opening from “Over the Garden Wall” and the instrumental bit from Waitress “Pomatter Pie” but with fairies? I don’t know I was just curious because it feels very much like something that would be in like a play. Side note: Just a huge thank you for all of your incredible music! You give words and sound to feelings that sometimes feel otherwise unspeakable or unheard of. Listening to your work through the pandemic has been so uplifting and helpful, and after watching this there’s honestly new dimension to quite a few of my favorites. “All My Daughters” is one that I deeply identified with, especially the line “but I’m screaming underwater” it’s just amazing! Also it makes me so happy to see you be firm and happy in your boundaries. I started listening to your music when I was fifteen, and I loved when you would make videos about your life because it made me feel validated in what I felt as a young woman, but as I’ve grown I see how important it is in your own life to remember it is your life. You have no obligation to share Your world with The world, and your music is a privilege to peak into the depths of emotions we all share, but they started as yours. Anyway, thank you so so much for your music, your words, and for just being you! I hope you feel better soon!
but well, "a dark polititian will end up alone", to me, is about how someone is wielding what leverage they have over you emotionally against you and how you promise yourself to leave them over it as soon as you´re able to, for the damage they´ve done, no matter how lonely they´ll end up without you, since thy have brought this upon themselves.
REALLLYYYY curious about "you all plead and demand, all your needs but you can't, he'll be asked till he's bored, I would know, I've been bored before" from cool girl :))))
I don't know how to describe this but like-- is dodie getting more saturated??? Like she's still the soft under the covers nighttime toned dodie but just more color?
I promise you It will all make sense again Is a lyric of yours that completely changed my life. The night I found your music I hadnt left the house at all in two years was in a really dark place staying up all night sleeping all day not eating, hadnt taken care of myself at all had a lit of input from services but that was all same old same old "your own fault" or if not mine my families. Quite frankly I wanted to leave the world, nobody understood me I had just been diagnosed as autism something which at the time I seen as a terrible thing as the only autism I'd ever seen was ya know rainman and I thought I was then that persona of autism. I searched and searched for music or something to describe what i was feeling then i found you, I would easily say you saved me. To see someone else struggle was a real eye opener, I didnt get better myself I was sectioned in a traumatic way, only after not eating for 20 odd days, and in a psych ward for 6 months. I introduced my best friend to your music and I left the psych ward in october 2018. It took a long time to bring myself back to life but slowly buy surely I got there, i started a ASN school in feb 2019, celebrated my 17th birthday on march 1st and march 15th seen you live, my birthday present from my best friend, I cried during secret for the mad and 6/10 remembering how far I'd come and knowing how hard it must've been for you to even imagine those lyrics. Since 2018 I have met a lot of people who struggle with their own mental health and in their moments of need I use that line so please.. you might not see it now but it really does get better things will make sense again the broken jigsaw that is your life will be a whole again it takes time to heal and it takes courage but you can get through this and one day you will be the one saying I promise this gets better, I promise it will all make sense again 💖
Here's my interpretation: "Eating your words" means regretting what you've said and wishing you could take it back. If the things you've said are particularly bitter, you literally don't want to eat them because they won't taste good, and it would feel better to get them out and direct them at the other person and not regret it, and just go full monster in their eyes.
hate myself is sort of about social anxiety for me. constantly worrying about saying or doing something wrong, thinking I'm insane for feeling like this, and when I fuck up the conversation, or talking with people, they go quiet and I hate myself
to me, it feels like lying (even to yourself, in something so private and personal as a diary) about how you’re doing and feeling (like feeling so unable to face your reality that you’re trying to fake a different one to cope)
I hate when artists say decide your own meaning. Most of the time I have no clue what a song is supposed to be about because artists use all these random metaphors and I have no context, so just tell me what it’s supposed to be about so it can actually mean something and not just be pretty sounds and a jumble of words
It’s like ! In a drunken night you’re like oh do whatever you want with me like someone tell me what to do Take me home and bathe me because I clearly can’t look after myself
And then I’ll forget you are are gone is just like a route thought in thay
@doddlevloggle "Do me a favour, can your heart rate rise a little" from "would you be so kind". I thought it was "Do me a favour,can your heart re-write a little" I made a TikTok you commented on. hi.I love you
Looooove your Genius &glorious Music humor divine expression 🙏 Not talking about my taste in women 💪❤️ UR a gift to Allofus😍🎶💞🗽💞💎💯🎉 Thank U for sharing from the heart 💞Love U☀️
rolling your eyes to to backs of your heads surely you know to close them instead. I thought it meant close them as in when you kiss someone you should close your eyes!
what “am i missing something vital here?” in don’t quite belong means?
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Maria Ysart2021-07-12 23:30:33 (edited 2021-07-12 23:35:16 )
oh jeez i relate to special girl far too much...and cool girl...(so many girls) and human...and sorry...and hate myself... maybe I should go back to therapy
NO I GENUINELY DON'T KNOW WHAT "MY SUGA GOT AN EGGY BUM" MEANS AND IDK IF YOU'RE TEASING OR NOT??? is it like...about farts or somethin? please. I need to know what I'm randomly singing around the house
not her obviously, but i think it means something along the lines of "having this crush on you is making me short of breath, and if you could feel that, you could feel how serious i am about you, and how good it is to care about someone"
tw: s*icide mention From ‘Sorry’ ‘Let me go back/show me the eyes/so I’d really know/just what it looks like/there was the end/I couldn’t find/found too late (and then all of the next bit which is just cinematic I can hear colours when I listen to that) right so maybe I have a dark mind or maybe i mould words to fit what I need them to say but I interpreted this as someone facing their family after a s*oxide attempt. Seeing their eyes, seeing there was hope all along. The end (to their pain) they couldn’t find, they found it too late having done something they now deeply regret. Then it goes into ‘didn’t want to believe such a monster in me’ and on and on and it fits so well like that self hatred afterwards, the shame, the guilt. And then the beautiful strings coming in at the end like, I’m alive I’m alive I’m alive oh thank god and I am so sorry and I am feeling so ashamed but simultaneously grateful yeah so that’s why I sob uncontrollably at it
also I have a line from Ready Now tattooed ‘a promise of hope is enough to feel free’ In my darkest moments, even though it would anger me so much I always have this little sticky bit of hope that prevents me from disaster. I am naturally optimistic, possibly a little doe eyed and sheltered, but I have unwavering hope and as long as it’s there I can get through anything A promise of hope is enough to feel free!
cw/sexual & physical abuse, (please dont read if you think these topics will do you more harm than good to read about !! go stream build a problem instead!!). but for me, cool girl is about the sexual exploitation ive been through / am going through. "i carry the time we don't talk in a backpack", when i tried to ignore/not respond to men who were hurting me, it weighed down on me sometimes, partly because i'd get punished later for not doing what i was supposed to. "leave it on the side with the nights you didnt call me back," but when i had times when i wasn't being demanded to do things, or getting threatened, it was a weight off. "& all the ideas & the hope i'd never ask him for, i'll throw them away, its okay, without a second thought," sometimes when i was younger & the adults who were there & paying attention to me & saying they were proud of me, were the ones who would also force me into sex. i had to put up those boundaries in my head as to not get attached, not build hope on these people who only want me for my body, even though it would be easy to lean into the comfort of them acting like they care. ...(skipped a bit), "rolling your eyes to the backs of your heads, surely you know to close them instead," when i was being abused by multiple men in a night, or very intense sexual things happening non-consentually, it was really intense pain. i felt like i couldnt exist inside my brain. pain so bad to make your eyes roll back. but no, instead, i'd try to close my eyes & wait for it to stop & think of a person who i knew would save me if she could. 🌿 "cool girl, i'll be different, i'll be quiet, i'll be easy." i wasnt very good at obeying orders & doing what men demanded of me. & i told myself, i gotta get better at this, at doing what they say, i'll be different. & quiet & easy like they want me to be. "how much of a tongue can i bite until they notice blood, just spit to the left, carry on, just smile & say ur good." it didnt matter if i was bleeding or in pain, it carried on anyway, so it was easier emotionally for me to act like i was okay, than to beg for it to stop cos of the pain & not be listened to. & specifically spitting to the left, reminded me of my very particular ways i deal with it. "you all plead & demand all your needs but you can't help be asked til he's bored." people demanding me things & hurting me & physically abusing me sorta cos it was something to do. "chill out if its late, or every heavy sigh will seal her fate," had to some how make my body chill out & be okay with the fact that sexual things were happening to me & i didnt want them to. the more i'd heavy sigh, the more forced & hurt i'd get. (gonna stop there ,, but for me the song is about tryna be a "cool girl" cos i was taught that i was good & they were proud of me if i let them use me & stayed still & quiet about the abuse, & i kinda felt like that was the right thing to do).
were you surprised by any lyric meaning something different to what you thought? is there one i missed? lemme knooooo :D x
2673 likesReplies (139)
“what in the world do we have a quarter to four” is different for me because at that hour in the afternoon I find myself bored and sad because my mind wanders to a person I love(d) and I wonder what we have anymore 🙃
185 likesStill curious about a dark politician 😪
197 likesIt hurts so much how short how Air So Sweet is so short yet so soothing to hear in the album!! Love u dodes pls get weell! 💕
57 likesSome of them I think I understood but it was nice to hear you explain it when I couldn't fully? If that makes any sense at all lol
56 likesI always thought cool girl was about having a crush but now that I know what it's actually about it's so so much better
31 likes'red pushing down on the green' !! I thought that was the love/crush making you hide the fact that you 'feel sick' in the previous line!!!!
139 likes@Martha Godivala i think i wrote it like - politicians always change their answers to suit them and leave you feeling gaslit!
381 likes@Joannu OH SICKK kind of love that
252 likesSurprised isn't exactly the word. I love what you do with your music. It's all abou exploring feelings like you said, and that's how it can be so relatable but for each person it comes in different contexts. I'm very grateful for your music, and you. I'm also proud to see how you've been improving on the arts of not oversharing when it's so easy to do so in social media. Thank you for the breakdown of the lyrics luv.
26 likesI think the "all my daughters" one was the one I hadn't been able to understand. Now I get it and I love it. If I could say something, I would tellyou to just encourage and remember your younger fans that it's their own path in life. You are you and we are we. We can all learn and relate to anyone, but we still have to explore our own essence.
Always wondered what ‘it’s not my fault, I was raised by open mouths and teary eyes’ meant in special girl - I love the fire of that song so much!!
88 likesi thought the promise was "it will all make sense again"
31 likeshi dodie! this one might be too personal to explain, but I was always curious about “toe a line between sexy and sick” from in the bed.
15 likes@Joannu dude i thought the exact same!!
5 likes@Yasmin my parents were both depressed and anxious when they raised me and it affected me! (my mum's doing so much better now! she went through like a reckoning lol it's been wonderful to see)
190 likesgenuinely so suprised If im Being Honest is about a crush lol I always interpreted it as battleing mental health and wanting to get better but just feeling defenceless
48 likesI thought carry the time we don’t talk in a backpack from cool girl meant specifically carrying those times where you wanted to talk to your partner but they chose to ignore you, lie to you, etc. but you chose to just carry that instead of open the backpack because you didn’t want to disrupt and be called a “psycho partner” 😂 I do think it’s similar to what you were saying but I love that line nonetheless ❤️
26 likesI always wanted to know the meaning behind 'Oh, I think I was doomed before I began' My favorite lyrics of yours. I relate to it so much but i can't pinpoint exactly why.
17 likes“I look idiotic with my limbs all knotted” - I thought it was like when you cross your fingers for luck 😂
37 likesI was always a bot confused on the line in Would You Be So Kind, "lets swap chests today, that might help you decide."
9 likesalso on "i carry the time we don't talk in a backpack" i interpreted it like holding precious a relationship you have with someone and all they've taught you after not talking to them for a while. So like, they're always present with you in the backpack even if they're not there with you at the present time
16 likesI thought that the promise was the same as the one in Secret For The Mad 👻
10 likesI think about lettuce?! 😂
27 likes@A D I think maybe that line means take on my anxiety about the situation? I’m not sure either haha 😊
4 likesI love the meaning behind the title “before the line”. It makes be love the song even more than I already did!
6 likesSpecial girl always makes me think of this poem think and it starts with “we are the girls with anxiety disorders …” and there’s a line in there that says something to the effect pf we are the daughters of feminists that raised us saying you can be anything and we heard you have to be everything. I’ll just the idea that you walk around having to prove that you’re special and worthy resonates with me rn
8 likesI always wondered what the lines
6 likes" I'd love to watch you gasp
You'd understand in minutes
And I'd like to think you'd miss it
'Cause so would I"
Meant in rainbow
@DT_BIRDING 🐇🐰
2 likes@Yasmin I might be wrong but my interpretation of it was that she was praised a for everything as a child and now hasn't really got any critical thinking skills i.e. she can't distinguish between good and bad ideas (at least romantically?) so she doesn't really know how to show love/appreciation in an appropriate/correct(?) way. Edit: lol Dodie replied, i was way off but it's cool that different people can have totally different interpretations haha
12 likeswhat about "toe a line between sexy and sick" in In The Bed? sorry if u have already done this and i missed it!
2 likes@A D i always thought that meant that they’d be swapping hearts and the love interest would feel how much dodie likes them with heart flutters and stuff
10 likesIve always wanted to know what
5 likes"a grey haired circle waiting till the end" is AND
The song four tequilas down is soll intriguing to me. The "she'll never know" IS THE NARRATOR FEELING GUILTY OR HAPPY SHE WILL GET AWAY WITH IT
I’ve wondered if there was more meaning behind “I’ve pinned each and every hope on you, I hope that you don’t bleed with me” than initially presented?
3 likes@avrilsakura05 I WAS WORRIED ABOUT THIS ONE TOO bc people were connecting it to secret for the mad and I was like omg wait did it mean that promise?? 😭😭
6 likesi always grouped ‘all my daughters’ together with ‘burned out’ because it feels like that shared idea of feeling an audience that idealizes you and loves you so much, but it can sometimes feel undeserved
17 likesI really love bite back - to me it feels like trying to help a friend who’s drowning out their sorrow with unhealthy coping mechanisms - while they dismiss you. The “my dear” feels so delicate because in my mind it’s met with disregard.
9 likesi also think ‘human’ feels like a continuation of ‘intertwined.’ intertwined was the idea of falling in love while in a bad mental space, and i think human feels like that person actually going through with it. even if they don’t realize it.
6 likesThe one specifically that surprised me kinda was "I'm walking if it doesn't sting" because I always took it like "I'm [still] walking if it doesn't sting" instead "I'm walking [away]-"
11 likesSo instead of it being like "I'll leave if the thing doesn't hurt," it's like the ~thing~ causes a dull pain but hey it doesn't sting (like a sharper pain you can't ignore) so I'll keep walking, or it'll hurt later and hey yeah maybe I KNOW it'll sting later but fuck it I'm going to keep walking until it makes me stop.
Like ~metaphorically~ spraining your ankle and pretending it doesn't hurt so you don't have to admit you need to slow down/stop the thing and you can just keep walking like it's fine? If that makes sense??
(sorry to ramble lol)
Red pushing down on the green made me think of when you're driving and it suddenly turns red at a traffic light, like when you have a crush and you're like going as if the traffic light is green and suddenly you realize oh CRAP is it all in my head?! and it feels like you hit the brakes hard.
9 likesI don't know if you specifically meant "how can I be proud of what a million people shout to me I'm not" to talk about bi erasure but as a bi woman dating a cis man I've been told so many times that "I'm basically straight" that it instantly had that specific meaning to me, as in that "should I really participate in pride/be vocal about being queer when I'm actually passing as straight?" kind of self-doubt. But that song gives me so much strength so thanks for making it
6 likescan you put freckles & constellations and also adored by him on spotify
0 likes“ So please step inside my soul
4 likesI'd love to watch you gasp
You'd understand in minutes
And I'd like to think you'd miss it
'Cause so would I” in rainbow. everything else in rainbow feels like we’re sharing a secret, but that part i can’t figure out
@Nashiha Ahmed Yes I also associated it with traffic lights and that idea of trying something with that person you like vs your head telling you to stop (the red light) like it made a ton of sense to me but I liked her explanation a lot
3 likes@Luna Lovegood no that works!
13 likes@A D I always interpreted that as saying " if you knew how i felt, you might make a different decision"
2 likes@val barquero i have always interpreted that as- dodie wants them, they don’t want dodie, so “let’s swap chests” like- i’ll have your heart and change it to make you want me, and you can take my heart which wants you and we’ll both like each other :)
4 likes@Sophia Rojas i think that part is like her talking to the people who’ve made her feel so negatively about her sexuality, and if they could see her soul the way she sees it, they wouldn’t be so hateful about it anymore and they might actually miss that part of her if it wasn’t there anymore!!
4 likesI forgot to ask about “chill out if it’s late, or every heavy sigh will seal a fate” darn opportunity missed
3 likes@A D For me, it felt like she was referring to how fast her heart was beating compared to the crushes heart cause she likes them.
2 likesall my doughters , i thought it was about like , the person you are to different people, like you may like this version of me but you dont entirely know me?? idk if it makes sense , also srry for my broken english
2 likes@AmyLouise the grey haired circle line is explained in her sick of losing soulmates tutorial from a couple years ago!! :) she talks about the whole song it’s really cool
3 likesi always felt like "what in the world do we have at a quarter to four" was like losing track of time and not caring about whatever you're suppossed to be doing in your daily routine bc you're too hooked on what you're doing. also "disconnected but beautifully raw" made me think of how you're disconnected from the person you're thinking about but you're still doing a "beautifully raw" thing hehe
2 likesthe promise lyric in before the line connecting to secret for the mad is even cooler knowing it wasn’t on purpose!
2 likesnot surprised, but special girl means SO much to me and it’s my favorite song on the album (and maybe from your whole discography, along with when) so thank u for writing it :)
1 likeNot exactly from this video, but when you first explained the lyrics to human, the lyric "you'll for so nicely, you'll keep me intact". I always read it more in a "I have been hurt before, and now I have these cracks, but you won't hurt me, you'll be comfortable and warm" than how you described it, which was more along the lines of "I have been hurt before, and I have these cracks, but it's okay because you'll be the glue that will hold me together". I always read it more like one person saying to the other "I trust you, you won't hurt me" and not "I trust you, you will keep me from breaking apart"
1 likeAnyway, I have been your fan for 4 years now, you sharing your experiences helped me realize I am bi, and that sometimes I disassociate. Thanks for that
the only thing i was surprised by was how it felt like you were in my head when you wrote build a problem lmao
2 likes@avrilsakura05 shit that is so good
0 likesThere is a wall in my life built by you
4 likesYou opened a door that a kid shouldn't walk through - guiltless
This song has always resonated with me and I can never pin point why
@Sophia Rojas it’s like… all the pain is worth it and you still wouldn’t give up being lgbt despite all the negatives? Like the whole song she sings about being different and isolated and longing but like begrudgingly at first maybe she still loves that little bi part of her like it’s caused pain but she still loves it
4 likesAnd she’d love for someone homophobic or straight to step inside her soul and feel that little part thats bi because it’s so powerful and wonderful they’d understand why she identified as bi so clearly and they would miss it if they then lost that part
and so would she
@A D one of the other lines in the song ‘how are your lungs/are they in pain/cause mine are aching’ when you have a crush on someone it physically hurts! Like your heart hurts or as dodie says her lungs are aching it’s just so much longing that it actually hurts lol so she’s asking can you swap chests can you just experience all this unrequited love I feel like once you feel all the love I feel maybe it would help you make the decision to date me
1 likeLol I thought the "whirring machine" was referencing a vibrator HAHA
11 likesOne of my favourites lyrics ever is "I was raised by open mouths and teary eyes
3 likesPassive wistful lullabies" just!!!! Amazing!!!! And I think I understand but if you want to elaborate on that? When I first heard it it was like a punch to the gut
i experience derealization and maladaptive daydreaming, and when you started talking about before the line, specifically when you broke down the idea of there being a line between where you started experiencing derealization verses before, i started tearing up. because that’s the first time i’ve ever heard someone else explain how it feels. and when you talked about grasping at the strings? that really got to me. that song already meant a lot to me, but now it just hits so close to home. thank you.
1 like"I used to smile at every star and thank the sky", Before the line
0 likesor "I opened the door that a kid shouldn't walk through" Guiltless
@Adeana Baer sameeee I thought the same thing but it makes more sense and I still relate to it ahaha
1 likei love bored like me and the line where you say "and talk like we've been married for 40 years" and then "and not talk like we're married fifty years", i think is very clever. i have always think you say it in a way of "i would love to have the amount of trust in each other as if we have been together for years but at the same time i want to be excited about you like i was when we first met. is that the meaning behind those two lines or is another thing? <3 also hate myself is probably the song i relate to the most in the whole world so i was so happy to hear you talk about it! everything you said was like "omg that's me" fff it was really funny
4 likesI love all my daughters, though I always felt the "mother/father" role less like parental ( cuz I'm a teen) and more like family and peers and always feeling like I have to take care if everyone and always be there even when I'm broken myself. Like a broken glue bottle. All of the glue leaks out.
0 likes@avrilsakura05 no stop it why would u say that ouch😭
0 likesI always thought of all my daughters being about you feeling responsible for the care of your younger selves, like knowing you’re unable to shield them from the pain that will inevitably reach them
1 likeWhy will the stereotypes gonna help me get through this one night?
2 likesthey were just like i imagine and more!
1 likeI was really specting "ill find your secrets that youre secrets havent found" its like my favorite favorite one :(
0 likes@doddlevloggle WOWW I very much heard that as pornographic…or just being sexualized in an emotional/vulnerable state
0 likesI thought red pushing down on the green was more of like a stoplight metaphor. You’re really wanting to go forward in the relationship snd continue with that idea (green light) but something is making you feel like you need to stop (red light) aka overwhelming anxiety or something to that extent so the red is pushing down on that green
0 likes@Adeana Baer me too
0 likesI always really like the lyrics "you opened a door a kid shouldnt walk through" "I'll carry your burden, till the day that you die" and "no use at getting angry at the way that you're wired" in guiltless. I love the entire song but those speak to me a lot so, thank you for being vulnerable so I can be vulnerable 😊
5 likes@Martha Godivala I’ve always interpreted that to mean someone who’s manipulative and calculated
1 like@isabelbm the first part of the verse is about people not believing she’s bi, so she’s saying to them if you could feel how I feel, you’d understand how real it is. And it’s a beautiful thing to have the potential to love anyone, so anyone who experiences that feeling might miss it if it was gone :)
1 like@Joannu lol I had a slightly grosser idea--that the red is anxiety and the green is vom 😬
1 like@Lavender Del Real Yep I brooookeee down after listening to Guiltless for the first time, fuck me it hit so deep, showed it to my psych
1 likeThe whole of Special Girl made me immediately think of the Enneagram type 4, I've been learning about the enneagram all this year and these lyrics were so clearly illustrative of the 4 who literally 'tries to prove their self-worth by being special and unique"
1 likeI always thought ‘red pushing down on the green’ meant some contrast between being embarrassed and feeling sick which both occur during a crush I guess
1 likeI always pictured "If I'm being honest" as me talking to the younger version of myself (or smth) idk why :/
0 likesI always thought the promise you broke was in reference to secret for the mad where you promise "it'll all make sense again" and I was surprised it wasn't lol
1 likeSo clever Dodie! Thanks for doing this !
0 likesWhat does « chill out if it’s late or every heavy sigh will seal a fate » mean ?
So clever Dodie! Thanks for doing this !
0 likesWhat does « chill out if it’s late or every heavy sigh will seal a fate » mean ?
in cool girl "rolling your eyes to the back of you heads surely you know to close them instead". i always thought this was about everyone else (like friends) being so annoyed and rolling their eyes bc youre trying so hard to be cool and different for this guy but you are saying surely you can just close your eyes and "look away" rather than making a fuss like ohh here we go again she has one of those crushes again ehh
0 likes@avrilsakura05 whoa cool connection I love that
0 likes@Anna Hags SAMEE
0 likesWhat is "You waited smiling for this" about? I always thought the song was just about being overworked and wanting to quit, so I wanted to know who this other person is, are they causing the person's pain or just enjoying it and why?
1 like@Gabriel Kamiesz pretty much all of guiltless is addressing parental trauma iirc. Opening the door to adulthood and other problems at such a young age as a result of fighting, yelling, etc.
1 like@Holly Gardiner did your parents bicker a lot? or some trauma/maybe bad coping habit someone introduced you to? it resonates w me because of my parents divorce at such a young age
0 likes@isabelbm i think it’s referring to the line beforehand imploring people who deny or erase bisexuality to “step inside [her] soul” and realise that she actually is attracted to who she says she is, and once they leave they’d miss it. Kind of a little hopeful twist on the song as she talks about all the cons of her sexuality during the verses but then says she’d miss it if it was gone which is quite lovely. hope that helped! :))
2 likes@doddlevloggle totally get that, made me think of those in our lives that scheme and manipulate like politicians and that those actions always come out leaving them alone in the mess they made
2 likes@Lauren Carver that's such a good interpretation
0 likes@Professor Quinsonsnib me too and I love them both!
0 likes@Arwyn Hager I think it's for when your partner's come home late without letting you know, you should just chill out to be a cool girl because if you sigh and make a big deal of it they will leave you
2 likesidk why but i always thought of monster as specifically a post breakup song but u described it more generally and now i can relate to it so much more strongly (from the perspective of finally standing up to a toxic / abusive family member). like i didnt even realize it could apply to that
2 likesi know this is probably not how you meant it, but as an aromantic person i always imagined human to be about someone longing for the ideal of romance but not necessarily enjoying the actual thing, the repetition of "i'm so human" makes me feel like they feel as though loving someone else is what makes them human, so they have to, even if they don't enjoy it, and the way the song borrows from the minor key whenever the line is said makes it feel this way too, because it's a darker sound. this is probably just me projecting though :P. what does the line "i'm so human" actually mean?
1 like@glitterwitch omg omg omg !!!! i’m also aro and YES i interpret it so similarly, pretty sure that song is literally on my aro playlist lol
1 likeMostly surprised by how much I had understood (I am a 72 year old man, so that just shows the power of well crafted songs to communicate across genders and generations). Thought the whirring machine was a vibrator, though :-) Looking forward to coming with my partner to hear you in London in September. I guess we will be among the oldest people there.
3 likesI’m talking to my younger self! She wanted this and was excited about it but it hurtssas
11 likes@doddlevloggle ohhhh my gosh, I seeee! You and you're music are so clever!
2 likes@justyourlocalrat_ omg yes thats so cool
0 likesDodie, I actually wanted to know what "superglued human of proof" meant. I hope you get better soon~
0 likes@Adeana Baer I always thought it was about puberty tbh
0 likesin special girl i had it in my head that "talk and tap to find a crack, prise open till my nails turn black" was referring to yourself, like that urge when your in a bad place to find flaws and bad things within yourself and make them as big as they possibly can be, so that you get that pity or support from people and they reaffirm what you're thinking; that you're such a special, unique little snowflake with all your problems
3 likesAt first I thought "if I'm being honest" was about a crush but then I thought it was a way of asking your younger self if they would love you for the way you turned out and reassuring yourself the path you took is okay and that it isn't that bad at all
0 likesIn Before the Line, I think the beauty of the promise is that everyone’s self promise can be different, but the feeling of breaking it is universal.
2 likesThank you dodie, for being vulnerable for us
2 likesLove these! Pas De Deux has been one of my favorite songs of yours for a while, can you talk about what inspired that song? Also do you think you'll ever record that one professionally/put it on Spotify?
1 likei thought rainbow was about being nerodivergent
1 likeI perceive the line “I am not cartoon” like this: you know when cartoon characters get hurt constantly but always seem to be fine? Always survive, bruises and bumps leaving when the camera cuts and comes back five seconds after. I feel like saying, “I am not cartoon,” basically states that I may withstand some damage, but in the end, I’ll always break. I’m-not-as-strong-as-a-cartoon-character kind of thing, yk?
3 likesPLEASE DODIE PLEASE WHAT'S "I KNEW YOU ONCE" ABOUT like what kind of a relationship? I've applied it to so many situations and had so many different "you" people but I always always wonder what it's about. My tippy top favourite song of yours. Also..... BLESS YOU FFS
1 like@A D I always assumed that it meant "if we swap chests, you'll know how in love i am with you (because that's an emotion often felt a lot in your chest) and that might make it easier for you to decide to date me because you'll get a taste of what it feels like"
1 like@A D I always thought it meant lets swap chests as in if you feel the feelings I feel then maybe you'll fall in love
2 likes@AmyLouise I see it as its her group of friends all growing old together until thy die
1 like"Once I saw fire and all I know is something happened-- did I let it go?" grrrahhra that lyric is so cool and i want to know ur reasoning behind that lyric :D I imagine you're watching a building burn or something and you don't actually realize it's burning its just kinda happening like it isn't connecting for some reason
1 likeon the color spectrum the opposite of red is green. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but the oppositional energy/force that was captured by this line added a whole lot :)
0 likes@Eleanor Lamb I think that line is about fans at meet-and-greets
0 likesI was a bit surprised by Hate Myself being specifically about being around people who won't open up! when I sing it to myself, it feels like such an accurate expression of how I can spiral into anxious overthinking and assuming people are mad at me when they're just quiet or there's a lull in conversation.
1 likeI'm working on calming that anxious voice, though 💜 she just wants to keep me safe, but she works too hard sometimes! as an autistic enby transfemme from suburban Texas, I grew up pretty much constantly confused why everyone else seemed to have read a manual & gone to an orientation on "how to be 'Normal' (terrible)" that I had missed entirely 🙃 thank you for songs like Rainbow that feel as if my own heart wrote them, and help me feel less alone and alien 🌈❤️🩹 your art makes such a difference
what does “you saw my number and my number wasn’t good enough” mean?
0 likesi was surprised by "it seeps through her cracks and so i start to choke" because at first i had absolutely no idea what the lyric meant but now i think it really makes sense
0 likesI was definitely surprised by Hate Myself! I’ve always listened to it through the ears of someone who has social anxiety, dreading conversations where the other person “goes quiet” because then I feel as though I’ve done something wrong in not keeping the conversation going. It was definitely interesting to see the different perspective that you wrote the song in and meant for it to be perceived as :)
1 like@Chael Rose this is EXACTLY how I perceived Hate Myself too!! I get anxious in social situations & overthink a lot as well 😬😌
1 likeI thought the „something“ in „something in me says that this is okay“ was the tequila 😂
0 likesAll the lyrics were exactly what I thought, I always feel like they're very straight-forward but on point. Before the line is my favourite, it broke me
0 likes@isabelbm for me I picture someone walking around and being able to see inside my brain. And they gasp when they see the fact that I'm rainbow ( lgbtq) but now that they can see inside, they can actually understand. The narrorator like to think that it helped, and that you would miss thier brain at the end because so would the narrorater.
0 likespaha this was so funny having my suspicions of your lyrics confirmed. Love them and u!!
0 likesi understood red pushing down on the green as anger (red) overpowering jealousy/envy (green). love ur explanation tho!!
1 likewhen i was in seventh grade me and my newly found best friend were sitting on the front desk waiting to get our graded papers handed to us. we were incredibly nervous so i suggested that we both cross our index finger and middle finger for good luck but that didn't calm us down so we both crossed all the fingers of both of our hands that weren't crossed and we crossed our toes too ( sounds so stupid omg) ,it was so comforting because no one but us could see that we both had our toes crossed, silently praying to get good grades and laughing at our own stupid selves because we knew that wasn't going to do anything and the "i look idiotic with my limbs all knotted it don't feel right" reminds me of that moment, we were so incredibly just happy and ourselves back then and i don't know if i will ever feel like that again so that lyric holds so much importance and happiness for me. i haven't felt like i did back then in a while. i love your music Dodie, thank you.
1 likei've always been confused about "cause we both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin"
0 likes"We won't eat our words, they don't taste so good" from Monster was a lyric I have always wondered about!
0 likesAlso, Human is one of my top favorite songs of yours! Human reminds me of falling in love with someone, and being vulnerable in front of them for the first time. Its Beautiful!
0 likes@Cael Jameson I actually think she doesn’t really like that one!
0 likes“ I have a question. It might seem strange. How are your lungs? Are they in pain?” ~Would you be so kind
0 likesDodie could you please consider doing a cover of Love Everybodys gotta live
0 likesi’ve always wondered about “don’t say it’s genetic” from guiltless. it has such a particular meaning for me and i’m so curious as to what it originally meant
0 likesjp
0 likes@tobefrankie I think it means, that he says the way he act towards her is genetic so he can't do anything about it, like he was born to be a person like this (in the same way some people say, that alcoholism or stuff like that would be genetic, because the children of people who have it, often get it aswell, when it's just a way to escape your feelings and as a child of someone with alcoholism you might haven't learned other ways that work for you, so you end up like your parents). She blames him for what he did and says that he can't just give the blame away because he was the one who did it. If that makes sense to you
0 likesIn the song “the flat’s a mess” I’d like to know the meaning behind the line “I borrowed your toothbrush the other day”
2603 likesReplies (15)
D:
34 likes😂
10 likesLMAO😂😂😂 poor Evan
16 likesit means you need to get a new toothbrush evan
148 likesHoly shit what a throwback
50 likesLol
115 likesLMFAO NOOOOO
5 likes... THE FLATS A MESS AND SO ARE WE
19 likesIt's amazing when evan leaves a comment
11 likes@Jkcatsmeow LMAO
0 likesAHAHAHA
0 likesThat’s not something you borrow!
1 likeAhh the fact that I found this so funny
2 likesAHAHAH
1 like#dodieiscanceled2k21
0 likesdodie said “i’ll make my own genius interview” and i stan
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She did two though. She explained party tattoos and human. Those videos are so satisfying she really breaks down almost every metaphor
82 likesshe also did intertwined!
12 likesA better interview than ‘flossin’ will ever be
7 likesI believe Captain Sparlez did it too - like, factually actually... 😂
0 likes@ZaraTheSheep how dare you
2 likesdodie's hair is sooo beautiful. whichever length, she always makes it work
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she’s literally my celebrity crush
28 likesIndeed
2 likesi love the shift from rlly desaturated videos to rlly warm ones like this. it just makes everything feel so cozy :))
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i actually lit this video lol i should just try more
424 likesthank u :') ♥
YES i'm watching at 3am cuz i can't sleep and... let me tell u, it's the perfect thing to watch at 3am
11 likes@doddlevloggle omg yes please! This vibe is so so lovely. And I feel validated cause I guessed a lot of these meanings myself lmao
9 likesI know you skipped it, but the lyric “a dark politician will end up alone” is one of my favorites, so I wanted to say what it means to me. Someone who twists words and scenarios and does everything with the intent of getting something in return, at the end of the day, has no one. They spend time lying and bargaining and it amounts to nothing, never knowing love.
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Yesssss 100% agree with this. Just like all the manipulative mean girls in movies who end up isolated at the end because of their actions
7 likesI see you've met my mom
1 likei’ve always felt that “when you go quiet, i hate myself” was a representation of the overthinking and self deprecating thoughts that come to play when you’re beside someone that doesn’t seem to give you what you need or talk to you and let you in; therefore, causing you to overthink and feel as though you’re the problem. it brings out a feeling of self blame and unworthiness, incapable of being the person someone you love could confide in since they are just beside you dealing with their issues but not letting you in and leaving you detached from the narrative in a way
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I completely agree!
1 likeYes! I have felt this a lot. You put it so well wow
0 likesThe lyric “I’ll never be sixteen again” in “When” made me WEEP. I understand that you probably wrote that lyric when you were wishing to relive one of the best years of your life (possibly???, I could be very wrong sorry), but for me hearing that lyric now that I’m seventeen made me realise how much I missed out on when I was sixteen. I fell out with close friends, plummeted into a really bad mental state, and I just felt so lonely all the time, obviously this was all happening during the pandemic (and i got the virus in winter wuhay I guess we’re twinning, Dodie lmao). I feel so dumb writing this cause I know it could’ve been so much worse, but I just feel like I missed out on what was supposed to be one of the best years of my life. Hopefully the rest of the year is gonna be a bit more exciting than last.
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That line is so bitterly ironic to me when I sing it because sixteen was one of the worst years of my life and also one of the most spacey
44 likesYup, 16 for me was taken by the pandemic so that line hits different now
13 likesI'm a few years past sixteen, and I can tell you that there's no timeline for any teenage experiences. Your "sixteen" could be this year, or maybe it'll be a few years of your life. Sometimes we get the rough parts first, then the time of our lives follows. No matter the age, you never lose the opportunity to have fun and enjoy life like you're sixteen. I'm wishing that you have a better seventeen.
41 likes@Kris thank you, :,) I’ll keep going so I can get the “sixteen” I’ve always dreamed of
12 likesThat songs ALWAYS makes me cry.
3 likesI’m sixteen right now. On the one hand, this year has been super difficult for me and the idea that I won’t experience it again is comforting. On the other hand, it’s a whole year of my life that I’ll never get back— a year in which I’m supposed to have fun and feel alive. This line is so bittersweet to me and it always resonates so strongly with me, but not always in the same way!
7 likesI had a fall out with friends my junior year while I was going through some things that made me feel alone. I am so strong now and happy in my life at 27 and have been for a while. Life isn't perfect and that is true for everyone. But llife keeps moving and there's always going to be more time to do these things. It sucks that you had to go through a hard year. But you haven't peaked. There will be amazing years to come when you least expect them.
4 likesthat lyric makes me SOB every damn time
3 likesoml i turned 17 right before the pandemic, so 16 was my last pre-pandemic year and the line hits different now
9 likesugh i love all you sixteen/seventeen yr olds in this comment section
7 likesit's just kinda comforting that i'm not alone
came into the pandemic at 15, leaving it at SEVENTEEN
damnnnn
all is well
Wow we have such similar experiences Haha, if it helps at all, practically every adult tells me your teenage years truly arent the best years of your life. Life gets so much better once you figure out who you are and arent a teenager anymore so dont worry about "wasting the best years of your life" or anything.
2 likesYeah I turn seventeen tomorrow and that lyric has been haunting me these past few weeks.
3 likes@Brooke Cavanagh
3 likesOh my, so I'm currently sixteen. And this is actually one of the best years I've had so far. Covid sucked yes, but it also made me learn a lot about myself through being away from society.
I think something that you should take comfort in, is things are only as good as we make them to be.
I decided on my last days of being 15 that I expected nothing. And then that nothing became everything. it 'bloomed for me' (haha see what I did there? Skdjjfkd) Happiness is only what we make of it. Your sixteen will never come if you expect it to only enter your life at a certain point. think: when I'm more mentally stable (I'm still not) when I move out (still haven't) when I am making money from what I love (also not doing that lol) but nonetheless, there is so much joy to be had in life eh?
It's all just about perspective. But don't beat yourself up about your current perspective. it's okay to grow. And growing takes time.
This was a ramble-y mess but I hope that helped in any way😭😭
@Maisie Lynch oh dear! Happy birthday though😭
0 likesFor me it feels very weird because when "when" came out and i first sang that line i was still 15, now im 19 and it just shows me how much time has passed and how much i hoped would happen in this time and just didnt...
3 likesaye pandemic teenager crew whats good!
3 likesi just turned 19 so i guess i still have one more chance, but for me 16 was probably the best year of my teenage years and at the time i didn't know it. i was unhappy for most of my teenage years and there's not much i can do about that because it's in the past now, and i wanted my life to be so much better and fun and interesting. but 15 or 16 is probably the best of them and i wish i was happier with it when it was still happening.
also as an added bonus, the first version of When was released in 2016 when i was 14 years old. i was listening to the song and i was like "damn i kinda have a lame life, i relate to this "waiting to live" thing and i'm still young so i should just do it now" and that feeling that i would be missing out is why i put so much pressure on myself to have fun when i was 16, whole time that pressure (and my bad mental health lol) was the reason why i wasn't enjoying myself!
i'm not gonna be young forever, but now i know not to pressure myself to live the way that i think i'm supposed to, and instead just live now. and hopefully i'll be satisfied with that.
Oh boy, same! I'm seventeen now and sixteen was a hot mess. But that being said, I've listened to dodie for a LONG time now and 'when' has always broken my heart because when i was younger i was so desperately hoping that sixteen was going to be my year though i doubted it and then it came and it wasn't haha. but i mean, there's still the future! (also i'm sorry you got the virus, that really sucks, i'm glad you're okay!!)
2 likesMy teen years were ruined because of my abusive stepdad and lemme tell ya, that line cuts DEEP
0 likesHey! I'm 19 now, but 16 was possibly the worst year of my life (I felt so terrible), so I also always cry at that lyric. But it gets better! It really really does! It required therapy for me and I'm so glad I went. I haven't felt this good in so many years.
2 likesIt always feels like "oh i'm young i should be happy NOW". But you don't! Age and happiness are not necessarily related, don't worry :)
I'm 32 and that line gets me too, every time. I've made a lot of amazing memories so far but I also regret a lot of decisions I've made and that line always reminds me that I can't change those things no matter how much I want to. it's hard to get through that song without crying.
0 likes@Natalie we are actually the same 🥺 I’m also currently 17 and was 15 at the start of 2020 - it’s insane and surreal and gah! growing up is scary :,)
2 likes@Amita Krich omgg i love uu haha
0 likesi'm not scared, i think being scared of growing up is overrated
@Natalieawee love you too! and thank you - that’s true :D it only means that the world opens up more and there are even more exiting things to come ☺️
1 like@Amita Krich ABSOLUTELY :))) <333
0 likesI cry every time I hear that line (
0 likes@Brooke Cavanagh same with me the last two years, but this one is finally getting awesome. Yesterday, I was at dodies concert in Cologne, in august I'll go on vacation with friends for the first time and also I'm at university now! There's so much good to come!
0 likesI never fully appreciated She until I had it bad for a girl who couldn’t love me back. It does feel oddly good to hurt…. As a supposed “daughter” personally I love listening to your music and watching your videos because I know you aren’t perfect. You have a transparency that most others wouldn’t be brave enough to have
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🖤
45 likesI have "Paint me in trust, I'll be your best friend" tattooed on my back and I'd be really curious to hear how you wrote it
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awwwww
487 likesi think i probably wanted to say like - coat me in trust! I just wanted to be everything for someone and those were the words that came up :)
@doddlevloggle grammatical intervention can almost reverse the meaning from companionship to a hostage situation: "paint me in. trust, i'll be your best friend."
31 likesjust sayin
my senior quote this year was “i promise you, it’ll all make sense again” - i attempted suicide twice my senior year of high school and this lyric has extreme significance in my life. for my 17th birthday, my sister took me to a dodie concert in oakland, california. while dodie was singing, my sister held me close while i wept through the song “secret for the mad” - i plan on getting it tattooed on my foot when shops open up more. that lyric changed my life, it’s something i tell myself everyday.
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❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️sending so much love
2 likesThis comment made me cry. I hope you're doing okay.💛💛
6 likesthat one has been great help for me too. there’s been so many times where i feel like im going to loose myself and this is it.. and that lyric among many others of dodies had just been so lovely.
3 likesYou are so incredible, that tattoo is going to look so lovely on you and your beautiful self ❤️ I am so glad you are here and I hope you have a great day
1 likeSuch a sweet comment. Glad you're still here, hope you were able to get your awesome tat!
1 likeExtending all the support and love in the world to you!! You are more adored and loved than words could say, and only deserve the greatest in the world❤️❤️❤️❤️
1 likei sobbed while listening to that song
1 likebecause i was going through such a rough time
its nice to know that others feel that way
dodie's lyrics are just so relatable and they make me feel safe
dodie mentioned it more than once, maybe regretting an unhealthy narrative in a lyric, but it’s very lovely that music lets you show all your worst thoughts and feelings w benevolence. some lyrics seem unhealthy, but you hold you hold the feeling’s hand and give that feeling a place
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😭 oh what a sweet comment
88 likesi like the imagery of holding a feeling in your hand and then letting it fly away, almost like a bird. i personify or objectify my feelings as a coping tool from therapy so that i can examine them, and i might try this. thank you kind stranger <3
17 likeslove this
1 likebest comment
2 likesthissss. i really appreciate whenever artists put their raw emotion no matter how unhealthy or silly it is. a lot of times there are people who have similar feelings. and if not then it allows others to understand it a little better.
3 likesTimecodes:
75 likes1:04 - If i'm Being Honest
1:47 - in the bed
3:46 - Burned Out
5:43 - Before The Line
7:30 - Four Tequilas Down
8:40 - Special Girl
9:32 - Cool Girl
10:06 - In The Middle
10:54 - Monster
11:19 - Human
11:34 - Sorry
12:23 - All My Daughters
14:46 - Hate Myself
15:36 - She
I just feel so peaceful listening to dodie talk, it's like chilling with a friend
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i feel the same way!!!! makes me so happy
2 likesi know!! i absolutely love dodies videos. they’re so nice :)
0 likesit has nothing to do with the original meaning of the song, but All My Daughters holds a special place in my heart, cause at a time where i was feeling a TON of dysphoria and dealing with transphobia at home, being called someone’s “daughter” really meant a lot.
191 likesp.s. love ya dodie! thank you for everything you do!
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Sorry to hear you’re going through that, I hope you’re getting the support you deserve from friends and hopefully other family too
7 likeshey sister! i hope you're feeling better now and i'm glad that the song was able to help you during a tough time. i hope you've got heaps of friends and loved ones to give you so much love and support <3
5 likes@Glyn RH thank you so much, i'm definitely doing a lot better now!
2 likes@Caitlyn Salter thank you!! that really means the world to me <3
1 likeMy Grandma was listening to In The Middle with me a year or two ago and asked "is this about a threesome?" And I was like "noooo, there's no way that's what it's about"... I guess I owe her an apology
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Grandmas always know
81 likesYou grandma sounds awesome.
33 likesHAHA
88 likeslmao dodie mentioned it at her concert and my mum looked at me like 😶
7 likesOmg I would die if my grandma heard in the middle 😭
5 likesI feel like All My Daughters is the sequel to Burned Out...which begins a meta...because Burned Out could be the new daughter...where am I
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hahah yes!
339 likesthe dodie cinematic universe
220 likes@bluuebye omg yesss I'd like your comment but I wanted to keep it at 69😂
2 likes@いつみーちゃん it never works fam 😔
3 likesi always felt really seen by "special girl" but for a totally different read than what was intended, i think? the line "hate me first, yeah, make me work, that's perfect" and "i found my worth in this world by proving i'm a special girl" struck me as musings from the inside of a gifted kid complex? like, if you did well in school as a kid, you feel this compulsion to be promising and special from every point of view. and when someone doesn't happen to think you're marvelous, you're like, "ah, yes. that means i must demonstrate my talent and *make you*." every time i listen to the song, it reminds me of feeling like, great! i'm going to get a good grade in being a person. something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve,
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Exactly!!! And then that whole crisis of how do you define yourself if you're not "special" anymore?
5 likes@really-quite-exhausted Really feeling this too! (🥴)
0 likes“So just hold me like you mean it, we’ll pretend because we need it” i think is one of your most beautiful lyrics, it’s been stuck in my head ever since I heard it. And the way the music pauses before it continues really gives it that emotional pull, perfection.
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That pause is EVERYTHING. It's like the whole world fades away and you're left in the solitary space with the two protagonists and their feelings bubble.
8 likesWhich song is this in? I can't seem to remember 😅😅😅
0 likesYES AH. this song is so raw and like truthful.
0 likes@Grace Nelson it’s from four tequilas down :)
0 likes@that person thank you!!
1 likeme and my best friend bonded over your music, over our summer holidays we're both going to print out the song lyrics of build a problem and each listen to the album and annotate along with what specific lyrics mean to us and then exchange annotations and re-listen taking them in mind, to try and understand each other better u know, does this make any sense? This is so interesting to me, the lyrics on this album are so special and beautiful :)
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Omg that sounds so cutee
16 likesThat's so beautiful, I wanna do this with someone now
11 likesAW have fun!! that's so nice
6 likesThat's so wonderful :)
5 likesWOW THAT SOUNDS SO FUCKING FUN!!
2 likesthat's so sweet, i wish i had someone to do this with youre so cool
1 like@leo and @Rose Lalonde
1 likeYou two should figure something out together lol
gosh i love this idea so much!!!! ahhh
0 likesI love it whenever artists break down their lyrics ☺️
225 likesit wasn't mentioned, but arms unfolding is probably my favorite song of yours and the reasons why have changed over the years. every time i go back and listen to arms unfolding it has a different meaning to me, and i just hold that song so close to my heart. i saw you perform live a few years ago and the show opened with arms unfolding and i was just bawling in the middle of the concert floor it was very classy :)))
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It's my favorite too! It's so underappreciated
1 likeYES! I cry every time I hear it. It came out right as I was working on mending my own relationship and it was exactly what I needed in that moment.
0 likesI cried so hard when I saw her preform it and I sometimes cry when I hear it in general but I remember it starting and I was just crying so much and I was like “and this is only the first song” it was the best
2 likesyess it’s such a good one :,)
1 like"take the energy of anxiety and turn it into....horniness lol" -dodie
444 likesMe: 👁️👄👁️ 🧐 🤔🤯 I don't know why this is so revolutionary to me lol it makes a whole lotta sense
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Bro same 😳😳
6 likesI recommend
158 likesAnxiousness ~ lustfullness magic
14 likesI always thought that song was so romantic just wanting to be with someone who comforts you to sleep but now-
1 likeWe’ve all been there
0 likesHey dodie, I don’t know if you’ll see this but I’ve been a fan of yours for so long and I want you to know how much the song guiltless means to me. I’ve never held a song so close and I completely understand not wanting to go into it just because I know the feelings that go into writing those types of lyrics. I cried so hard when I heard guiltless just because I understood, and It hurt that you understood too. I have always felt this deep connection to your music but guiltless really got me. I couldn’t believe the absolute strength it took to make that song, I still get strung out any time I listen to it. Just because it makes me remember I’m not alone In my pain. Thank you dodie. I understand the whole “this YouTuber that I barely know saved me” mentality but your music genuinely got me through so much. I remember listening to your music in the hardest moments in my life and it making me feel like there was a light at the end of the darkness, and even if I haven’t necessarily reached it just yet, there’ll be something beautiful to come out of it. I don’t ever mind the things you will do in life, and I never want you to feel pressured by my respect, but since guiltless, I’ve never felt closer to someone I’ve never even spoken to. I can’t wait till I get to meet you if you come to Australia again, just so I can properly let you know how much that song meant. Thank you for that song. I’ve never felt so seen, and I just really admire you.
6 likesI understand why you took a step back and drew a line years ago, I myself have a problem with oversharing so sorry for this long comment, but I just really wanted a chance for you to see me, even if it’s only through a screen. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your beautiful songwriting and your ability to make a song that relates to so many people.
I know I only see a tiny portion of you from YouTube, but I genuinely love you so much, thank you for being you.
Thank you dodie
Elizabeth
I've always loved your lyric "they say they like my eyes but I've only ever seen them in the dark" from when. Something about it hits me so deeply, the idea of someone saying they love you but there's no way of them knowing you because you haven't shown them. Or if you interpret "them" in the lyric as your own eyes it gets interesting as well because it's saying that you don't even know yourself, you can't see what they love about you. The lyric just has always meant so much to me and your lyrics are so powerful and beautiful thank you 💗
14 likesWhen has been my lifeline in some of my darkest moments. Stay safe, Dodie! And thank you. From another dreamy girl who'll never be sixteen again x
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🖤🖤🖤
65 likesYou'll become bigger and better than you ever were x
5 likes“Seeps through the cracks and so I start to choke” actually inspired a painting I made about a year ago, and it looks a lot like the image you described!!
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I felt such strong artistic inspiration listening to her talk about it!! Is there anywhere I can see your painting because I'd love to
8 likes@Kendra Durham It’s on my Instagram (@isaniart), although you’d have to scroll back a bit.
1 likeThanks Dee and
0 likes@Kendra Durhamwe are on our
0 likesI wanna draw venn diagrams of dodie song themes.... Sorry & Monster, Burned Out & All My Daughters, Before The Line & When.... There are crossovers between some of these songs that would be really interesting to explore.
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Thats a fantastic idea!!! You totally should!!
6 likesOr rather Monster and Human
6 likesOh my god I feel like you’d see into my subconscious Lmao
44 likesDO IT
1 likeI always felt like Would You Be So Kind & If I'm Being Honest were related too
1 likeGuiltless to me is about certain family members of mine witnessing my abusive childhood and not putting a stop to it despite their situational power. It’s a way for me to push all my resentment into that song, and then allow myself to forgive.
28 likesThe dark politician is a specific person, and there could not be a better description.
Thank you for this song
god I love the second verse of before the line. especially "when can I come home." the most relatable thing ever to me.
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🖤
44 likesyesss
0 likeshope you’re feeling better and covid isn’t getting you down too much!
240 likesalso sorry for asking about the dark politician lyric 😬
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lOLolOll no worries i was thinking about answering it! tbh i dont even know if i'm able to understand what i meant lol
209 likes@doddleoddle didn’t want to bring back any bad mems that’s all lol. i’ve found my own meaning for it and can relate to the song from my own interpretation so that’s good enough for me!
111 likes@Hannah Steele <33333333
108 likes@doddlevloggle I asked about the same lyric too. Hope it wasn't too triggering. I was thinking it might have been about Donald Trumpet. 🤣
24 likesTo me that lyric screams gaslighting by a parental figure - someone that’s supposed to take care of you is twisting your words for their own gain. But that’s also me projecting my own experiences and doesn’t say anything about what dodie’s intent was
70 likes@Isani Art I take it as that too but again, projecting my own experiences lol
10 likes@Isani Art as someone with an unapologetically abusive mother, every line in Guiltless resonates with my personal experiences. It's very obviously a song about trauma, but I do think it's one of those things that very personal and isn't owed a deeper explanation unless the person who experienced it wants to provide it. People even hear the word "trauma" or "abuse" and they start assuming and stigmatising. And a lot of the time it takes personal growth to not feel the need to pry into everyone's personal bag of traumas and experiences that shaped them. And unfortunately the majority of people don't do that work. Which is why tabloids sell so well.
6 likes@OcyTaviAh Couldn’t agree more. This song is obviously very personal to dodie and she deserves to have her privacy without people prying
0 likesas one of your “daughters” that literally grew up with you and have seen you blossom since i was 10, you are a huge role model to me. you were a big sister for me growing up. your younger audience knows you have flaws and behind closed doors have made bad decisions. you are not perfect. you are dodie and we love you for who you are, not just how you present yourself online. love the album, so proud of how far you’ve come from the bedroom recording of “she” :)
29 likes-a now 18 year old fan
6/10 holds a very special place in my heart- i first heard it when i was beginning to go through the self discovery reckoning that all young mentally ill teens go through and it's carried me through it all. it just helped me feel less alone and a little more normal when i felt like i couldn't stand out more. especially the bridge at the end of all the voices overlapping, feels like the epitome of a brain with social anxiety
67 likesI noticed that you changed it from "I wail aloud/I need it back" to "Oh my god/I need it back" in all my daughters (I listened to the demo way too much lmao)... what spawned that change for you? was it just an aesthetic change or did you change your meaning/intent there?
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i always wanted to know this too!
0 likesyes yes yes this!! biggest question about the whole album. i wail aloud felt so much more personal. so curious.
1 likeidk if others feel the same, but “Don’t Quite Belong” seems like a neurodivergent/autism anthem tbh
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i feel this about ‘hate myself’ and even ‘rainbow’ a bit (considering the autism symbol of the rainbow infinity)
115 likesOmg exactly. I was obsessed with that song before I was diagnosed and then I found out I was autistic and I was like welp lol
36 likesyes!! i feel this too
9 likesI have social anxiety and I relate to it a lot as well. I guess each of us have our different reasons to feel like that on some situations
41 likes@katie For me Rainbow has always been more about being or feeling different and taking pride in that then particularly about being queer. Especially “So please step inside my soul. I'd love to watch you gasp. You'd understand in minutes. And I'd like to think you'd miss it. 'Cause so would I.” makes me cry very often cause…it’s true. I often say or feel like I hate my brain but in actuality I’d probably miss it.
46 likesi feel this in the way my derealization and autism sometimes speak the same language
31 likes@eykyra I have social anxiety too and it resonated with me a lot! For some reason I thought of it as like “oh all these people are good at talking and are able to be social but I’m kinda not and so I feel like I don’t belong”
16 likes@Random Artist Yeah exactly like when she says "is there a code" like "why does everyone know how to act except me?" And also the line about how alcohol makes you a bit disinhibited and therefore more able to socialize, everything makes so much sense to me
21 likes@eykyra Yes!! so glad someone gets it! and it’s so neat that so many people are finding their own ways in which they relate to the song :)
8 likesi thought this too!
4 likes@Random Artist Yeah it's what's so cool about Dodie's songs, they seem to be very specific but they are actually fitting to each one in a very different way
15 likesSame here!
2 likesi felt this way about both don’t quite belong and rainbow !!!
3 likes@eykyra same!!
9 likesThere are quite a lot of dodies songs that I relate to my autism (probably because I listened to the new album while waiting for the results of my diagnosis) and it's so nice to see others here do too
Yessss, as someone on the spectrum i heavily agree, and its funny cause she made it about waking up in this alien world but thatd exactly what being neirodivergent feels like. I've also felt I was an alien to this world and never knew why until my recent late diagnosis
8 likesi always thought rainbow felt like that
1 like@katie I feel like this with rainbow too! Obvs makes sense to me being bi ✨ but it also makes me feel the same way about my adhd ❤️
1 likeSo glad I’m not the only one who applied Rainbow to my feelings of autistic neurodivergence ☺️
3 likes@katie Yesssss, I totally feel Rainbow as an autism song!!
0 likesi 100% agree!! i think about that everytime I hear the song
0 likesAs someone who always feels their stomach in knots when having to be in a social situation, it's my personal anthem.
1 likeLike...the heck do you mean that I'll feel better if I drink? I'll just get tipsy, my brain will still go a million thoughts a second and I'll feel annoyed that my senses are mildly impaired, lol
Hell yes!! Rainbow for me is about my adhd as well as my bisexuality and it makes me cry because of how perfectly its metaphors describe both GAH!
1 likeI feel like special girl applies to my experience as an autistic woman but i agree with everyone’s answer
0 likesomg this is how I feel about hate myself, it reminds me a lot of rejection sensitive dysphoria
3 likesi feel like rainbow could also be about realising you're neurodivergent
0 likes@Nicklas yes that's what it's about but you can read into things with different meanings even if that's not what they're meant for
0 likesas a literature student this is like my crack
116 likesi always interpreted "hate myself" as the aftermath of an abusive relationship....like being punished with silence, never knowing what's right, the immense anxiety that comes with that
34 likesthis past year i’ve gone on a bit of journey embracing my (possibly) being autistic, and ‘hate myself’ just perfectly expresses the difficulties i had with communication growing up
34 likeshonestly thank you for that song, cause it’s put into words something i struggled for years to
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I'm going through the same thing and dodies music has helped me loads ;)
2 likesme too!! it feels good to see that others feel the same way about that song!
1 like“hate myself” to me is about anxiety and overthinking about the people you caring about liking you. seeing a shift in their expression and worrying you said something wrong, constantly trying to explain their behaviors by something you could have possibly done
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YES this is exactly what I thought when I heard this song.. not me being like this every day to come up with this interpretation haha
0 likesahh me too!!! like anything even just a split second of silence or a specific word they say i’ll get stuck on. this song always reminded me of that.
1 likeI interpreted "when you go quiet, I hate myself" as the end of a conversation in which I am revealing something abt myself to you, I secret I've kept. & you go quiet & I hate myself for ruining our relationship by telling the truth. I read your quiet as disappointment or horror or fear or hate abt the secret I've shared. Your opinion of me is changed forever & I hate myself for just not saying anything.
184 likesI interpret it as this kind of anxiety-reaction to sharing your soul w/ someone & not getting an immediate reaction. My brain goes into overdrive & I have so much doubt. When really, the person I've shared with probably just needs a moment to process, to collect themselves, to think through a response. But, in that one moment of quiet, my mind becomes a storm.
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YES me too
2 likesi interpret it similarly, except that (partially because i’m neurodivergent) i have a hard time keeping conversation with people i don’t know well, so whenever even people closest to me go quiet, peacefully or otherwise, mid-conversation or -interaction, i end up blaming myself and plotting out a worst case scenario contingency plan.
5 likesI feel that. I just told one of my best friends that I might have a crush on them and now I wish I just never told them because it makes everything so... different
0 likes@jax i am people pleaser and in a lot of occasions i have felt like i need to have my friends and my loved ones very close to me all the time to make sure they like me. When they go under the radar for a bit i question if they forgot or dont care about me / dont like me and then hate myself because of that emotional dependence on others. I also hate myself because i feel like i drive people away, good old fear of abandonment
2 likesOh that’s interesting! I interpreted it as the end of a fight, you’ve said something that stuns them, in a bad way, and you hate yourself for not thinking before talking.
2 likes@Kieran Yes! That's also part of how I meant it. Anxiety brain takes over
0 likesthis is exactly what i thought of ah! also as whenever i keep noticing tiny things like a pause or a word someone uses. and i get worried trying to analyze every little detail and what they meant.
0 likes@Rhyme Melodies yess i recently realized how much i’m dependent on my best friend. it’s so annoying and i hate myself for it. and i try to do things on my own but i need her input about everything lol. and if she doesn’t talk to me for more than a few days i’m like what happeneddd. i get scared that people don’t care as much as i do lol. constantly asking her if i’m annoying or if she wants me to stop talking.
0 likesHuman in particular has lyrics that to me are grotesque in a beautiful manner, like a bunch of beautiful blood and guts
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i feel that way too! to me its like being so open to someone that ur just completely laid bare almost like ur naked or bloody like you said yaknow?
6 likeshuman always remains that one song where I just listen to it and bawl... lol 😭
1 likeYou could almost say they’re… beautifully raw:)
1 likeI replayed this like 10 times while clearing out my room and it’s now 3:30am. Something about the chill talks, singing, and explanations kept me from worrying about getting rid of things (I have a hoarders tendency). I can only say thank you 🥺❤️
2 likesI've always massively related to Guiltless, it hits so close to home. The themes of a parent lacking in maturity and responsibility, resulting in petty arguments over nothing was something I'd never heard discussed in a song before but I so deeply related to it. For me, it helped me understand the process of learning to accept my life and family for what it is and who they are, and learning to that sometimes you just have to put up with people - eventually it's not worth having the same pointless argument over and over.
5 likesFour tequila’s down was painfully and beautifully relatable and caused a lot of reflection on why we make the choices we make and weather it’s valid to do so sometimes.
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Do you see it as a song about cheating?
0 likes@mayonessa oooooh
0 likesNever saw it that way.
I saw it as the pov of being a rebound. Cause that's what i felt like at that moment. I felt like he was only with me so that he can forget the one he actually liked or bcs he can't get her in the first place. Thus "Something in me says, that this is okay" means
"I know you're using but it's alright cause your "love" feels good" for me.
But i can see why it can be a song abt cheating.
“It feels oddly good to hurt” us one of my favorite lines! I totally understand what you mean, I’ve always said to my long distance girlfriend that I love her with a deep ache in my bones. She’s wonderful we’re wonderful but our love has an achy heaviness to it too.
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“But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz, in 'Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe' is a line that has hit me over and over again since the first time I read it, because love IS heavy, isn't it? So "it feels oddly good to hurt" matches up beautifully with that
2 likes‘build a problem’ came out during the lowest point of my life so far. ‘before the line’ specifically explained a lot of things i was feeling, and it helped me realize i was not alone in my feelings. that album was such a blessing, and was instrumental (pun intended) in helping me get better. so thank you!
20 likesTo me, the lyrics from Monster "I craft my words to fit your head/'Cause no one listens to the dead" remind me of being in an abusive relationship, where you have to carefully speak your abuser to make them happy/appeal to them otherwise they could seriously hurt or kill you. Kinda morbid...
7 likesI was struck by the fact that "When" was back and on this new album, it was my favorite song for a long time and it had for me a very special meaning (probably not exactly the one intended) and to hear it again (plus the videeeeeo of it in the car you guyys so good) after a while - after new experiences and life changing me - blew my mind ! everything sounded more right... the line "begging the past to stay, memories painted in much brighter ink, they told me i loved, teach me how to think" used to be the one i didn't relate so much to or the sentence i couldn't really "make mine" in the song but then, years after, i finally f** get it !! I know that feeling now, so well ! and man to realize that broke me... Crazy how a song you know by heart can still surprise you....
10 likessorry is my favorite song atm, the lyrics are lovely and a bit sad but it’s honestly the instrumentals that make it my favorite. the way they build up can make me a little less spacey for a minute. a friend of mine described the build up as “like taking a breath” and yeah. i just love it sm ahhh that song
4 likes“black lipstick will never be a sin”!!!
36 likesalso just wanted to pop in and say that “when” means so much to me in its entirety. its such a lovely beautiful song and i loved hearing it when i was much younger and it came out but now that im older (and actually older than 16 lol) i can really Fully feel all the feelings its talking about and it holds a very special place in my heart :’)
sick of losing soulmates will also always be a favorite of mine. idk how to explain it but the whole song just feels so beautifully delicate which is how i view the relationships it makes me think about in my own life. that being said all your lyrics are gorgeous!! ive been a fan since 2016 and its been such a pleasure seeing u grow in ur songwriting abilities
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I second this!! I plan on getting a tattoo themed around those lyrics :)
0 likesfor meeee "black lipstick will never be a sin" means like you might wear things that others think are ugly/unsightly like black lipstick, "too much" eyeshadow, certain clothing styles that you'll cringe at later, but it'll never be a sin, it'll never be wrong, you were happy and having so much fun
2 likesBurned out hit me so hard when you released it on YouTube for the first time. Like that I might just leave soon felt like you were speaking my thoughts. It obviously means something different to me as someone who doesn't have a platform. But thank you for making this music. It does more than you know!
9 likesWhen I listen to cool girl I think of the relationship I have with my dad. It’s so interesting to me that we all apply our own meanings to Dodies songs and I’m so happy she lets people interpret her art 🥰
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♥
5 likesAlthough I know that "Rainbow" is actually about being bisexual, I've really related to it recently as I've found out that I'm on the autism spectrum! Its funny how songs can take on a life of their own.
2 likesAlso- cant wait to see you live in February!!
I've always felt connected with "burned out" and listening to you, I now understand why. Thank you for this video and all you do. You matter.
1 likeMy personal meaning of the lyric "A dark politician will end up alone". I imagine someone (like a parent or family member) sharing their "dark" almost threatening opinions on sensitive subjects, leaving everyone around them feeling uneasy and threatened. And everyone eventually leaves the "dark politician" and he is now left alone.
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For me it had that meaning of being a very manipulative person that's trying to convince her that it wasn't really that important or they're not to blame or she's just making it too big of a deal idk. But I think it plays on the idea of politicians being convincing and deceitful sometimes
2 likesFun fact I used to think the line in when was “kissing sickly sweet LIES cause they say they like my eyes” and as much as I love the actual lyric I still like to sing my version sometimes hehe
6 likesafter watching this i just want to write an essay on your songs they are incredible
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I'd be happy to read it if it ever happened! I feel like i'm always learning new things in dodie's songs. Love the eternal feeling of new discoveries <3
2 likesikr?? i feel like i could go on forever talking about her lyrics
2 likesdodie, literally every song of yours is a freaking masterpiece and i cannot wait to hear them in person for the first time at your europe tour!! you don’t have to feel responsible at all(for me at least), but i am glad to be your daughter and love you and your music as much as i do!!
3 likesI've never related to Burned Out more than I do right now but not in the 'I have a public responsibility/platform,' it's more of an interpersonal relationship type of way and how my own mental health affects all of that. like the "I can just talk about it..." bit is SO GOOD cause it's so true, it's fucking hard to talk about it, even and sometimes especially to close friends. needless to say, it's my favorite song of yours. and Rainbow omfg!!!! I fucking love music!! especially yours because it's so,,,, RAW and charming and beautifully sad ;.;
9 likesmy personal favorite line from any of your music is “and there will be a day when you can say you’re okay and mean it.” this line (and entire song) has helped me through a lot of low points in my life, and i know that i’m still nowhere near as happy as i know i can be, and this line has given me hope through many of those moments. i plan on getting it tattooed on my left inner forearm styled like this:
1 like; and there will be a day when you can say you’re okay and mean it
thank you so much dodie for all that you do for your community, you are by far my favorite artist, and i hope to see you live in concert in 2022!
i think my favorite song from the album is "bored like me" and i def have my own meaning constructed (basically indulging in the mystery of another person and wishing to stop dancing around the idea of being together and just going for it) and i think i've accepted it as fact; i'd love to know if there's anything deeper to the song beyond the more "easily interpreted" surface-level. whenever i listen i always tend to envision two very sexually frusturated people doing the tango lol
1 likeI'm proud of you for setting boundaries for us and for yourself! Love and Respect 💗
25 likes'sorry' really makes me feel some type of way like when it BUILDS ahhh dodie you musical mastermind
9 likesi always thought of all my daughters as addressing the younger versions of yourself, talking to your inner child <3
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Awww
4 likesThis video feels so comforting! The lighting, the softness of the mic and the calmness of the notes being played. It just feels like a warm hug. I had to start self isolating the same day as dodie and ah it just feels nice to know someone is going through the exact same thing as me and lots of others xx
3 likeshey dodie !! thanks for talking about your derealisation so openly. i am also one who has the floaties and dissociates A Lot so it's really nice to just. hear it said. bc it's not often noticed by people which makes it feel not real, which makes it worse lmao. so thanks !! very rad of u :) <3 also covid-wise, i hope you feel better soon !!!!
5 likesTHAT CRISP CLEAR AUDIO QUALITY
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i actually can't believe it's taken me THIS long to put a compressor on my audio
48 likesI love learning what artists meant when they wrote their songs!! I feel like there should be room for people to explain how they meant the line AND for the audience to have their own interpretations in their head :-)
3 likesTo me 'Cool Girl' feels quietly and subtly feminist. It feels like the story of someone who feels pressured to conform, not speak out and be 'cool' by the men/man in her life but the way the music swells and get progressively louder and more intense makes me feel like she's resisting against this and feeling frustrated by it all. But by the end of it she still feels trapped and unable to really be herself. I just love it.
2 likes" How much of a tongue can I bite
21 likesUntil we notice blood
Spit to the left, carry on
Just smile and say you're good "
This line in particular has always not stumped me but made me question and wonder if it truly means what I think it means.
And im curious if its a simple as is or if it has a slightly deeper meaning
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the way I interpreted this line is that when one bites their tongue, they're keeping silent/stopping themselves from speaking up about something they know is wrong. So the lyric is kind of like "how much longer can I keep being quiet and cool until it becomes noticeable that it's hurting me/affecting me?" and then the following line of "spit to the left, carry on, just smile and say you're good" is her spitting out the blood before they notice (brushing off their hurt/confusion/pain) and putting on a smile and continuing to be the "cool girl" who agrees to everything and stays quiet and placid. That's my interpretation of it, I loveee those couple of lines in cool girl and think they're so smart so I wonder how dodie would explain those lines!
15 likesmy favorite song of yours is "She" because it describes precisely what I felt when I fell in love with my teacher at uni. it was part of my "shit, I think I'm gay" moment and it's very close to my heart but everytime I listen to it it makes me bawl my eyes out..."but to her, I taste of nothing at all"...💔 so I refrain from doing it often. still what a beautiful song, I'll be forever thankful for it <3
4 likesI find her lyrics so human sounding. She explains feelings in these roundabout ways that make SO much sense to me
1 likedodieeee you seem so joyful when you talk about your music!! it makes me so happy to see your passion and enjoy those lyrics with youuuuu
4 likesyou singing the song along side honestly adds so much!!
19 likesabsolutely love the line “when you go quiet i hate myself” bc boY DO I EVER #socialanxietythings
22 likesI’m interested to know what the lyric “Ignoring the danger just to feel you in my head” in let go means ?
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it means like - when you think about someone you're trying to let go of it hurts badly and can hurt you long term but you do it anyway!
208 likesfantasizing about a person when you know you should be trying to get over them. then "comfort and pain" reminds me of "it feels oddly good to hurt" in she - the pain that comes with love, especially when its over and thinking back is comforting yet painful
75 likes@Karina McEvoy mmmmmmmm yes
67 likesdoddlevloggle that concept reminds me so much of stop making this hurt by bleachers. the lyric that repeats in the chorus is “stop making this hurt, just say goodbye like you mean it” and i totally think of it as trying not to hold on to the memories of someone when you know it’s only causing you pain (that’s not what the song is Actually about, but it still works)
4 likes@doddlevloggle jajssjlsjs Oh No I Know That One
1 likeOh dear. For some reason this lyric always makes me think of that time in twilight when Bella did a bunch of crazy stuff just so that she could imagine Edward there being condescending 😓
5 likesThanks dodie😭😭only you would make twilight rerun in my head years after watching it.
I love “rainbow” because although i can see where you wrote it from, i see it as not needing to label yourself in any context, and the worry of being judged before you get to put a word in purely for that 1 label, and so you remain a bright and vivid but non-specific rainbow of your identity and expression.
4 likesI love how you vocalize taboo universal truths. Especially ones deep-rooted in trauma and mental health. i love it I love it.
1 likeone thing i love about dodie songs is that so many of the times the real meaning behind lyrics is so …vague? that the listener can apply their own meaning based off of their own experiences. hearing you explain the meanings behind them don’t change that perspective at all.
2 likesLove hearing your thoughts behind the lyrics! My personal favorite from the album is Bite Back because it really describes to me that feeling of wanting to help someone you care for but they are too caught up in their own emotions so they shut you out and hurt you on purpose to make you stop.
7 likes“you blew me up like a big balloon, far to soon, im left a stuttering teen.” that line honestly cuts so closely to my heart because i feel the weight of it. being a child and dealing with things larger than yourself is terrifying
1 likeI just love "She". Just the softness and, eh, wonder, the intrigue and just amazement over another person, "She smelled like lemongrass and sleep", my god that hits me in the heartroots.
1 likeI went to one of your concerts here in New York. I am about your age and everyone seemed to be a young teenager and I just looked around and saw so many girls that wanted to be like the version of you that you are open to sharing with us. I remember going to the rafters in that concert to make space for all those young fans and during the concert I couldn’t help but feel how hard that must be to have so many young people watching you, and in many ways feeling mentored by you in a one sided way. I really am very impressed with how you have managed that and learned from your mistakes over the years and when I heard that line “all my daughters” my heart broke a bit because I can totally see how in many ways it truly is an impossible task. As you have said you are human and all I can say for myself is that is all I expect you to be. Nothing more.
1 likeone of my favourite examples of taking your lyrics and reinterpreting them is that before the line is my absolute favourite bap song because it makes me think about my pdd (persistent depressive disorder) which basically means there's a line in my life before which i just had regular depression in waves but now i am near constantly at least a little bit depressed. that entire second verse just gets me every time.
1 likelove hearing these so much :,) one of my favorite lines is “memories painted with much brighter ink” from when, i have a whole playlist based on it! (which includes “why do memories glow the way real moments don’t” from first thing to go by hayley williams, “i’m dreaming of another time, a time i never lived in” from maybe i’ll go nowhere by ethan gruska, and a million more!!) it’s my fav playlist i have so thank u for the inspiration for it :D
0 likesGuiltless always hits me so hard with my own feelings I have towards my dad, I have no idea about the true meaning of the song (and that's totally okay) but AH it's helped me pull together the way I feel so much and I thank you for that <3
1 likeThis kinda feels like someone explaining a joke after everyone already laughed. I feel like the intuitive understanding is already there. This music is so good. It’s almost magic. It was nice to be reminded of all the color that Dodie packaged in music. If I was her I’d brag about my genius too. She’s brilliant.
1 likeWatching you grow as a lyricist has been so lovely, you’re brilliant. thank you for putting words to such specific emotions we all feel <3
0 likesjust wanted to say im absolutely mindblown by your lyrics (and their meanings), your songs are honestly like poetry dodie. thank you so much for sharing them with us
1 likeI always thought the lyrics were “I am not carton ” and I always interpreted that as sort of I’m human you can’t just keep building me up like like an object or a building project
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Don't pour milk on someone's breakfast
7 likesI am not carton
Rainbow is definitely in my top 5 favorite songs of all time ... I have never listened to a song and felt like I was truly understood before and to know that someone else knows what it's like makes me want to cry :') that being said, I've never quite understood what these lyrics mean:
1 like"I'd love to watch you gasp
You'd understand in minutes
And I'd like to think you'd miss it
'Cause so would I"
Thank u for creating a space for me to feel loved <3
For some reason I just adore “All my daughters”
0 likesWhen it came out when the whole world was on quarantine I was dancing to it in my room and it helped me to process all the feelings I was going through
For me, "All my daughters" means my "inner child" parts, who are traumatised, and who need me for guidance, but I, as my adult functioning self, keep pushing them down most of the time.
1 likeI'm not who they think I am (I try to keep a facade for other people but I really feel broken)
I try too hard not to give a damn (I try hard not to listen to the horrible parts of my past and just be cheerful)
But I feel it/ How they love me/ All my daughters (but the sad and scared parts of me keep poking me, needing me, because they really want to be healthy and to be loved and heard)
capable
I'm absolutely in love with the way you craft your lyrics, there's something so physical and raw in almost every line, be it the egg analogy or the trying to grow bones by yourself, etc. Love it! :)
0 likeswhen i listened to cool girl the first time literal MONTHS ago, it was a darker time in my life- so hearing it between these new bops was very odd. so it has two meanings to me, living in two moments on my timeline at the same time.
1 likeGracias Dodie por compartir tus pensamientos y sentimientos en tus canciones con nosotrxs♡
2 likeswhenever I hear "surely you know to close them instead" it reminds me of the imagery of closing your eyes when you kiss someone, like, stop worrying, just throw yourself into it, just kiss them - that line in particular reminds me a lot of I kissed someone (it wasn't you).
2 likesThis was so interesting! Thanks for sharing Dodie. You’re one of my fave lyricists 😍🙌
0 likes"I wanna pick you up and scoop you out" is one of my favourite lyrics of all, I love how carnal it is but also how genuinely adoring. I struggled a lot with dependence at the start of my relationship and I think the song really represented that for me
0 likesI think for the most part I understood the meaning of all these, yay! I've always loved your lyrics, they're so well thought out and beautiful and they flow so nicely :)
0 likesOne of my favorite things about your music is that you explore these fleeting feelings and make art out of them. I don’t know any other music artist who writes about these kinds of feelings, and it’s so validating to find someone who does and does so with SUCH care and introspection. Truly masterful
0 likesWhenever I listen to If I’m being honest,at the “could you love this”part,I always imagine that I’m saying it to my future self,like I’m asking her to forgive me,asking if she could ever love me.
0 likesIt’s crazy how different of a meaning someone can get out of a song than the one that was intended originally.
Thank you for explaining all of these lyrics. It’s really cool seeing the actual intended meaning and how it differs from how your life affects your perception of them. Also thank you for writing Before the Line. That song now has a special place in my heart because I’ve been going through a very similar thing and to hear my thoughts being put into a banger like that is a comfort.
0 likesOh my gosh, as a long-standing fan, it was so fascinating and lovely to understand some of those lyrics. Before the Line has a whole new level of meaning to me. I’m really really happy you decided to make this video.
2 likesThank you for answering my question and all of them really, I was having a shitty day and this made me feel heaps happier! Your music is so beautiful and I connect to it on so many levels <3
0 likesI grew up watching you on YouTube and I think its amazing to see how you've grown you shared your heart on here years ago, and I'm proud that you've found a better balance between your vulnerability and private life. I have all of the respect for you dodie.
0 likesI tend to have my own interpretations of Dodie’s songs and I kinda apply them and interpret them in my own life. Guiltless is especially important to be because it’s super validating with my relationship with my parents, especially my mom and how that affects me in general. It’s something I listen to to help me feel valid on days where I’m struggling and it tends to be comforting to know that someone described something Kinda simular in a way to what I’ve been through. There’s a lot of her songs that I’ve referenced in therapy exercises and how I interpret them to apply to my own life and feelings. Dodie is a brilliant artist, she’s always inspired me, and I think the fact that her songs are so raw and human, is so lovely. Her music has helped me through some rough times, I’ve loved her music for over 5 years, and I honestly think I won’t ever stop listening to it. Thank you for all of your inspiration dodie :)
0 likesI love the meanings behind your songs, I can always relate to them. The lyrics and message are very interesting.. Thank you dodie for your music~ 🌻
0 likesI really love your lyrics! I dont really have a specific experience that makes me connect with those lyrics.It just the feeling of raw and authentic and poetic makes me really connect to them. It's like reading poetry and you dont really know what the author meant but you have your very own interpretation and for lyrics to be able to do that is really really amazing. Thank you for doing this,Dodie. Get well soon!
0 likesI love how we can all interpret lyrics in different ways! Like for me, Sick of Losing Soulmates has always felt like its about being in love with someone and its kind of an unspoken mutual love but for various reasons you can’t ever actually be together. I was going through that when I first heard it so maybe thats why I feel that when I hear the concept of being “sick of losing soulmates”
0 likesThanks dodie for crafting so many beautiful musical poetry! <3
0 likes'Sentences sit in her mouth that are templated' will always be one of my favourite lyrics, I love your music and this video - thank you for sharing! 🥺❤️
0 likesI definitely relate to feeling like the friend who is open and vulnerable and ready to communicate. It's frustrating that some people feel the need to build walls to develop a mysterious personality. Granted, some people do it for protection. I love it and hate it at the same time.
1 likeLooooove this video. Your lyrics are always so beautiful, I love having some extra insight on what they mean!
0 likesYour line about dark politicians ending up alone always has me tearing up <3 I have CPTSD and am going no contact with both of my parents who are abusive and refuse to change - they are manipulative and gaslight me regularly - dark politicians will end up alone and the entirety of guitless made me feel so seen its like my anthem - thanks for all that you do dodie <3
0 likesWhen I'm sad and my head is full of furndocks dodies music always makes me feel better. Knowing someone can have some of the same things I struggle with and still make things so beautiful that make me and so many others happy really helps to get through the bad days
0 likesThis video was perfect. Thank you. I'm pursuing a degree in music and I study songs by Dodie like it's midterms. What an amazing wordsmith!
0 likesI love how each lyric has a story behind it. GOD DAMN I LOVE THE WHOLE ALBUM. <3
0 likesI love that I stumbled upon dodie. I’ve always felt a deep connection to the music I listen to but some of dodie’s music speaks on a deeper level than most. I’ve never heard music that directly addresses struggles like depression. I have a handful of artists I listen to cheer me up or keep me going and dodie is definitely one of them now.
0 likeswords can't describe how happy this video makes me!
0 likeslove getting insight to your beautifully clever lyrics dodie
love love loveeeee this vid!! i find songwriting so incredibly fascinating, i always want to know about every detail. i wish i could sit down and listen to all my favorite artists explain every word and meaning and sound and breath and every decision that goes into a song, in depth. i love watching songwriters' processes too. i understand and respect why some artists choose not to share any of their songs' meanings, but gosh sometimes i wish they would bc its so interesting to me (also bc im a little nosy shh). knowing the stories behind songs makes me love them so much more
0 likesThat was SUCH A LOVELY video! I'm so blown away by your talent and how much you think about your lyrics
0 likesIt makes me a bit emotional to hear the lyrics that have gotten me through so much sung by you again
0 likesThank you for making this music and sharing it with us! Every time I listen to your songs, i cry, because they bring back beautiful memories, and nostalgia for a past I haven't even had. I'm so grateful for what you music has done for me :))
0 likesI’ve been listening to you for years, and one of the first songs I ever heard was When. I thought it was a pretty song then, but it didn’t mean much to me the way that it does now. I started listening to you around when the Intertwined EP was released and I was young then. 2016 was on of the last happy years of my life, and things have been very hard since then, and some time in 2019 I got spotify premium and I was thinking of who I wanted to listen to and you came into mind. when came on and I started listening to the lyrics and it brought me to tears. I’d never related to a song that much, and at the time, I felt so alone and broken that I thought I’d never find anyone that felt the way I did. I was reaching for love that didn’t exist just because I needed to feel loved, I was constantly in my own world, and I was wishing life away. I was never happy with the present. all I ever wanted to do was go back to 2016. your music has saved me so many times. I love you so very much and I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me and so many others.
0 likesdodie u amaze me every single day. bap gets more and more beautiful every time i listen. thank u for this dive into the lyrics, it’s soooo cool
8 likesThank you for sharing! I absolutely loved this. I love hearing from you and how music is created from the good and the bad. It's a very vulnerable experience. <3
0 likesjust beautiful, as everything that u do. Thank you, this album help a lot me this year <3
0 likesmay i just say that seeing everyone’s different personal interpretations and meanings that they’ve applied to various lyrics is so so cool this is such a great comments section
0 likesThis was a great video. I love the breakdown of these lines when they are explained by the artist who wrote them.
2 likesHey queen, I recently lost my dad shortly after your album came out and I continued listening to all the songs for a month to feel him with me (it had been on repeat for a solid 2 weeks before he passed). One last time please has got me in tears every time I hear it still and it has a very special comforting place in my heart, as does the whole album. It is a work of art that I am super grateful for and I can't wait to see you perform live in tilburg next year xx
0 likesI think Arms Unfolding is one of your best songs. That lyric is so beautiful. I’m so happy for your success, my friend. I can’t wait to hear how you progress as a songwriter.
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1 likeyour lyrics go hard no matter their meaning... you're a lyrical GODDESS. edit: watching this a second time made me go "WAIT, I GET IT NOW."
6 likesWhen I first listened to Rainbow, I was in a pretty dark headspace. I felt really alone and isolated from the world and felt like everyone hated me. The chorus, specifically the line saying “When I’m so used to feeling wrong, well it makes me feel alright” made me burst into tears when I heard it because it resonated with how I was feeling so strongly and intensely. It made me feel so heard and like someone saw me and said “don’t worry, I’m going through this too. We’re going to be okay”. My self-esteem was at an all time low and this song helped me start to get out of that and feel okay about myself.
0 likesI really relate to Hate Myself because it felt like you were describing my relationship with my first boyfriend to a tee. He was so quiet and introverted where it felt like he didn’t really like me all that much and all the lack of talking made me feel unworthy. I didn’t know anyone felt like that or had that experience so when I heard that song, it validated my feelings and helped me move past some of those feelings of unworthiness and feeling lacklustre and not good enough.
I usually connect more to the music than lyrics with most songs except for dodie’s music. I connect to both but particularly the lyrics. I feel so heard and understood when I listen to her music. So thank you dodie, thank you for allowing me to be heard and to feel less alone. I love you and your music so much❤️
Ahh Dodie!! I always love to hear people break down their lyrics and it’s just so neat to hear your thought process when you wrote these lyrics and finally be able to understand some of them better, thank you for this video <3 ah this is so neat!
3 likesDodie is so uniquely relatable to me, there are a couple “celebrities” that I relate to on a surface level but the way that I relate to dodie is so much more fulfilling. She makes me feel not as weird for feeling the way I do
0 likesI've been derealized since I was 10, I'm 22 now. Your words and music and talking about it--it's such a painful but welcome comfort to not feel so damn alone in this. Thank you.
0 likesi LOVE this video, thank you so much for sharing and talking about the lyrics. honestly i love it and them so much. i love the care you've put into everything, it's so, so beautiful. truly 'build a problem' is one of my favourite albums of all time, thank you so much for it
0 likesalso, onto like, my ~own thoughts~ "when" and "before the line" are both beautiful, beautiful songs and i love them with my entire heart. but there's an odd sense of bitterness in me when i listen to them sometimes because i don't really have a clear line of when things started to go shaky with my mental health and before then. i don't really know when that was. i speculate 12-ish, but there's no Clear Point. and i don't really know why i'm spilling all this here, maybe in case someone can relate, maybe because i don't really talk about it. but it hurts sometimes, knowing that my teenage years haven't been clear and light and free even taking into account all the normal teenage emotions
Such an AMAZING lyricist, singer, musician, HUMAN!
0 likesYou have a beautiful mind. Thank you for always sharing and being so vulnerable and open ❤️
I love when you share your thought process behind the lyrics, it somehow makes me love them even more. I care a lot about meaning and really feel like I can relate to any situation. My girlfriend is the opposite, she doesn’t care at all about lyrics, as long as the music is fun. We’ve been together for 9 years, and I always try to explain the meaning I got from each of your songs to her, while we sing along in the car.
0 likesShe loves monster and in the middle, but it’s a work in progress
Thank you so much for sharing! ❤️ Your lyrics have been a source of comfort for me dealing with my own mental illness and has helped me articulate to other people what it's like to be on the inside of myself when I'm going through an episode better than I ever could have.
0 likesI love it when I have listened to your songs for maybe a month or two and I discover a completely new meaning to it, always such a fun experience!
0 likesI'm surprised about burned out! About "it seeps through her cracks and so I start to choke" my gosh I love it so much, and also it relates it to Before the Line for me now, that's so cool!! Also ohmygoodness I love Monster so so much, I've always seen it as a big catharsis, of going like"you've hurt me so much and you didn't even notice and now that I'm finally standing up for myself you vilify me, so I'm leaving"
2 likesi connect so much with the succession of songs on ‘build a problem’ from track 7 (‘?’) right through to track 11 (‘four tequilas down’, ‘.’, ‘sorry’, and ‘when’) so much. it reminds me of a time a few years ago when i was so desperate for love that i ruined a few close friendships to get what was fleeting and not real and not worth the sacrifice. i never got closure from any of the people involved because of how ashamed and embarrassed i was with myself, but these songs explain the situation from the very beginning to where i am now so perfectly and concisely. from the excitement of being with someone new even when you know that what you’re doing is going to hurt a lot of people eventually (‘who gives a shit, we’re messing around, she’ll never know’), to the regret and the shame for the hurt you’ve caused (‘i’ve known, i’ve always known, in the end i’d be sorry, but that’s all i am now, that’s all i can be, is sorry’), to questioning why you continue in these thought and behavioural patterns (‘never caught up in the moment, busy begging the past to stay’).
7 likessorry for the long post, i just really wanted to express my gratitude in finding music that feels like a complete stranger peeked into my brain and found the words to describe a situation that I haven’t been able to express x
when i hear “but it feels oddly good to hurt”, i think about the uncomfortable comfort of being depressed (despite that not being what the song is about lolz). the line “gotta get in my head, i’ll never be sixteen again” just hits home. always has, even before i turned sixteen, but very much so now that i am nearing eighteen. i love your music so much. thanks for what you do.
0 likesI loved this so much!!! I love your lyrics and I relate them a lot to a lot of things in my life and it's nice to know what they actually mean
0 likesI absolutely adore this video! I love to hear what you where thinking when writing these beautiful songs and comparing them with my thoughts taken from experiences I have had in my life when I first heard them! Adored you from pas de deux days and love the build a problem days even more than I thought possible
0 likesAhhhhh I love this! I've done a lot of Genius searches looking for these kinds of breakdowns, and I appreciate and respect the balance you've found of "this is about everyone but it's also about me too" I think that's really neat. Also unrelated but your hair looks super pretty in this video lol
0 likesI love the little acoustic bits ! It makes the vid cozy and it amazes me how you sound like the recorded tracks (is that even english ? probably not, im a non-native speaker and it's 2am)
0 likesAnyway i'm so so so impressed by your writing skills ! love from france <3
i absolutelly love when you talk about your lyric meanings. it helps me connect to them more contrary to what some might say
0 likesAmazing video, it’s wonderful to see into your mind as a person, musician and songwriter
0 likes"I made a promise but i break it everyday" hits differently for me because i once promised someone that i'd stay but then i left. So im breaking it.
13 likesI’ll be honest, I wish I could know more about how you wrote When. It’s my favourite song of yours and the one that makes me most vulnerable. It’s the song that made me realize I had depression and wanted to end it all. The idea that “I’ll never be 16 again” was so… stifling to me. It was much before my 17th birthday when I got diagnosed and it felt like time was running thin for me. That song helped me make the decision to make an effort in getting better in my life, so I thank you. Also the whole first 2 verses are so relatable cause I struggle with loving and human emotions.
0 likesI had been reading the line "when you go quiet I hate myself" to be about the burst of anxiety when you're texting someone and there's a pause in the conversation and you start to overthink and worry like "oh no I said something stupid and they're upset"
1 likei love dodie's lyrics and i love these videos, like when she explained intertwined I fell in love with the song, also my partner for my birthday got me her book so i'm understanding more of the old lyrics, i love Dodie so much 🥰🥰
0 likesI’m highly considering tattooing “I’ll grow the bones myself then”
0 likesIt’s like both vulnerable and empowering at the same time which truly feels like me
It’s what I feel every time I hurt and I also love All my daughters so much.
Thank you. I love listening to your music and it was really interesting to see the thought process and meaning behind the lyrics.
0 likesfor me, i thought of before the line as a song about losing your innocence or cynicism of this shit shit world, and i thought it was especially relevant given everything and i absolutely love how "i used to smile at every star and thank the sky, now i look up at all the duds and wonder why i feel like all of them are gone" so beautifully illustrates that
2 likesthis was soso cool to watch! so many of these lyrics had different meanings to me personally which is so Sick bc you've managed to make them so personal and so relatable at the same time? and it's amazing how much thought and dedication you put into these songs damn thank u
0 likesI love this video! You're right Dodie, you ARE smart and I love creative, beautiful lyrics like this. You've made my day better!!
0 likesthis was so insightful, thank you dodie. it helps a lot with my own songwriting. i would like to know more about don't quite belong :) for me, its an anthem for being neurodivergent, like others have said.
1 likeI love videos like this. Thank you Dodie
1 likeYou’re songs are so raw and genuine and complex. It’s just incredible. I’ve never heard anything like your music and I don’t know if I ever will again.
0 likeswhenever i listen to your songs about the pressures of being someone that people look up to like burned out or all my daughters i always relate to them so heavily. because i a lot of the times feel the weight and pressures of taking care of and being there for everyone around me even though i don’t have my life together
2 likesthank you for this!!! one of my favorite things about your music is your lyricism, so being able to understand them past enjoying really pretty wording is amazing!! :D (especially bc i struggle with analyzing lyrics, i’m fine with books but music has never clicked for some reason lol)
1 likeAbsolutely loved this!! I would love more videos like this or a video of a song being made and your thought process throughout.
0 likes"Hate myself" is a very emotional song to me, as I am usually the one going quiet in my relationship. It feels hard to talk when you are overwhelmed, and even my lovely boyfriend cannot change that. But it made me try way harder to communicate when I feel bad. And now I've actually gotten better and I feel happier.
0 likesSo thank you, Dodie! ^^
"I'll never be sixteen again" has been haunting me since my birthday in January. I know this is it, these are supposed to be the golden years and I'm not doing anything with my life.
1 likeBefore the Line is my absolute favourite, due to my experiences with depersonalisation and dissociation. The first time I properly listened to the lyrics, I cried and dissociated a tad, but I think I needed to hear them... To remind me that I am not alone. My heart truly sung when I read an interview in which you described what the song was really about. Thank you Dodie.
0 likesStay safe,
Win Xx
“And when I come to you and say my peace
1 likeDon't give me eyes like this is my problem, please
Folded arms and furrowed brows
It's just too late to admit it now, hmm”
I love bite back so so much
yes, the mouth feel! that's why i love singing so many of Dodie's lyrics!
0 likesthis is about my own interpretation of when
0 likesSo I’ve been listening to when since it was just the live version on the intertwined ep and I’m so happy its got a revamp as it’s one of my favourite songs but it came at a very interesting time.
When I listened to on the ep I was quite young and couldn’t wait to be 16 and was waiting until I could listen to the lyrics and relate.
The album came out when I was 16 turning 17 and it came with a very different meaning because of lockdown. I was 16 but not having the experience I wanted and I listened to when, the night before I turned 17 and just thought shit. I’m never going to be 16 again and the entire time I’ve been inside. Anyway yea lol just thought that was weirdly poetic.
Beautiful lyrics crafted by a beautiful being <3
3 likesI loved everything about this video
0 likesthe talking about lyrics, the singing, the lighting and of course, dodie
I've been listening to you for so long now and what's hilarious is that the music you release usually aligns perfectly with whatever I'm going through at that moment lol it's great
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Also, it's so strange that I feel more seen by a Youtuber I found as a kid than I have in most of my friendships. So thank you for being so open and ready to talk Dodie
0 likesHi! i loved this video and you have been a huge inspiration to me for so many years, your lyricism is almost unmatched you are just so good at writing and expressing things, this video was super cool :D
0 likesdodie you are soooo good at explaining things, I LOOOVE YOUR MUSIC OMG ❤️❤️❤️
0 likeshi from Mexico
:000 i’m so excited to watch this video!! there’s so many artists that i wish would do videos like this because i think they’re really interesting and u were definitely at the top of my list!!
0 likes"Guiltless" has helped me realize things about my own life. "When" has made me wistful for my younger years in the same way the narrator of the song does but likely for different reasons. I'll echo what someone else said about "Don't Quite Belong" being a neurodivergent anthem because it absolutely is. "Sick of Losing Soulmates" hit me (and was actually the first dodie song I ever heard, but it was the acoustic version) right as I was beginning university and a lot of high school friends were leaving my life for various reasons so I attached to it very quickly.
0 likesIt's always nice to have the pov of the songwriter concerning lyrics, we all have different interpretations and connections with certain lyrics but sometimes having other way of perceiving them is nice
0 likesI totally don’t mean to be like “well I understood Before the Line 😌”, but as someone who also has derealization and trauma, it was surprising to me to see so many people asking about that song, because it clicked SO hard for me on the very first listen. You captured the experience of trauma splitting your life in two SO intensely that I had no questions about the promise, the floating, all that. Cuz that’s my life 😭
0 likesLoved this video so much. Thank you and please do more if you're open to it! I love the way you write and to understand something (to a certain degree) straight from the artist. <3
0 likesafter hearing the sneak peek of these songs played live I can't wait even more to see you live ^^
0 likesI’ve always loved, “so which path will you take, ‘cause we both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin”
2 likesi just think it's so beautiful that everyone can take solace in your words and hold on to what they mean for them while still being curious as to what you originally meant, respecting your intentions and your stories but respecting that art is fluid and perceived
0 likes‘before the line’ makes me relate to the grieving of my mother’s death.
1 like‘I’m still clawing for the strings, oh I’d do any fcking thing’,
‘and I am lying when I say it’s time to let her float away’,
‘I made a promise but I break it everyday’,
and practically most of the song. it makes me feel the grief all over again, the same feeling I get when I listen to ‘sorry’.
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0 likesso cool! so glad to hear my interpretation was real close to your intent (I've always loved the line "Red pushing down on the green" and i felt vindicated by my interpretation when you explained it), and i gotta say i've always felt that like despite the palpable anxiety in "Hate Myself" there's a little bit of like, self awareness ("I'm not magical I can't read your mind/but how can you not hear the whole conversation I have sitting still with a brain on fire" always read to me as "I can't read your mind, but how can you not read my mind?")
0 likesaaah i love hearing you talk about the lyrics and your music! tysm for this, it's so interesting to listen to <3
0 likesi understood most of these lyrics similarly to how you explain them in this video and i thing its a testament to how well you craft lyrics to be beautiful and open but also that communicate complex ideas (or ideas in general) clearly.
0 likesMy personal favorite lyrics of yours are the ones in "If I'm being honest" and "sick of losing soulmates"...
0 likesSpecially the last one, because I feel very connected to that song, and have a lot of memories attached to it..."Time and hearts will wear us thin , so which path will you take, cause we both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin" - I love this part because it tells a complex story without being lengthy, and gives you an insight on the relationship of the "characters" involved, without the need to go on and on about their history... It's simple, it's poetic, it works.
Pero adoro todas tus otras letras, mujer! <3 Also, your hair looks beautiful :D
I've been listening to your music since I was 13... I'm 19 now and one line that has ALWAYS managed to make me tear up is "I'll never be sixteen again" I remember singing it over and over under my breath when I WAS sixteen and just starting to space completely out of my life. I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could, but failed miserably, and then it was over.
0 likesI remember that when you released "Burned out" you said that the line "I might just leave soon" doesn't mean anything related to suicidal ideation. It's good to hear you talking about it after all this time. Remember that it's okay to talk about that <3
0 likesI feel like I've always felt and understood your lyrics. Like whenever I listen to your music I'm like "huh, I don't remember giving Dodie my diary" lol
0 likesYou emphatically saying “I’m really smart!” Is great to see!! I’m so glad you know your own genius capabilities
1 like"Sorry" sounds like apologizing to my mother for all the harm I caused her
1 likei feel like there's a dodie song for every situation and every one is so beautifully crafted
0 likesI went through something with a few people I was close to a few months ago and “Hate Myself” perfectly describes how I feel right now. I still blame myself for a lot and it’s nice to know that someone else has felt like that. “Secret for the Mad” has also been a pretty helpful song. Thanks Dodie
0 likesTo me “before the line” came after I came out to someone who I didn’t want bc I knew I would loose her but had to, and right when I first started dating my first gf. It felt like I had two different versions of myself and there were parts of each residing in the same body before and after the line in my life where I realized which was right. Literally every lyric felt like it fit just right.
0 likesAlso in “she”:”it feels oddly good to hurt”. After always wondering if I had a crush on literally every guy I had a simple conversation with or thought was nice, finally putting a name to a feeling I thought was friendship was so nice. But it hurt. Bc I knew that suddenly, nothing was so simple any more. I ached bc now everytime I was around her, I knew what I really wanted, and knew it would never happen.
dodie, this video made me produce so much seratonin. Thank you. I will now go listen to your album and songs for the rest of the night <3
0 likesI just want to say thank you for writing guiltless. I feel like it’s an under appreciated gem of yours, but I suppose it only relates to someone who has also been through that pain. It’s almost sad when someone does actually understand it and relate, as it means they’ve been through the same pain. I know it’s a song you won’t explain the lyrics for as it’s so personal (though I feel it is easy to read between the lines of that one) but I just wanted to let you know my first tattoo is going to be “guiltless” as that songs means the absolute world to me. I didn’t think anyone could ever put that feeling into words for me. “You opened a door that a kid shouldn’t walk through” is one of your best lyrics ever and is so simple yet so true !!!
0 likesThis was scrumptiously introspective.
0 likesThank you, dodie :]
when I first heard the chorus from all my daughters it made me think of the younger versions of myself/my inner child and how I often feel like I am not who they thought I would be etc.
0 likesthank you for everything dodie! ❤️
0 likesThank you for this ❤️ this kind of vulnerability is so tricky to navigate on the internet, but thank you for trusting us with it.
0 likesim so glad i watched this! i feel like i can understand your music so much more now!
0 likesDodie, this whole video made my week. You are so wonderfully excited about your work. I'm so bloody proud of you because you are proud of yourself. Keep doing this thing that you love because you love it. You've reminded me why I love writing too. x
0 likesi think we can all agree that all my daughters broke us in some way or another
1 likeA lot of your songs, I’ve always related to in one way or another through the years but especially now the ones you released on build a problem I’ve found myself relating more and more to going through a break up and having an out lit of like knowing that comfort that someone else out there knows what I’m going through. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone when it comes to stuff like that. Idk
0 likesthis is quite a throwback but “i won’t be done” is one of my favorite demos you’ve posted. i know it’s supposed to mean something entirely different, but for me the chorus means that yourself and others may stop believing in you when you’re in a super dark and seemingly inescapable place, but when the time comes, you’ll pick yourself back up again and say “fuck you, world. i lived, you haven’t seen the last of me yet”
0 likesThese. are so different from what I felt when i first heard it. I feel like the next time i come across those lines they are going to be new songs entirely. I think we know you wrote them for your life, from your experiences but the same set of words means such different things to all of us and I find this video and its comments, so fascinating. :0 Personally, your songs have always been this vibe of sunny rain, the resilience of "so what" either you choose to fight it or to yield; your songs make me feel like I win me, whichever part of me, the bad the good, I feel like I win even when I lose. Am i making sense?
0 likesThis is wonderful-- thank you!
0 likesI think it's up there with the video from years ago about working on your head/chest/mixed voice as one of my favs
Edit: "My Singing Voice"
When you were explaining the lyrics from the line I wanted to cry, I felt understood
0 likesI love that She was included at the end- as someone who has developed crushes on numerous straight girls and is currently in love with one, I can definitely understand the lyrics and the meaning behind them
0 likes‘She,’ is a very important song to me because it’s the one that reminds my partner and I of each other even when we’re an ocean apart
0 likesI did not expect to have a happy breakdown. Like, I finnally admit the truth. The truth is good, but it doesn't come easy. Thank you for this realization, dodie. And you do feel kinda like a 2nd mom to me, but please don't let me be of burden. Thank you for caring so much. I love you, flaws and all ( even the ones I don't see) thank you for being so kind. I cant wait to see you next year in Nashville!
1 likeWhen I first heard “in the middle” i laughed to my self that it could sounds like a song about a threesome, but I suppressed that and I just jammed to the tune and music. Well now that I found out it’s true…I feel like my younger self has been lied to
0 likesGoodness, I love your lyricism so much, thank you for this <3
0 likesI absolutely love Special Girl. It's a bop and the lyrics are perfect for me, e.g.
2 likes"Oh I think I was doomed before I began. Mm, sorry, I just know the way that I am. Oh well :)"
It's not a very happy lyric, but it perfectly captures the way my last relationship ended. I predicted it from the start, I even semi-jokingly warned him that it would end how it did. Self-fulfilling prophecy, maybe, but you can't change the past.
i really love hearing about song lyric meanings, especially some more sad songs like these. music is emotion to me and so much emotion is given in these songs. love em
0 likesThe first time I listened to the album I pulled up the notes app on my phone and wrote out all of the lyrics that stuck a chord with me 🙈
0 likes"Toe a line between sexy and sick" is bouncing around my head the most. I love the way you write.
As someone who was once of the "daughters" who idolized you from the time i was 13, i think it's when you started showing the more human sides of yourself (or maybe as i got older i understood them), that i started admiring you in a more authentic way i feel like <3 thanks for being here all my teen years - sincerely, a now 18 yo fan who you got through most of their teen heartbreaks
0 likes“A nod of pity for the plain girl”
16 likesI misheard this lyric, and my wrong lyric changed the meaning of the song… I heard:
“I’m not of pity for the plain girl”.
I thought this was a girl-with-the-rainbow-backpack situation. You were mean to her because it seemed to validate you in the eyes of people who tormented you otherwise. You would say in front of them that you were not of pity for that plain girl with the rainbow backpack, because they wouldn’t call you a legend anymore if you said that. But you said that your heart ached for her, and you actually felt terrible about it. You were clearly in denial- you did feel bad, but you would say out loud that you weren’t of pity for her.
Then I thought about how this lyric affected the entire song- it is from the point of view of a person that is not only self conscious, but who is trying a little too hard to fit in. “I’ll close my mouth, I won’t say a word”. You will be quiet and let them do the talking, stand by as someone in pain gets salt in their wound. “Can you see the panic inside”- you might have been nervous that the others would figure out it was an act, that you did, in fact, care for the girl in the rainbow backpack. “What goes on behind the words?” This just added a million layers to the song. You told this girl that she was cheesy, made fun of who she was and what she did to fit in. But behind the words was a girl who was also being tormented, and someone who felt like they were not choosing to be mean to this girl- it was just how things happened to unfold, and you didn’t actually think she was lame. There were things going on behind the words.
“I’ll just call a taxi- I’ve got to be up early tomorrow again”. In this situation, anxiety and the desire to escape were probably things you felt very strongly. I would not be surprised if you said that your mindset during this time period was “make it through today and then you can go home and stop pretending.”
oh my god for 'im walking if it doesn't sting' my brain emphasized that phrase differently to where everytime i heard it i thought of standing in lines at an amuesment park with other people and they complain about how they dont want to walk because it hurts them(they'll only walk if their feet don't hurt, otherwise to them it isn't worth it) something that i would always get annoyed at because i like walking with blisters because it makes the ride so much more worth it; so i never got that line because i felt like it said the exact opposite of what the rest of the song was saying ???? WTF ?? but nO the 'im walking' is refferring to the phrase 'im walking' as in like 'im out'. as in why would i do that if it doesn't hurt. how did i completely misunderstand the lyrics but still get this same idea of pain adding to an experience thats so funny to me. i understood the song but one line will just fly over my head; that happens to me so often
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I always interpreted it as wanting to be independent and not show pain e.g. after an injury to your ankle. "I'm proving that I'm a special girl because I'm strong enough not to show my suffering and that makes me somehow better than other people and therefore a valuable person." Kinda messed up tbh but that's why I relate 🙃
1 likethe way she described before the line I related to it so much. I’ve loved the track since I first heard it. I’ve liked dodie for a long time but this is definitely one of my fav songs of hers, Something I’ve needed in high school.
0 likesalways wondered ab “ignorant trauma in one afternoon”, feels like you experienced a traumatic event in a day when u were younger that u didn’t realize was traumatic until much later in life
7 likesBurned out for me is a representation of me wanting to leave my own life not in a suicidal way but more of leaving my current life cuz I feel so tired and the 'I am not cartoon' line feels like I'm not perfect and that people perceive me as a cartoon 'happy, approachable' all that
8 likeshey dodie :) thanks a lot for this video! loved your introspection into the lyrics, I'd love it if you did more like these. btw, idk if this is the same for everyone but I hope it is; I don't think most us think you're perfect or expect you to be! It is pretty hard to believe or see when every single mistake is nowadays leading to people getting cancelled on the internet which suck, but I hope you get what I mean on the more personal level. we don't love you because we think you're perfect, we love you and your music and your lyrics because of how vulnerable you make yourself in your art and how you express your issues or thoughts or problems or just ideas through your music. it's that realness, that imperfection inherent to humans that you let yourself bring to your music & lyrics that I'm sure is what makes all of us love it and you and your art :)
1 likeso thanks for that! I'll never tire of scrutinizing your lyrics, I love how metaphorical and abstract but just oddly specific feeling-wise they can be. thanks for sharing all of this with us!!
love from Argentina!
seeing all the replies dodie is leaving for people feels so comfy. like she's a real, caring person and we get to enjoy this community of sorts :')
8 likesThank you for the music, Dodie!
0 likesAfter watching this all i want is to make a musical out of dodie’s songs: they’re just so beautiful and so full of meaning!! Like these stories deserve to be brought to life so ppl can sit in theatres together and cry over them rather than on their own with their headphones in lmao
0 likesThank you dodie, for being vulnerable for us!
0 likesthe first time i heard guiltless i immediately sent it to my sister. "i'm not bitter, I'm just tired. no use getting angry at the way that you're wired" summed up my feelings about my dad so intensely and succinctly that it still takes my breath away when i hear it
0 likesyou should do this for every one of your songs i swear i love this
0 likesIt's so weird to think boys like you came out almost 2 years ago now - as far as music goes I've never felt such a strong emotional pull as any of your songs not just build a problem but all things.
0 likesHey dodie!
4 likesWhat sounds/plugin do you use for the keyboard sound in if im being honest, i absolutely love it lol
Probably my favourite of yours and the lyrics are brilliant too
As someone with OSDD, derealization and depersonalization are a huge part of my life, so many of Dodie's lyrics describe things that I wouldn't now how to explain. But others have just a whole different and special meaning for me.
0 likesWhen I hear "all my daughters" I think of the littles; the chorus of Burn out brings the hope of getting to know the other parts of the system and yet the song express perfectly the darkness of the parts that still are living and reliving the traumas. But my favorite os and forever will be "Ready Now", it shows perfectly, for us, the whole process of EMDR therapy and our experience with it. I actually play it for grounding, when many of us are in a bad week.
I guess sharing our experience is just a way to say THANK YOU, DODIE! You and your music mean s lot to us💜
"It feels oddly good to hurt...well doesn't it?"
1 likeI WASN'T READY FOR THAT DOROTHY
I am so SO grateful for this. BAP has become one of my favorite albums of all time and this video just connected me even more i cry tysm Dodie 💗 personally All My Daughters -- 😭
0 likesBeen listening to all of Dodie's music on a loop to get through the workday for weeks, and I've slowly gotten more random revelations about them the more I hear them, and it feels like a victory that I've interpreted so many of these lyrics the same way Dodie meant it! 😱😍 peak parasocial relationships wowow
0 likesendlessly grateful for ur music <3
0 likesI made a playlist of songs that represented what I was feeling at different stages of this roller coaster of emotions/situationship. Using the songs to process what was happening, and how it kept changing. Literally half of the songs are Dodies songs and they fit very well 👌
0 likesUgh dodie I listen to this album on speakers, laptops, headphones and everytime there is just something extra and gorgeous I hear. Your words are beautiful but man I love the little details xxx
0 likesthe way that every lyric it is so unique and perfect. omg thank u dodie
0 likesI would love you to do more tutorials for your songs. I love before the line and want to play it on guitar 💞
0 likesHer covid-induced deep voice makes her sound loads more confident.
0 likesThis is sooo interesting, your lyrics are amazing! Nothing like writing songs is there, I love it, I have several on my channel now.
0 likesI’m in a polyamorous relationship and i’m the middle feels like such a poly anthem to me with the positivity of introducing two people you are seeing or have seen together in a romantic or sexual way. Rainbow has also touched me deeply because of my relationship style. “please step inside my soul… you’d understand in minutes” speaks to me so much, I get told by everyone that I am not okay with my relationship and i’m being forced to accept polyamory but if they could just live as me for a moment and feel the amount of love I feel each day for my partner and his partner and see how healthily we communicate to each other they would understand how good our relationships are.
0 likesI always interpreted the last chorus of Four Tequeilas Down, where ‘they’ is replaced with ‘she’ as the singer saying that her past self, or the version of her that knows better than to do this, will ‘never know’, even though that isn’t true. She’s trying to make herself feel better, maybe, about doing this, trying to seperate herself from the voice in her head that tells her it’s wrong, which is a contrast to ‘them’ from the previous choruses, which I thought was reffering to the other people caught in this relationship mess, like the S/Os of the singer and her lover, maybe. One’s actual people, the other’s just herself. That’s what I think, anyway
0 likesThe idea that the artists' meaning of a song or writing doesnt matter anymore after it is put in the world is a literary concept called "death of the author" very interesting to look into
2 likesI never really considered "before the line" to about derealization since I listened to it very often
8 likesI thought it was more, of a suicide of a person, with the lines "I'm still clawing for a string, oh I'd do any fucking thing" and "I think that this really is it, I'll have to take what I can get."
Guiltless as a whole really helped me express my emotions about my father! At a time when things got really bad and he just saw no wrong in things he’d done and continued to do, this song just felt so perfect. “Ignorant drama in one afternoon” “I could never let you know, you’d never get it” “Now I’m the one who can’t let it go, don’t say it’s genetic” “Is it real? You believe you’re guiltless” All is well now. That all happened when the song first came out 👍🏽😂💗
0 likesThe English major is me is absolutely living for this analysis (and I really respect how sensitively you discuss these lines with enough distance to keep yourself safe and comfortable without losing the humanity of the music)!
0 likesthis is really cool. more artists should do something like this, like your very own genius interview but in a comfier and quieter setting yk
0 likesi have been listening to your music for a while now and something that always fascinates me about it is how the song lyrics may change meaning depending on how im feeling. ive gone through my darkest moments with dodie, and my happiest with dodie, and theyre always the same songs. they really remind me how music can be so personal and unique to everyone. dods thank you for creating this little sanctuary for me to feel my emotions in all their glory <33 - from a very devoted fan
0 likesI love the way you write so much honestly. Your greatest curse of derealization actually makes the most wonderful combination for writing music. You write as if you’re in the outside looking in. Creating very magical and almost disturbing visualizations for feelings we have all felt but never had the words for. The way you write about personal issues and humanely things is so “romantic” in a sense. Man I wish I had a big enough vocabulary to explain how I feel about your writing style, but this is all so can do haha. It creates this warmth of being found and understood inside myself and in probably everyone else. Thank you for explaining your wonderful work to us! Being so vulnerable and open.
0 likesIt’s so lovely hearing you fish about your lyrics ☺️🥺
0 likesAlso I’ve been wanting to ask for ages, would you consider making a video about your clothing style because it is absolutely how I dress in my mind but don’t have the confidence to in real life!
My brain takes turns being obsessed with different songs on your albums. The meaning behind one of them will just suddenly hit me and it will be playing in my head for days. I absolutely love before the line. The emotion and struggle in it is so tangible and so relatable.
0 likessmall things and big things, i relate to you so much dodie. when i’m in a bad place i often contort it into high sexuality. i also feel the urge to make people open up to me and have scooped out plenty of people. and i feel the need to scream at the world but also feel the line about the daughters. i’m so delicate but i’ve been through so much <3 love you dodie
0 likesI feel good about myself cause I feel like I understood almost all the lyrics correctly lol
0 likes“all my daughters” might be my favorite song now and i’m pissed at myself for sleeping on it all this time
0 likesSoooo Brave! Thank you for being vulnerable - here and in your lyrics. THAT'S what makes them so relatable for SO many people.
0 likesThey're honest. Deeply felt. Beautifully expressed.
Just don't ever lose sight of the good you bring to the world. No matter how dark or detached you may feel on down days, know that feelings fluctuate - are fickle - but you bring insight, acceptance, bravery and joy to others every day. Changing the world a little bit.
Every bit "a Special Girl"!
Your music just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside
0 likeslove you and your music dodie!! <3
0 likesI was so shook when I thought you were going to answer "a dark politician will end up alone" It always felt like an intensely personal line, especially when I watched you sing it live. For me personally, I apply it to my sister, who was my abuser growing up. She wanted to work in the government, and yet she's fucking psychotic. The song always fit her quite nicely.
0 likesthank you for your vulnerability in this video, it was so nice to watch and see where your wonderful lyrics come from!! <3
0 likesParty tattoos has got me through so much of my life the past five years thank you dodie <3
0 likes“im walking if it doesnt sting” 💕💕
0 likesi love that line so much because its like… youre so used to being hurt and living with pain that you feel like you need it to live, and romanticizing it as a way to deal, treating it as if it makes you special. you begin to see yourself as a character in a soap opera instead of a real human. truth is, you dont have to feel like shit all the time in order to be special. but it makes you feel happier in the moment GOD THAT SONGS SO GOOD
i said this before but all my daughters is just so important to me in a way that it wasn't intended to be i think its amazing how words are so versatile and how our brains work u know!!!
4 likesI'm currently writing a fanfic, where each chapter takes one of dodies songs and builds around it ❤️
2 likesBurned out was a song that I cried too and seeing you explain it brings me back but it was always so comforting to me
0 likesas an english grad i LOVE picking apart meanings for any media, especially songs, and i'm proud to say that i was about 80% right in my estimates of what these lyrics meant :D
0 likesoooh i love that ur intention w All My Daughters ended up being so different from my perception of it! I think of all the daughters being like little versions of you that embody like your best qualities and the parts of you that are pure and human and that you want to protect. but you’re screaming underwater, because like that maternal character that loves and cares for those parts of you, the mother inside you that wants to protect your inner child, is desperately fighting the waves of depression and self-hating thoughts that mental illness bring. <333
0 likesThis video reminds me of what I loved about English lit at school I love it!!! I thought the line in if I’m being honest when you posted on your story earlier “I think you like how I plead” and to me I feel it really captures the feelings of inferiority when you have a crush to the extent where even perhaps they haven’t done anything wrong you idolise them so much that anything that doesn’t match up to the perfect picture in your head feels like instead they are mocking you
0 likesthis video was so cool!! your lyrics are like, the best ever lol. Before the Line and When both REALLY resonated with me so like. thanks for sharing your music, it means a lot!
0 likestimestamps
0 likes1:04 If I'm Being Honest
1:46 in the bed
3:45 Burned Out
5:21 Guiltless (almost)
5:41 Before The Line
7:30 Four Tequilas Down
8:40 Special Girl
9:32 Cool Girl
10:06 In The Middle
10:53 Monster
11:18 Human
11:35 Sorry
12:21 all my daughters
14:45 Hate Myself
15:36 She
Umm I know you're most probably not gonna read this.. But I LOVE YOUR MUSIC and it's just that you're so freaking talented it's crazy.. AND OH MY GAWD YOU'RE SOO UNDERRATED.. I just want you to know ILYSM and GWS :) <3
1 likeugh i loveeee what you do with your art…it’s so whole
0 likes"A dark politician will end up alone"
1 likethere's that person in your life where, every time you have an opinion about society or politics or life in general, they shut it down. they tell you that you must be wrong and they know more than you. it seems to be that whatever the topic is, your view is wrong and there's is right. you have to listen to them ranting about their views without getting a word in, wondering if you were being stupid. you dread talking about politics with them because you can never prove your point.. they are smart and they know it. they enjoy it. they get a thrill out of making you realise how little you know. and they're uncomfortable with the idea of you understanding, of gaining knowledge and standing up for yourself. because if you know as much as them then how will they make you feel small. they sit with their newspaper in the arm chair and you are scared of them and you hate it.
that's what it means to me anyway lmao ill see you all in therapy
the line "i am burnt out I smell of smoke, it seeps through her cracks and so I start to choke" has always been one of my favorite lines ever since you first put up the song. It really resonated with me at the time bc I was going through a really stressful time in my life where I was spreading myself waaaaayy too thin and I was really unhappy and was having massive panic attacks all the time, but the lyric honestly always kind of calmed me like "it's okay, see other people go through this, you'll be okay, you just gotta take care of yourself and take some time to fix your machine that you overworked" and I ended up quitting a job that I hated and finding one that brought me joy, taking more time for myself and self care when I was feeling anxious, and became happier with myself and my life, so, uh thanks for that lil line, dodes. <3
0 likesthis isn’t anything about lyrics but thought i’d say that i am a long time viewer/listener/subscriber/ whatever n watching u clearly grow not only with your music but also just as a person is so cool and nice to see:’)
0 likesI wanted to get a reference to party tattoos tattooed to remind me to take myself less seriously! Wondering what "We're not bruised they're just party tattoos" means to you and how you came to that realisation? X
4 likesReplies (1)
She did a Genius interview explaining the meaning of Party Tattoos!
0 likesI’m really interested in the lyric “Now every morning since the line between my lives
0 likesI greet the sun, and ask, "have I already died?” Since you mentioned that Before The Line was reflecting on your childhood I feel it even deeper now
i LOVE all my daughters. beautiful song dodie 🥰🥰🥰
0 likesI've always wondered about the line in Rainbow "I didn't think it fair, I was not to be trusted, how can I be proud of what a million people shout at me I'm not?" The whole song is such a masterpiece though ❤❤
0 likesI have definitely applied all of guiltless to my relationship with my parents and honestly in some ways it’s helped me heal but sometimes it just brings out all of the raw anger I have directed at them that I keep locked away because well, they don’t think that what they’ve said has hurt me so much and it’s literally built this wall between us and I’m incredibly bitter about it but… there’s not point in trying to get them to see how much it affects me so I’ll just keep it to myself. But it does really feel wonderful to blast this in my car with the windows down and just let all of my anger out while singing along.
0 likesThank you for sharing <3 i really love your lyrics
0 likesIt’s SO interesting because ‘something in me says that this is ok’ for me means that we are HUMAN and we are fucked up but it’s what we need in that moment, to feel the negative feelings, and it’s a comforting thing
0 likesDODIE this was essentially ASMR I love your brain and your words u r a genius xo
0 likesThe part where she just says the lyrics to All My Daughters after being asked to describe All My Daughters was so funny to me
0 likesI N E E D E D to hear the explanation of All My Daughters. It has so my complicated and intense emotions like desperate, guilty, angry, absent, and overly responsible. It is definitely my favourite track in BAP, and probably one of my top 5 or even top 3 songs by you.
0 likesThese lyrics all give me shivers:
"Everyone but me just knows / How to let go"
"Oh my god, I need it back
"And all this shit proves I'm alive"
"I'm not who they think I am!"
"How they love me / All my daughters / But I'm screaming underwater"
And then this string of lines hits me hardest, to the point where I wanna listen to the song just hear it:
"I'm on a train, I'm in a car / Washing my hair, I'm in the dark / I hate the world, and it doesn't care"
For me, these lines struck because of how horrible sleeping is for me. More often than not, I cant stay asleep, I wake up maybe 2-5 times a night and after the second time, I lose track of if Im asleep or awake and it carries on throughout the day. The constant change of setting in these lines are so accurately depicting what it's like. It's disorienting and confusing and all you can do is just go with wherever you are...
"if I could find the strength of fifty men maybe I could go back in again" - bite back
1 likeluv hearing what your lyrics specifically mean to you :)
your songwriting is very intimate and i love hearing your inner thoughts about the lyrics. i write a lot of poetry but the way you put yours to music is so beautiful
0 likesi'm 17 now and i grew up watching your videos and your songs are such a place of comfort for me. i understand you're flawed and not perfect, but I appreciate that. you helped me learn so much about myself and you always felt like a big sister to me, thank you so much.
0 likes(also thank you for all the videos you've been posting recently i forgot how much i used to love watching them and you've really helped cheer me up.)
and here we have dodie.. the best lyricist of all time
4 likesI've felt so close to so many of these songs because they came at very specific times in my life, or describe very particular feelings that I thought no one felt, or cared to explore. Even the more personal ones I could relate in some way or feel as if they fit in my own situations. Personally I love when I get to find out the meaning in which the author was thinking when writing, because it doesn't take away from my own experiences and the way i relate the work to them. This is simply a wordy way of saying that i love this video and i love your songs in so many deep ways ♡
0 likesLove you dodie! My boyfriend bought us tickets to see you in September, our first date was to one of your concerts, we will have been together 4 years soon 😁
0 likesI always saw the line "A dark politician will end up alone" as the idea that politicians are always telling people what they want to hear, and a "dark politician", however true the things they are saying may be, is never going to be appealing to the general public. In the same way, the narrator of the song doesn't want to reveal the truths about their own past and pain because they're worried they'll scare people away by being down all the time. I don't know if that's what it means to Dodie, but that's at least what it means to me :)
2 likesI mean, I knew I related to hate myself. But wow. I just. It’s just absolutely perfect, and it’s crazy how specifically correct it is.
2 likesI am a huge fan of hearing you explain your thoughts. Your imagination is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this insight into your music! It must be difficult to describe your lyrics in a single way when they are so full of meanings. I look forward to hearing how other people interpret your music to explain their own lives. I think I could always enjoy listening to you describe your world. Thank you for sharing your strength with us!
0 likesReally interesting to hear all the lyric explanations. I dont have any specific questions about lyric meaning but id love to know more about editing and crafting lyrics. I am currently trying to edit a few of my poems nd its so hard to hone what is important in the words... sometimes when i edit i cant tell if i prefer the new draft or the old one as it will morph into something totally new as i shift focus or tweak words... so yeah id love a video on editing songs!!
0 likesI don’t think there’s another artist that makes me feel as much as dodie
0 likesJust the entire song "When" is such a beautiful song to me and one that screams at me that I was trying to find something that I didn't need. The song to me reflects my being Asexual/Aromantic. I spent so many years looking and waiting for someone to come along and me feel that "spark" people talk about when they fall in love with someone and never once felt it that I missed that there are so many other kinds of love out there and sure I'm still waiting but I've finally stopped neglecting other forms. Because all forms of love can end if they're neglected or ignored or even just naturally. I don't want to miss the types of love I do feel. I don't want it to be over while I'm still waiting and asking when. Love "When" both the Build A Problem version and the older version from 5/6 years ago
0 likesOK but I love dodie's lyricism and would be down for a video where she interprets lyrics from songs by other artists she likes. Just for funsies of course. We all interpret songs differently :)
0 likesThese songs really are ours and I used them in some of my most darkest times and I love u for that 😭
0 likesbefore the line is a very depressing song for me but watching this made me feel a bit better about it. cuz dodie's not the desperate agonized protagonist in before the line, not always, and these moments won't always be all-consuming
0 likesOhhh this is so awesome <3
0 likeswould you ever be up for facilitating a songwriting workshop or something? You are so freakin' talented and it could be pretty awesome. I run a wee writing org for sapphic writers - if it's something you'd be up for I can keep ya posted when our funding pulls through :-)
as someone w dpdr who also writes lyrics/music and who loves u and ur music thank u for doing what you do it is very inspirational and i love u very much
0 likesi cry to before the line almost weekly and it makes me feel less alone because i get the same feeling with anxiety and unrealness of everything. thanks for being so honest <3
0 likesI love 'all my daughters' so dearly. I felt acknowledged by dodie, that she sees me in a way. I have a past I'm not proud of and have done bad things but for her to say she's done the same makes me feel not alone.
0 likesI've spent many a night sad and crying to dodie and I remember meeting her and sobbing on the floor just in awe of her and her admitting she has dark parts to herself is comforting.
Replies (1)
I'll never forget when I got to give her a hug and said " omg you're real" and she replied with a laugh " ah, yes I think so"
0 likesDealing with dissociation so often myself I felt the same in that moment
I just wanted to say that as someone who was fully dissociated for 2 years and still periodically dissociated now, your songs have spoken to me. Your voice gives them such a dreamy quality that resonates in that place and me that barely stays tethered to Earth.
0 likesHaving conversations with people is hard so I think of the line “when you go quiet I hate myself” as, I said something wrong and they think I’m dumb and they won’t wanna talk to me again
1 likeI was like dying for a video about your lyrics, i'm incredibly grateful now 🤧❤️✨
0 likesi’m glad dodie knows how much of a genius dodie is
0 likesHello. I hope you are doing well. Thank you for doing these videos even if you arnt feeling the best. You are one of my favorite artists. Keep up the good work.
2 likesYou always put so much thought and meaning into everything you create on so many layers, and that’s why I truly love your music so much. It feels like a warm blanket in the dark, or a hug from a friend who truly understands your pain, and is there for you. You’re songs make me feel something. Its help me get through a lot of dark times, and It’s nice to break free of that constant numbness even if it’s just for a few minutes whenever I hear your music. Thank you <3
0 likesi absolutely loved this, thanks for sharing, thank you for your art, super xcited to see you in brooklyn next feb
0 likesThank you very much for sharing, Dodie! :)
0 likesI loved this so much, meant to reply to the story but I was having a rubbish day so didn’t get around to it. Got me feeling all emotional rn
1 likedespite before the line being about something else you still managed to nail my depression on the fuckin head with every lyric i had a moment of like "am i being stalked" bc of how accurate it was so ty for the music lol
0 likesHi dodie! Im curious what “i wont take no for an answer” in sick of losing soulmates means? Anyway, i love you and your music 🤍
0 likesThe way you put things into words is out of this world, such a craft it keeps blowing my mind
0 likesI’m curious but I don’t wanna kill that magic feeling so I’ve decided that I’m gonna watch only half of it. 🧐😏🥰
1 likeListening to this and keeping track of every time I had the same interpretation of the song like "Ah yes, I'm going to get a good grade in listening to music. A thing that is both normal to want, and possible to achieve."
0 likesgahhh i was writing some stuff recently and thinking about where i got my lyrical style from and THEN this video pops up and it shows how influential ur music has been to me over the years :0
0 likesfuck this is so cool ur a huge inspiration
imagine being this lyrically talented. i feel like the west end is legally obligated to fund and run a dodie musical
0 likesooo this is fun hehe I can relate your lyrics to my own experiences sometimes but I also love wondering what they're really about and i was right for some heheh <3
0 likesI feel like musicians revealing the meaning behind certain lyrics is like magicians revealing their magic tricks. It is fascinating and interesting, but somehow it takes away the magic spark of your own imagination.
0 likesI used to listen to If I'm being Honest and Human when I fell asleep and hearing you sing it made nostalgia slap me in the face in a really nice way
0 likesOne of my favorite Dodie lyrics is in She, “Cause she tastes like birthday cake, and storytime, and fall
0 likesBut to her I taste of nothing at all” as a gay person who had a crush on a friend that line is just so gutting and beautiful
my fiancée has always thought "I wanna pick you up and scoop you out" sounds like a subtle threat, so anytime the songs songs my head, and I sing it, she always shouts "this is a threat" after those lyrics 😆😆
0 likesi could seriously listen to an hour of dodie explaining what her lyrics mean to her… thanks for that!
0 likesMy favourite song will always be When. It’s grown with me from years before sixteen to years after. The meaning to me changes with me
0 likesI LOVE that you talk about what ur lyrics and songs means and also we as listeners can take our own meaning from the songs too
0 likesughhh i’ve been waiting for a vid like this from you because i LOVE your lyricism at so intrigued to see how you came to them
5 likesawh dodie you have the most beautiful lyrics♥️ I’m an English lit student and am constantly just enchanted by themmm, makes me want to write poetry essays on your songs hehe
0 likesu have a way of phrasing things so perfectly like its emotions i can visualize i can feel like "hate myself" was one of the first songs where i was like oh my god ur in my head like "how can u not hear the whole conversation i have sitting still with a brain on fire" like just sitting through someone explaining its not u its them but ur thoughts are screaming that its u its u its u. idk u just itch a perfect scratch in my brain with ur diction i love ur words so much
0 likesThank you for sharing so much of the underlying meeting of your songs! I would love to understand these lines from "Rainbow":
0 likesSo please step inside my soul
I'd love to watch you gasp
You'd understand in minutes
And I'd like to think you'd miss it
'Cause so would I
Guiltless really hit me at a very pivotal time and even helped me understand my traumas and get through it. i hope u know that i don’t expect you to be anything more than you’re willing to offer, and you’ve already given me so much!!
0 likesi always thought the promise that you break every day is the promise to never grow up!! it's interesting to find what it really is, works equally well with what i always imagined :))
1 likeBurned Out for me ended up being about survival and heartbreak. I was learning to sing and play it in 2018 when someone I considered my teacher, mentor and, what I then thought was potential friend, groomed/sexually harassed me after a class. It was the last time I saw them, and even though I reported them to the police (finding out they had similar reports against them), I was unable to press charges. I was scared and angry and disgusted with both them and myself and though they revealed their true colour to me that day, I was so heartbroken that I’d lost them too. Thank god for free police-referred therapy. But also thank god for Burned Out. Because going home and playing/singing that the next day was so cathartic, a way to tell my story through song while I was still hurt and confused and dealing with it. Idk if that all makes sense. But, truly, thank god for Burned Out.
0 likesAs someone very drawn to polyamory, I’ve always been obsessed with In The Middle
0 likesthis was such a treat thank you. like bruh your explanation for "something in me says that this is ok" made me pause and just .. BRUH. that's deep as heck.
0 likesAll My Daughters is one of my favorites and the lyrics and sound just remind me of Regina Spektor
0 likeswhen Hate Myself came out I immediately did a cover of it (that you've also seen lmao) but after listening to it many many times and learning the meaning I don't think I did a really good job with the interpretation eeeeeeeeee well
0 likesi'm thankful you mentioned to us as viewers to be careful with what we share and to respect you (and others also). you never know were your will go or how people think about them
0 likesMonster was such an important song for me when I was coping with being cut out of someone's life, which resulted in an entire shift in social groups for me. "I craft my words to fit your head / 'cause no one listens to the dead" to me referred to how I was dead to this entire group, and that the only way they would listen to me was if I said something that fit the narrative they had written for me (and they were uninterested in anything else). of course a lot of this was probably in my head, but it all felt very real. it's such a banger tho
0 likesThings I’ve learned from this interview: Dodie is a lot hornier than I thought
0 likesLOVE coming it to immediately hear WANKING it’s like a welcome home <3
22 likeslove this video!! love your songs!!
0 likesThis is so interesting to watch think this is one of my fav videos thank you for this 😍
0 likesThanks so much for makin this vid i think its so interesting. Also i get what you mean about art, people always ask me what im trying to say with my paintings but i mostly wanna know how it makes people feel, and is weird i mean Monster is one of my fav songs ever and i always perceived it as always being the monster just people realising your personality and seeing it as a monster instead of a lovely creature.
0 likesI LOVE THIS VIDEO IDEA ❤ I love interpreting songs myself but sometimes I also want to know what the artist is thinking!!
0 likesFor “I wanna pick you up and scoop you out” I thought of it more in a twisted way where your scooping that person out of there own world and putting them into your world, without telling them
2 likesBurned out has got me through absolutely everything, thank you for that song Dodie❤️
0 likesi have a new appreciation for all my daughters now feels very much relatable
0 likesafter watching this all I can think is GOD I cannot wait to see you perform in March
1 likeThe older you get the more beautiful you become. Such a gorgeous person inside and out.
0 likesDodie you will never have to explain guiltless to me. Just feel like I need you to know that I get it. At this point it’s wired into my being.
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just wanted to second this sentiment! it has made me feel very understood
1 likeone of my favourite songs created by you is “i kissed someone it wasn’t you”, specifically the chorus:
0 likesput me in a car, i just want to go home
put me in a bath, i’ll forget you’re gone
it just sounds so hauntingly beautiful(?) (not sure if beautiful would be the right word because this song isn’t about anything beautiful going on) i think i understand the metaphor ‘put me in a bath, i’ll forget you’re gone’, the warmth of the water replacing the warmth of the lover that is no longer there, also being in the bathroom tends to be a place of wandering minds so we could be distracted from thinking about said ex lover.
idk! that’s my theory, i’d love to hear what other people think about this song :]
How is she so good at writing lyrics!!
0 likesomg i love you so much and I love watching you talk about your writing and your music. Music is so goooood
0 likesHonestly, most of your songs have a lot of meaning to me, but I feel the one that has most heavily effected me is Guiltless. For me it's about this person who really hurt me as a kid and preteen but didn't really know it. And now I have to move one and deal with that pain and trauma while they're just fine and off living their life. It's like they don't even know what they did, but how can I blame them? "No use getting angry at the way that you're wired." I feel like every lyric has some correlation to that pain for me, and it's been so therapeutic and beautiful for me. Especially the bit at the end where all the lyrics start up at one time and it really feels like that kind of panicked tirade I have when I think too hard about that situation.
0 likesIdk. Just my thoughts. I feel like I might have got too personal oof
Anyway in the bed is my favorite song ever it's so goooooooooooooooooooooooooood
i sent an ex "cool girl" shortly before breaking up with them and it was amazing to not have to spell it all out bc they got so much from listening to the song. i broke up w them through a song i wrote myself and they were complimenting my lyrics and performance through tears lol. i also sent "hate myself" to a diff ex who i hurt by being the silent part of the relationship, i was going through an autistic burnout and didn't have the language to understand it let alone explain it, i was literally nonverbal and undiagnosed. my ex really related to the song and appreciates my belated explanation. thank u for helping me communicate in my relationships dodie i love ur art
0 likesthis made my heart feel so full
0 likesPLEASE I DEFINITELY ASKED ABOUT “A dark politician will end up alone “ CUZ IT WAS THE FIRST THING I COULD THINK OF AND SHE WENT “Nah” AND THIS IS SO FUNNY
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I asked it as well bahaha T-T
2 likes@Trinity King HAHAHA what have we doonneee
1 likei was so curious about that one Ah
0 likesholy heck dodie!! you have no idea how much i love this video
0 likesit might just become my new favourite thing on the internet
when i was younger, i used to think that "she" was about looking back on yourself as a child before you were weighed down with trauma and mental illness. looking back, i was projecting a TON bc it's very obviously a sapphic song, but i just made it fit my situation at the time
0 likeswould be really interested to hear some thoughts on the lyric "ill carry your burden till the day that you die" from guiltless, recently been unpacking something similar (I think) in therapy so obv not looking for something detailed <3
0 likesside note but ur lyrics weirdly helped me find some stuff to unpack in therapy so thank you
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Literally went though Guiltless line by line with a therapist before, it's a great way to communicate when you don't have the words!
1 likeI have this wonderful (sometimes painful but in a good Greek catharsis way) experience with your lyrics that I don't have with any other music I've heard, where I feel the words and their meanings intrinsically in my body, sometimes before I even understand their meaning in an intellectual way. The way you sing and the topics your broach (specifically the mental health stuff, because same) hit me so deep in my gut and I feel so damn understood. It's this incredible relief, a moment of truly understanding that I am not, in fact, alone in the way I feel. I'm so fucking grateful for that. Thank you for getting it, and for being brave enough to write it down and put it into art and release it, even though it shows you as flawed and vulnerable. You're a true artist. Much love
0 likesI haven’t finished the video yet but so far my conclusion is: dodie be hornie
3 likesMuch love to you hope you're feeling more like yourself and can taste the world again soon to sing us more tunes about the tastes. (Referencing her Twitter and cov!d)
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Before the line was a substance abuse recovery song for me. It was really powerful and I sobbed when I heard it oh how the meaning changes when you have different experiences. Love this. Thank you again.
0 likesIt is so much fun to compare the meanings I have for your songs with your meanings!!! Sometimes they are very different or way more similar than I thought haha
0 likesi think my fave lyric is "gotta get it in my head i'll never be 16 again" from when bc i was 16 when i first heard it and now i'm 20 and growing up is the most painful experience so the way that sentence's meaning has evolved for me over the years just slaps me in the face every time
0 likesI still have my only meaning for those songs but i love to see what you were thinking when wrote it.
0 likesNow i understood in the middle hahaha cooler story than i imagine
i wish there a Genius video on All My Daughters because i LOVE that song i love every single lyric
3 likesthe line "I am burnt out, I smell of smoke, it seeps through her cracks and so I start to choke." really speaks to me about the times, especially in my last year of high school, when my health was falling apart. My chronic illnesses were going untreated, I was acting as though nothing was wrong while running on empty, and this line would play through my head in the moments where the pain and fatigue physically prevented me from doing something and I would fall or trip or stumble and I could no longer hide how burnt up and poorly maintained the inside of my body was.
0 likesThankfully I'm doing better now and actually taking care of myself, but Burned Out was such a comforting resource for me in a very scary and painful time.
what i learned from this video is i’ve been singing a lot of these songs with completely wrong lyrics
0 likesOkay so I've always LOVED 'Red pushing Down on the Green' but I interpreted it as Lust pushing Down on greed. It was the immediate imagery I got from it but you're explanation made me think of stop lights instead... And now I'm thinking about Taylor Swift hahaha 😂
0 likesI have always thought that “one will fold their arms, one will do the dance, really is no need, something wrong with me” is an anxiety inducing situation within a relationship where someone has said something slightly off beat, which makes the other emotionally “fold their arms” and clam up. Then, one will “do the dance” of apologising and trying to do whatever they can to “make it better”.
0 likesThere “really is no need” as the one person should not have clammed up and folded their arms, but then the other thinks there is “something wrong” with them as they’ve put themselves in a miserable situation where they’ve upset someone without meaning to. Sounds like a bit of an emotionally manipulative relationship to me!
this isn't a lyrical thing but i was listening to before the line just now, and it's interesting how it's a song about a before and after, and yet there's this constant drone in the background throughout the whole song. a constant. i just thought it was cool. like, it's the first thing you hear in the song and also the very last thing you hear. i wonder if there's any meaning behind it
3 likescan i just say that ‘special girl’ makes me cry because i feel so seen. i sometimes feel too weird for my own good, but that song is like my new self-love anthem. i can be proud of things that i tend to habitually see as embarrassing or annoying.
1 likewatching this after non-sexualizing the sexual parts of the lyrics bc of how i cannot relate to them being an asexual to find out more of the parts i didn't know had sexual context
0 likesi LOVE that you shared their meanings for you but i will still let some of them have a different meaning to me. i love how we can do this in music <3
omg i always interpreted “i carry the time we don’t talk in a backpack” to be about a breakup and not being able to talk to someone you miss and it weighing you down
0 likesYOU SHOULD COVER YOUR OLD SONGS OH MY GODDDD THEY SOUND SO GOOD
0 likesOh how Monster helped me through my ex roommate's deteriorating mental health...and she blamed it on me :,)
4 likesCool Girl and Monster comforted me so much when my best friend and I started drifting apart and fell off.🖤
0 likesI really enjoyed this--Thank you!
0 likesI don't know your true meaning behind rainbow but I relate to it in several ways. I'm queer and non binary and also suspect I'm neurodivergent and it hits me in all the feels
1 likeI feel like I don't fit in this world and I'm all wrong and that song really puts in to words everything I'm struggling with
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yes! it's about anything that is a little outside of the norm and can cause pain and shame but is also so so beautiful
3 likesNgl I've always listened to In The Middle in a totally different way than how dodie wrote it! And now I know! I'm excited to listen to it again to hear the threesome idea but I think it'll keep the meaning I gave it for me ❤
0 likesI made that promise to myself as well as a child, never heard anyone else talk about
4 likessomeday i hope i can write lyrics and string stories together like you <3
0 likesBurnt out means so much for me because I think I try to be more normal for family than friends. I was in such a dark time and I didn't want to ask for help. ( I really should've but I was too afraid.) and my mom could tell something was up and "smelled smoke". I held on to that last line because I felt as it said the things I couldn't say in my writing. ( even though the only person that saw them was me, I didn't want to admit it even to myself) The only place I could be "myself" is my writing, and I was still afraid to put that line in there, because I was so afraid of my family somehow seeing it. I'm in a better place, and I've gotten help, and I still love Burnt Out.
1 like“use the energy of anxiety… and just rewire it into horniness” dodie 2021
0 likesseeing you post so many videos in such a short span makes me miss watching your old videos 🥲 im so glad youre doing what u love but im so caught in the nostalgia aaaaaaa
0 likesI was the one who asked about guiltless and it's the one lyric in the whole song that I don't understand 😭😭
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me too 😭 I feel bad for asking now whoops
1 likesame i feel so bad aaa
1 likeI always took it as like "if you try to compromise and keep everyone happy, people will realize you're not genuine and leave" but obviously idk how she meant it
13 likesi also asked but good on them for keeping the boundaries they need
13 likesdoes she explain it in the video?
0 likes@emma michelle wait why
0 likes@Tiffany She said she didn't want to talk about it, but I don't think y'all did anything wrong @ the ppl who asked
15 likesI think she explained in the replies to the pinned comment
0 likesOh no don’t feel bad!!! Sorry! Politicians basically change their answer to suit them and make you feel gaslit - so the word fit!
16 likes@doddleoddle ❤
0 likes@doddleoddle no need to apologize dodie we respect your boundaries 1000%!! i just hope we didnt make you uncomfy in asking <33 much love
2 likes@doddleoddle ohh don’t worry! we respect ur boundaries <3
1 likesomehow this made me feel nostalgic for your songs lol better go listen to them again
0 likesthanks for the explanation of "sorry" I didn't really understand it but I like that it' s positioned after "four tequilas down" as if to apologize for what happened before.
0 likesalso how beautiful is "before the line" !!! I fell in love with this song immediately, from a depressed person I could not have described it better, see my emotions disappear like if someone "snatch the light" I LOVE IT 😍
I LOVE the way you were playing in the middle I want a cover so bad
2 likesGreat video Dodie! ✨
0 likesthis takes me back to analysis in english lit in high school but this feels so much nicer
25 likesOut of all of your songs, the line that I never understood was "I pinned each and every hope on you, I hope that you don't bleed with me" from Intertwined.
0 likes“talk about your taste in women, i’ll be in the middle, you two get along” to me is the feeling of when two friends are ignoring you constantly and you feel like you are there to be loved conditionally and to be humorous when it’s needed
0 likesit’s kinda interesting because being a fan of your music for so long allows me to recognize the complex emotions in the songs that i fell in love with 4-5 years ago. i interpret and understand lyrics differently as i grow older and i think feeling that growth is really beautiful
0 likesUsually, I'd be really mad at covid for making someone I love sick, but... I can't help but love all the extra dodge content... #ForgiveMeDodie 😭🤣
0 likesi was wondering what “flirting’s delicious,proved to be beneficial for mental health” means in if i’m being honest
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same!!!
0 likesSome two cents from someone who can't listen to guiltless most days because it hits too close to home:
1 likeI'm pretty sure the line 'a dark politician will end up alone' is about someone (a parent probably, but it can be anyone) who always has the impartial, 'correct' but emotionless response. It's never their fault because they've talked their way out of it. But people like that will never be happy and will never deeply connect with people - they'll end up alone.
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By the way, this isn't speculating on any of dodie's personal stuff. This is me relating to art and feeling like I've caught the meaning because I've had such a similar experience.
1 likeLots of lines in All my daughters really speak to me as a fairly young fairly insecure teacher at an all girl's school - how I care about them so much and am doing my best and kids can be so adoring - but there's that constant fear I am letting them down in some way and failing and they don't see the struggle and anxiety that I live through behind the scenes. Yay imposter syndrome ✨✨ Your songs help me to feel through those emotions thank you 💜
0 likesI 👏 love 👏 your 👏 hair 👏 so 👏 much 👏👐
1 likeI got derealization at such a young age I literally don't remember a time before it. I know it exists, and exactly when it was, but it's so blurry.
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I got derealized when I was six, everytime I sing "gotta get it in my head / I'll never be sixteen again" there's this bitter humor to it because I can't imagine having sixteen whole years of clear memories
16 likes@Rose Lalonde I'm so sorry, that's horrible. I got it at 10, but I only found out about it this year, at 14.
6 likes@Shachar Zidon Aww it's okay! I'm sorry too, derealization sucks.
3 likesI can relate, not with derealization, but with being disabled, a lot of people are talking about the experience of a clear "before" and "after"(and that's super valid and their lived experience)but I can't relate, I don't have a clear "before" just dealing with the actual thing and the better spots and the worse...
4 likes@Farabee Pushpita if you don’t mind me asking, what made it go away? You absolutely don’t have to answer if you don’t feel comfortable <3
1 likeyeah, i came to say pretty much the same thing (not necessarily with derealisation, but mental health issues in general plus the occasional bout of derealisation). i don't have a clear line that i remember and so both 'before the line' and 'when' just break me a little (in a lovely way 'cause i love the songs) because i don't really have the "before" as strongly as i have what's been happening for so long
2 likes@Caitlyn Salter yes yes yes!!! I listen to it and I feel sad and angry and even somehow jealous and then ashamed, and it relates to something dodie said in the video about exploring your feelings safely, and being okay with not feeling the most "correct" way about a situation, I remember listening to "human" for the first time and being like "this is not just being in love, is it? It's almost about being obsessive and how when you're in a bad place and starting a relationship those things bleed into each other and feed each other (I'm very much rambling I'm aware but I just love dodie so much)
2 likes@niv fecher yes exactly!!! you've put it into words so well. there's just so many emotions that relate to it and in a sense they're the "wrong" emotions because y'know we're MEANT to have these "positive" memories from being young or whatever, people look back on their youth all the time and say that they were the best years of their lives. but some of us can't do that and so we need to grow up and live in a different way, i guess? and that's okay because it just has to be.
2 likesand also very much yes to "human" it's about so many different things depending on whoever listens to it and i think it's really beautiful that it can be. like dodie said about "all my daughters" so many things bleed into one and intertwine that it's kinda impossible for it to be any other way than a lot?? not to be all tumblr 'web weaving' but things really do parallel and combine and everything feeds together! (also yeah i'm very much a rambler as well haha sorry about this it's very long)
It's bizzare how one can still hear the taps and claps in that piano version of Special Girl
0 likesWould love to know if your instrumentals have any story behind them! Are they connected?
0 likesoh wow wow wow i love this video. i could listen to you talk about your songs and lyrics foreverrrrr
0 likesi am FOR SURE going to be tattooing a lyrics of yours this video just convinced me completely
1 likeEver since you teased “arms unfolding” ages ago and you sound like you’re singing when talking I’m like 👀
4 likesOmg I love ur music and they help me get tho depression and a lot of trauma so tysm
0 likesthis explanation gives the songs so much more meaning honestly.
0 likesFun fact: Just before the pandemic, I heard "In the Middle" on my college radio in a dining hall.
0 likesIVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE.....TURN IT UP!!!
5 likesBefore the Line & When are my favorites of your most recent songs ❤️
0 likesThe song when allways tears me apart cuz I'm 16 but not having fun when makes me want to tbh. I allways leaned on your music dodie. Since I was 12 I'm now 16 and I've grown up with your music ily ❤️
0 likesIf I'm being honest is a big same for me. Having so much hope it's not healthy and it's just like PLEASE, PLEASE LOVE ME cause grabbing onto that hope is the only thing I want to do even if it hurts cause if loose hope it'll mean it's over.
1 likeThe way you say certain words sounds a bit… singsongy ms. Clark 👀
4 likes"I hate the world and it doesn't care, we just sit there" is the best description of my depression I've ever heard, thanks Dodie, gonna go have a cry now
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🖤
0 likesAaa- 'Sorry' really makes me shed some tears. I think I understand that it embodies a person feeling guilty for something they did and are responsible of, but I also notice a second perspective, for me now atleast, it can also embody the guilt for something that was out of your control yet still feeling guilty anout it and feeling nostalgic of the time before it happened.
0 likesMy cat died almost 2 months ago, she was always there for me ever since I was little when my parents got her. When I had my ups and downs, or whenever I was sick, or just anytime in the daily, she was there. Hurts to say this but she was my childhood pet, though I really wish that I could still just call her my pet in the present. I still miss her, a lot, and still I'm not sure how to heal from it yet if I can, but she was such a caring soul. We got her when I was 2, she lives 12 years, I'm 14 so it was unexpected, I wished for her to atleast live until I was older or heck even 16, but even then, I would never be ready for that, I never was ready either. Sometimes my mum, and I even, would wish for her to live forever. She was basically family to me.
It's odd because I remember I used to listen to all of your songs from the new album with headphones while she was right next to me in my bed, and when 'Sorry' came up I just found it a beautiful song that was a bit mesmerizing (and don't get me wrong I still feel that to this day) but now it hits different in meaning and emotionally aswell. 'When' also hits a spot slightly, when it comes for me begging the past to stay, begging for the time she was still here to come back. For "Sorry" it's almost like, well... there's nothing that I can do anymore, nothing left to say, other than- I'm sorry. Whether it be sorry I didn't do something to keep the memories alive, take more pictures, record more videos, or that it happened to her at all. But it's good to think about the good she did for us and in general, the funny things she sometimes did, and the lessons she had maybe even taught us.
I do adore your songs! The melodies are beautiful, fun, and even emotional in many ways! The meanings in these songs are interesting, even if in just a simple lyric, it was quite interesting to hear your side of the meanings to the lyrics and how you originally thought of them! I'm looking forward to whatever you bring next in the future. 🙏🏻❤
This was a really interesting video! Thank you for sharing. I’ve also always been curious why the line in cool girl “Rolling your eyes, to the back of your heads” specifically pluralizes heads?
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i think in my mind i'm like... addressing an army of women ahah
3 likes@doddlevloggle ooh thank you!! That’s really interesting
0 likesGOD the contrast from “air so sweet” as the opener to the closing of “before the line”. ow. feels like air so sweet was written from the pov of the girl actually present before the line. before the line was written from the girl PAST the line. ow. ow. ow.
1 likeBrb gonna use this vid as asmr and later tomorrow as it's actual purpose
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dodie is best asmr
2 likesI love how you understand and know that you have such an interesting and smart brain, that´s toooo cool. Because sometimes, especially when you have a mental illness you start to think and feel that everything that made you you moved out and your creative thoughts which tend to feel very interesting and exiting don´t bring you that much joy anymore and you don´t have the confidence to give them and yourself a chance to think and tinker on them....But it´s so important to keep trusting in what you have. Reminds me of your lyrics: I take what I can get
0 likesThis tells me that you don't have to make sense for your listeners all the time when composing a song. Sometimes it's more about you than them and that comforted me somehow.
0 likesthe little pop noise you made in the intro was so nice I keep repeating it (also thank you for this video it’s cool knowing what things mean to you!!)
0 likeswhat does the line “I’d only ever see them in the dark” in When mean, in reference to the the sickly sweet guys’ eyes?
2 likesIt reminded me personally, as a gay guy, of guys who would hook up/hang out with me, but only in secret places, only in “the dark”
I wonder what your meaning was!
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i'm pretty sure it's talking about her eyes there ("kissing sickly sweet guys, 'cause they say they like my eyes") and the in the dark line means that they knows the guy can't see her eyes well and so it isn't a genuine compliment, but she's taking it because she's "too damp for a spark"
0 likesi'm not great at explaining things lol, but i hope i got it across :))
@fiomba omg I see, yeah, thst their compliment is meaningless because they can’t actually see dodie’s eyes
0 likesHate myself hit really hard as someone who's got severe anxiety triggers linked to being given the silent treatment and also rejection sensitive dysphoria bc of being autistic and having ADHD like,,, fuck it's really not good for me when people deal with shit by shutting down and being introspective I need someone to say "hey I'm struggling rn so I'm not gonna talk for a bit"
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i'm sorry you've got to deal with such a difficult time when people shut down, that would really suck i imagine. sending lots of love <3
0 likesI wasn’t surprised by any of the meanings, I feel like if you really listen and have dealt with similar things you can identify very closely with them.
0 likesThat's so interesting, I had heard 'I'm still clawing for the strings' as puppet strings! And that you want to feel in control of your reality but it feels very powerless, and yet you're still angry about that. Your balloon thing makes more sense within spaceyness tho :)
0 likesIntertwined means so much to me as that is my relationship. Both me and my partner have had some really awful periods with our mental health and it just speaks to how I feel
0 likesYou touched right on something I'm trying to make a song around dodie!! When you were talking about human and how you just want to eat up this whole new person. I feel like I want a song with imagery about how love is selfish for me almost? Like I feel like I'm eating up someone else's life. It's so hard to describe with words, I have no clue how I'll make lyrics of it. But it's so fascinating to learn about someone you feel so close to. Absolutely love the concept, can't wait to write a song about it. Still can't figure out whether it's going to be a love song or more of a critical song about the ways that I love.
0 likesi been excited for this all evening :)
8 likesI see. Thank you. "Burned Out" is one of the most contrasting and relatable songs you've ever written, if not the most.
0 likesI REALLY appreciate that you did this.
0 likesidk about others, but for me this is why we love you, not because you're perfect (no one is) but because you are so thoughtful and you put so so so much of yourself into your lyrics and then you release them and let us take what we need from it and put words to so many big and scary feelings. thank you <3
0 likesI feel like When is a song about growing up but missing out on the things you feel should happen - "I'll never be 16 again/I'm waiting to live/still waiting to love/oh it'll be over and I'll still be asking when". personally I take it like waiting and idealizing what teenagehood/growing up is like and when you get there you feel it passing by, or what you get isn't the perfect story you imagine. would I be on the right track here? I really love this song and the way I perceive it means a lot to me but I'm curious the actual meaning behind it. :)
1 likeOuch :’) a lot of old songs on here that got me through a rough time.
5 likesalways been quite curious about hole in my tooth! ik its pretty short and seems self explanatory but was there ever any deeper meaning or is it just about having a cavity and the dentist being closed lol
0 likesBurned Out I related to so much. As the therapy friend for everyone I know, for years I kept everything in so that my friends could fill me up. I prided myself on always being the same for them and being there for them. But I crumbled inside and became hollow.
0 likesThe ending- the swirling motion- oh maybe I'll talk about, I should, Ill never, I cant- I've had that conversation so many times inside.
it's interesting how I interpreted "red pushing down on the green" differently and how it fit to my personal life at the time
0 likeswhen i tell you i’ve never been keener
11 likesYour work has strong parralels with Hozier in some ways. Lyrics which are specific and poetic. Writing about really sexy shit but doing it so gorgeously and poetically you barely realise.
0 likesi remember seeing dodie live and her introducing in the middle by saying "this is a song about a threesome" and my mind was blown i couldn't believe that i hadn't made the connection before lmao
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LOLOL
1 likethank you for answering my ask, i love all my daughters so much!!
0 likesI’ve always viewed burned out as someone in a toxic relationship/friendship and they have someone around them who’s causing them to crack and let the smoke deep in and the smoke is equivalent to depression and anxiety and just mental ick for me
0 likesCan’t decide whether to comment on that sick goose you’ve got or the fact you’re gorgeous or on how spectacular your lyrics are
0 likesSince you mentioned she lol. I really agree with that line. Actually I saw you live in pheonix and I was bend over sobbing nearly falling over the barrier for the entire song. I was thinking a lot of my long distance girlfriend at the time and just all the aches of loving her but not being with her and not even being able to tell everyone that I had such a wonderful love. I remember I looked up and you looked me in the eye when the song was done after you said "I see there's a lot of girls who like girls in here" you just gave me this comforting half smile, this look of "it'll be okay". 3 months later I came out and it really was okay♡ You saw me as a daughter there I suppose haha. A weird yet broken one with a giant gold star sticker on her forehead bc the other girls were putting the little ones on their cheeks all cutesy but my one(1) braincell went straight to childhood of always wanting the big sticker 😂
0 likesSorry gives me the ultimate chills. I love it so much
0 likesI'm so curious about the line "He'll be asked till he's bored, I would know, I've been bored before" from Cool Girl. I wonder about what it means every time I listen to the song.
1 likeI really appreciate that you explain your lyrics because as a person who is absolutely incapable of understanding metaphors, it gets really frustrating when I just have to perpetually wonder what anything in a song means. I love hearing what a songwriter "meant" with a lyric even if I spin it a different way for myself later.
0 likesi listened to she the other day in the car while the girl i’ve fallen for was driving, that “even when she’s next to me we could not be more far apart” really hit hard that day
0 likesThere is a wall in my life built by you
0 likesYou opened a door that a kid shouldn't walk through - guiltless
This song has always resonated with me and I can never pin point why
Now I know that monster isn't supposed to be about parents and kids falling out because of mood swings and hormones and stuff, but that's the only way I'll ever hear it
1 likeAnalyzing dodie’s lyrics is on the same level as analyzing Taylor Swift’s lyrics because both are incredibly complex and beautiful.
0 likesMy mummy says to always wear a coat but we're warm and we're heavy and we're trying to float speaks to my deep rooted sense of longing to fly ❤️
1 likei always thought of hate myself as around the overall struggle of working hard to impress people, stressing yourself out, to no avail, but I rly like your explanation of it
0 likesI was always wondering what BURNED OUT “i am not cartoon” meant tbh so thank you, I genuinely get that.
0 likesI always hear hate myself as being in a relationship with someone who is emotionally abusive, like someone who can’t leave this relationship bc they are stuck, they know it hurts but they stay
0 likesAnd when they go quiet it means you’ve “disappointed” them and you internalize that
To me "sorry" has always felt like a goodbye letter (suicide note) or someone talking about their death/suicide/life after dying.
0 likesI relate to Before the Line oh so much. For me DPDR kinda blurred into my life without a definite line, but this song still hits home. Especially the promise part- everyday I promise myself that I'll be present but surprise surprise that's absolutely impossible.
0 likesPlease do more videos like this!!!!
0 likesLoved this ❤️
0 likesmy interpretations pt. 2
0 likes. o) "there was the end i couldn't find, found too late" - this song hits me very personally for a reason; just coming out of a relationship, where I knew all along it wouldn't last, but it lasted for 2 whole years, I knew all along something wasn't right - when I finally put it into words, he was like "yeah, you're right. I don't love you any more. we should break up." I could not forgive myself for not finding "the end" sooner when my intuition was right all along, and intertwining my life with his for so long, just to break apart now. There was the end I couldn't find, that took me so long to form into words and ask him about. Found too late, when I could have stopped it much sooner, when I first felt that we're drifting apart.
. o) all my daughters - i thought that song, much like "burnt out", was about the whole experience of being a singer and having a "fan club" of, well, I suppose mostly girls.
"I’m not who they think I am!
I try too hard not to give a damn, - putting up a public image
but I feel it - but secretly drowning underneath
How they love me
All my daughters - despite all the love that u get from your fans (like me, haha)
But I’m screaming underwater - it doesn't much help heal the scars and pain in your personal life.
. pain demands to be felt, as j. green put it
I will hurt you
almost definitely
ask the people
who have left me" - when you don't want to let anyone too close,
. bc you feel guilty and like you will hurt them bc of your own emotions and stuff goin on in your life... idk, something like that
beautiful song btw, love it.
.
"I hate the world, and it doesn’t care
... we just sit there" - I would like to quote something I wrote today: "Pain, right. Such a universal human experience, and yet, when it's happening to you, you feel so important. You want to be consoled. As if the world had stopped spinning just because you're hurting. Well, guess what. The world doesn't care, or give a shit, and it's spinning. Life goes on, and your pain is not the least, or the worst, that the world has experienced, or will ever experience. Well, it's definitely not that special. But to you, it's everything that you know."
.
.
. o) "it feels oddly good to hurt" - when you're in love, it's both an alluring, strangely rewarding and also painful experience, regardless of how the other person feels. There's always that anticipation at the start... the hope, the longing. But you like it. You let yourself hurt, bc the rewards of being close to that person far outweigh the "costs" of the pain you feel at other times, when something goes amiss.
6:56 -7:04 completely relate. On good days I'm very reflective and mature about the events that have shaped me and the I'm stronger now and then on bad days I'm like bull. And cry in self doubt and pity. I love me lol.
0 likesJust wanted to say how much I LOVE the song “bored like me”. WOWZA
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thank you!
1 likeOmg why are all the lyrics so dirty 😂 I love it hahaha
1 likethis maybe sounds weird but dodie explaining "I made a promise but I break it every day" almost just gave me permission to feel that line the way I do? like it just suddenly got through to me in such a direct way because /I/ made a promise too and I wonder if part of the reason why I made it was because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it forever (which for me ties into how I feel about "I'm still clawing for the strings/ I'd do any fucking thing")
0 likesanyway I adore before the line and this vid and dodie and also anyone reading this :)
dodie i love you and i want to tattoo the lyric “I’ll never be sixteen again” would you please write it for me in your handwriting??? Or maybe from the first time you wrote when? I love that song with my heart and I love you for writing it<3
0 likesYou have to be the most underrated contemporary lyricist
0 likesNgl it's super nice. to hear Dodie talk about break ups and realize she had relationships that we her fans didn't know about. Some good boundaries :)
0 likesWooooooooo love you doddie! Thanks for this!!
0 likesI adore "Baby I'm a funny thing/I'm walking if it doesn't sting" because to me it's about carrying on and being hopeful even if you're sort of broken. It's got a sort of self-acceptance to it which feels very optimistic
0 likesdodie this video was brilliant. thank you.
1 likei still can't quite grasp the meaning of the line "i watched you all ask all your lovers away" in cool girl
1 likethe people who make genius lyrics annotations r gonna have a field day with this one lol
0 likesyou are such an INCREDIBLE songwriter and human
0 likesthe more she explains before the line, the more i realize how much it belongs in my kin playlist
1 likei used to listen to arms unfolding right after my breakup and fantasize about someday making things work with my ex. since then i've realized many things were wrong with how i was being treated in that relationship, and now i listen to arms unfolding through a lens of self-love -- learning to love myself again after someone taught me otherwise
0 likesI always associated Guiltless with my father. he abused me throughout my childhood up until a few years ago when he finally left home after my parent's divorce. he was diagnosed with depression and blamed all of his awful behaviour on it without ever taking responsibility for his actions, "is it real? you believe you're guiltless." the dark politician line makes me think of him because he now blames me for holding him at arms length because I "can't heal" and isolating him from the family, "end up alone."
0 likesi always thought that the "i made a promise but i break it every day" line was kind of a reference to "i promise you it'll all make sense again" from secret for the mad, like saying that maybe secret for the mad was wrong and some things just don't ever get better and make sense again
1 likereminds me of some lyrical ideas from Lily Allen in alright still (a perfect album)
0 likeshonestly all of hate myself is WILDLY relatable but "no I don't think I can help it" is the line that always gets me
0 likesthe "it feels oddly good to hurt" reminds me of a line from the anime nana: "...pain comes with love ; because love is painful feeling, to the point of wanting to drown."
0 likesI'm curious about "the bitter ones still taste the best" from special girl!!
1 likeI love you Dodie. You are a special girl. Spill To Me!
0 likesDodie, we need a 4 Tequilas Down tutorial PLEASE
0 likesI wanted this video so badly! Thanks dodieeeee!
0 likesThis actually was super helpful! :D
0 likesDodie! Hi. Might I ask that you do a similar insight video about the musical arrangements in some of your songs? You're a very clever musician, but I suppose you knew that though, huh? Thanks for doing what you do the way that you do it. It's wonderful!
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Ooo! Yes that’s def next
1 likeThank u!!!!!!
In "if I'm being honest" I've understood the "red pushing down on the green" as like, having a crush in elementary school and the moment you talk to them it feels like you're about to throw up from nervousness (green) but the blushing/the shame (red) prevents it.
0 likesMaybe my crushes were just weird lol
my favourite song off of bap is guiltless and my favourite lyric is probably "i'm not bitter, i'm just tired / no use getting angry at the way that you're wired". i'm not sure if i really GET that song because there are parts i absolutely cannot relate to (e.g. "i don't think i'd feel better if i opened your eyes" - i'd feel INFINITELY better if i opened her eyes, i feel like it would solve everything in a way) but THAT line i definitely get. maybe it's because i overshare way way way too much? like i am constantly going around yelling "they fucked me up". i'm curious why you chose "i'll carry your burden 'til the day that you die" instead of "'til the day that i die" but i completely understand if you don't feel comfy explaining that <3
0 likesmy favourite dodie lyric of allll time is "you blew me up like a big balloon far too soon, i'm left a stuttering teen"
0 likesi lov the way it rolls off the tongue so smoothly. ALLITERATION, BABEY!!
I love the editing in this
0 likesik it wasn’t discussed in this video but bite back is one of my favourites because the lyrics feel like a conversation im having with my brain: “there are knots that i can help undo, my dear i’m only trying to help you” the depressed/angry side of my brain is too volatile to listen to the other rational, self aware part that understands what is happening. same with “i couldn’t reach you, no not tonight, i’ll try tomorrow and hope you’re kind”; it feels like i’m telling my brain to give it a rest for today and i’ll try again tomorrow and hope the mental fog has cleared up a little. it’s one of my favourite dodie songs :-)
0 likesi love Rainbow so much but there are many lines in it that i've been trying to interpret, like "my title just talks over me", "i was not to be trusted / how can i be proud of what a million people shout at me i'm not", or "i'd love to watch you gasp / you'd understand in minute and i like to think you'd miss it / cause so would i". i'd love to hear what you meant while writing those lines!
0 likesI always wondered and speculated about Guiltless, but you had already made it very clear that you didn't wanna elaborate on the lyrics even when it first came out, so that is the only song I am "missing" but not actually expecting you to talk about it
0 likesI think it’s wild dodie sees her online persona as someone who was perfect and aloof. What gave me hope was seeing someone bend so much and break at times but come up for air to tell us every time that it will be okay. I hope she knows that as someone who was incredibly young and in need when I found her I harbor no resentment towards her imperfection. I am so proud to have been one of her ‘daughters’
0 likesI personally interpret Guiltless as a song about parental trauma, and specifically the kind that isn't extreme, but you look at how you're kind of messed up now and realize that it was something your parents did to you (maybe without realizing). You blame them for it obviously, and have that built-up resentment, but you know that if you tried to explain it to them, they would get defensive and deny that they ever did anything to hurt you (even inadvertently).
0 likesThe line "I'm not bitter, I'm just tired / no use getting angry at the way that you're wired" always hit hard in that context because it's a perfect explanation of that complicated relationship and knowing that you'll never be able to change their thought processes.
for me personally, ‘a dark politician will end up alone’ signifies that, generally in life, anyone who tries to dictate all your actions will end up far worse than you will
0 likesi love the song All My Daughters but it means a lot different to me than Dodie described. to me "daughters" represent all the sides to myself that i created to fit different peoples' expectations of me. so when the song goes "how they love me, all my daughters but im screaming underwater" means a whole lot to me. Funny how songs and art can take different interpretations to different people.
0 likesDamn! I feel like this is not fair to cram all this in one video. Each song needs its own explainer video.
0 likesthis was the coolest video concept when I saw you post asking to submit lyrics but damn did this turned out so good
0 likesMaybe you could make a video on how your attitude toward a track changed over time?
0 likessomething you've always talked about in burnt out is the line that goes 'but they love you over and over they love you' and how people just sing back to you seeming not to get that that line is about the pressure and whatever that creates, and when that happens all we can do is try and reassure you that we know you're only human. But, when you're in an audience how can you get that across other than saying we love you?
0 likesIf i could give the video a double like or something I would
1 likeeek please make more of this 💟💟
0 likesI feel like I can share here haha.
0 likesBefore The Line for me, is basically my trauma from my childhood and just being so angry at who caused it and ‘The Line’ is between me as a child and then me after the shit happened. And im desperately wanting to let go of it but I just can’t. And me wanting to go back and experience a childhood that wasn't tainted.
This is very off topic but my Nan read "secrets for the mad" whilst she came to visit and despite knowing nothing about you, she really liked it and read the whole thing 😊
0 likesi don’t belong here really hit me hard and meant a lot to me as a newly diagnosed autistic person, the idea of not fitting in with peoples secret social codes resonates with me so much
0 likesThis is 100% just an auditory and phonetic thing but i love all the "t" sounds in "Let Go"
0 likesI love that you still stick to your guns about not revealing all the details of your trauma. Nobody is owed the details of your trauma. You don't owe your audience your entire existence.
0 likesI feel like with guiltless lyrics it’s one of those where if you get it you get it and if you don’t that’s alright but you won’t quite be able to, and it’s tricky / painful to explain
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Yeah, the first time I heard that song I started sobbing and sent it to my mom with just the words "it's him". That song helped me understand a part of my life so much better, but I still can't write about that person-- thank god we have dodie to write about it for us lol
1 likedaily dose of dodie ✨💖
1 likei actually wrote down a very similar interpretation for the bridge in hate myself on genius! i'm glad i wasn't just bullshitting that lmfao
0 likeshere are some lyrics i'm curious about!
bite back - "will you soften to me? / will you not let me be someone else not getting through?"
rainbow - "you'd understand in minutes / and i'd like to think you'd miss it, cause so would i"
bored like me - "i wonder if you love like i love loving you / i'm going in blindly / so make the risk want the risk like i want you to do"
don't gotta explain all of em ^^
Okay I've thought about these a lot so while I'm here, let me note my personal interpretations of them before I listen to you explaining each one of them.
0 likeso) Red pushing down on the green - I thought this is like, you're so sick from anxiety that you're green (you want to vomit) but you're also like super shy/ashamed so your face is red and it's just a mix of those things XD just like extreme anxiety and self-consciousness about being in front of your crush
o) i look idiotic with my limbs all knotted, it don't feel right - yup literally imagined, you're hoping so hard that you sort of get carried away and uuhh.. well, basically, you're trying to pull yourself out of it cuz it's kinda shameful (not really but it feels that way when you're crushin, I would know)
o) what in the world do we have at a quarter to four - I guess I thought that meant like a drink:D likeee... it's so late already, past the tipsy stage, but too late to keep drinking; or likee maybe you're trying to think of like "ok how am I going to continue this steaming imagination":D
o) this whrring machine -- the mechanical motions of you knoww... your hand
if you can't cool it down steam is still steam -- even if you can't get the release (assuming it's with someone else now) the process or the imaginary scenario is still hot and steamy and very enjoyable
o) "i am not cartoon" -- ok this one is something that i've thought a lot, bc burned out really struck a chord with me at some point -- basically it sounded like the song was about someone else (like a manager?) putting the weight on your shoulders, asking you to keep producing and um keep doing shows and everything despite the stress of it all; and you're basically saying "don't build hope on something broken, i am not cartoon" because you're a real person with feelings and problems and stuff to deal with outside your musical career, despite it being deeply intertwined, and, you know, you're not a cartoon, you're three-dimensional and you can only take so much before becoming "burnt out" or breaking.
and "i might just leave soon" is like a threat to whoever is putting the weight on you, saying to them that you might just quit the thing entirely if they don't stop and stand back, cool it down with the demands and respect you as a person, giving you room to breathe.
"it seeps through her cracks and so i start to choke" yup, the way you explained it is exactly how I imagined it, too
o) " a dark politician will end up alone" -- two parts to this: someone who likes to debate and conquer, not really caring about what the other person in front of them is feeling or has to say, and is basically manipulative with their words like a politician, and the other part: you looking back on it and saying now that they will end up alone because of how they treat you and how they are as a person (cruel, guiltless and manipulative).
o) "something in me says that this is ok" -- um okay i just realized that I might need to go listen to this song with a fresh perspective due to a certain situation in my life... but anyway... I guess sometimes the primitive urges take over, esp when you're under the influence, and you're basically convincing yourself that "it'll be fineee, this is ok" but.. then later you realize what a terrible thing you've done, and no, it was not ok, you were just silencing out the voice of reason...
ok i have to stop now, i'm about halfway through but i'll be back later probably
PLEASE DODIE PLEASE WHAT'S "I KNEW YOU ONCE" ABOUT like what kind of a relationship? I've applied it to so many situations and had so many different "you" people but I always always wonder what it's about. My tippy top favourite song of yours. Also..... BLESS YOU FFS
1 likeevery time you would play the music, i would add percussion on my pop it :)
0 likesunrelated but playing along to special girl on bass gives me so much serotonin i cannot wait to hear it live in August!!!
0 likesThe anger and frustration in Before The Line...my GOD have I felt that....ugghhh it's incredible how the music and the lyrics just perfectly capture that. Can't tell you how many times I have blasted that in my earphones alone in my room and just raged.
0 likesngl i thought “this whirring machine” meant a vibrator 💀
2 likesim gonna say what i thought In the Bed was about because im lowkey proud of it lol but i thought that was about trying to be intamate with someone after sexual assault, like wanting to be with someone but everything inside of you telling you not to or feeling sick about it. the lines that made me feel that way were "Hot little hints/Toe a line between sexy and sick/What's the deal? How much to feel?","Poor lonely mind, it's getting confused", "Disconnected, but beautifully raw". Yeah
0 likesIts actually pretty easy to understand what shes saying by her lyrics, the fascinating part is what it means to her. Like guiltless, obviously its someone she knows, but theres no prying. And the demo for let go, im very interested in knowing what her meaning is.
0 likesTo me Hate Myself is about being very anxious and overanalyzing a relationship with someone you care about. "When you go quiet I hate myself" really hit home for me because I'm often afraid of silence during a conversation. I start to overthink it like "Did I say something wrong?", "What if we're not right for each other?" etc. even when it's just...silence. Like, it's normal and completely fine. The verse "build a problem that neither of us needs, something wrong with me" to me means that, sometimes, my anxiety blows things out of propotion and builds problems for myself that aren't even real. I know that this interpretation might not match the entire lyrics but most of it reminds me of my inner monologue when I get anxious. Listening to it soothes me because it makes me realize that these thoughts sound irrational.
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Omg i love this interpretation bc I'm act this too
0 likesWatching this makes me so so excited about seeing you live in LA next March!!
0 likesThis is absolutely me just projecting but I've always wanted in the middle to be about a polyamorous relationship.
0 likesthis should be a series!!!!
0 likesomg i relate so much to all the lyrics,,,
0 likesi loved this video, thanku dodie
0 likesi feel like dodie's gonna make another secret song
0 likesfirst coupla times i listened to "if i'm being honest" i thought u were singing about becoming famous and existing as this beautiful desirable public figure and how it soothes your ego but makes you insecure about trying to meet the expectations. "all of my best bits collected displayed" i thought of instagram, "red pushing down on the green" i thought of approval on youtube videos. "could you love this?" hoping people will love the art you're putting out into the world... yeah
0 likesOh my god this is so beautiful
0 likesSo I guessed a lot of them correctly, but for some reason I thought All My Daughters was about like, all the different people you could be, all the different choices you make and how there might be alternate universes where you made different choices, and all those versions of you in these alternate universes are cheering you on during a bad time or something? Like a combination of regretting the decisions you've made so much that it hurts and simultaneously feeling loved by every version of yourself.
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i rly love that
0 likesI think it feels good to hurt because at least then you know how you feel. if you have mixed emotions you're uncertain
1 likeyou're a musical genius :)
0 likesGuiltless is about my dad Dodie wrote it for me so I remember that actually the thing with my dad is real and I won't think "well actually maybe it's all me" and put myself back in harm's way
0 likes(Not rly claiming Dodie wrote it for me but that's the effect for me.)
do you write or rather 'focus on' creating the lyrics or the music first? or is it like an amulgamtion of the two?
0 likesI'm only able to write instrumental music and have always struggled with lyrics which is why I find interest in how lyricists as incredible as you write your music.
I’ve always thought of the promise in Before the Line as “I promise you it’ll all make sense again” from Secret for the Mad!!!
0 likesdodie looks so good in this video 😭
0 likesi know you don't talk about guiltless but that song hurts in such a good way bc on one hand. ouch. that's my ~trauma~ in song form. but on the other hand it feels so validating to have my experience put across so eloquently,, thank u luv u
0 likesThe minute I saw the pre-order for BAP I knew I was gonna get it I think because I felt there was a story I knew was gonna help me hidden in the lyrics and the names ect.
0 likesYou could cover your old songs they sounded so good hereeeee
0 likesOH also okay last comment I promise - I know you didn’t mention 6/10 on here but I connect with that song the most out of all your songs as someone with social anxiety. The lyrics just hit so close to home and it felt like I could understand them without needing an explanation ,, like I was telling a friend earlier that 6/10 felt like you just took my thoughts out of my brain and put them into a song. I’m really thankful that I’ve found something I can relate to so strongly - so thank you dodie <3 just thought I would let you know about this!
0 likesI know she doesn't like to talk about guiltless. but as a songwriter who LOVES deciphering lyrics.. and also.. as someone who (i like to think) relates deeply to guiltless, it's one of the most perfect songs lyrically, and especially the dark politian line. <3 sending love
0 likesDodie should do another ASMR video, I miss them!!! :((
1 likeI completely relate to Guiltless, and I understand the dark politician line. It is a privilege to not immediately understand :)
0 likesAlso I totally connect to Hate Myself as a painting of my Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and chasing of emotionally unavailable male crushes and mentors and friends, but anyone who I think could be annoyed at me and then they go quiet or don't reassure me that they still think positively of me, my anxiety and worst-case scenario-ing goes wild. And then I really love Rainbow from a neurodivergent perspective because discovering I have ADHD explains everythinggg and normal functional life things are a struggle compared to people around me
rainbow and let go have been really good like reassuring and relief songs for me if that makes sense so thanks :)
0 likesYou have you made me feel to be bisexual!
0 likesMy ex was a deeply wounded and deeply mentally unhealthy person. I thought he would try to improve himself or take steps to get help with support from me, but he allowed himself to spiral into a really toxic person who removed himself from me entirely and ended up cheating on me. The lyric "when you go quiet I hate myself" always made total sense because for the second half of the relationship he never talked to me about his feelings or what he thought at all and it made me feel like I wasn't enough for him and something about his situation was my fault.
0 likesI thought it was because he didn't trust me, but really it was because I should never have trusted him.
BTW, dodie, you inspired me to write a song about it - a theme that mixes sympathy with suppressed rage in a melody that sounds melancholy and sentimental.
And then a cute Lil song about my current boyfriend who has helped me heal a lot of hurts and lies I believed by showing me through actions what unselfish love looks like. My friend told me "hey you know 'Absolutely Smitten'? Yeah. That's you. You're gone. You're not in this pain of existence anymore".
Hi! I'm not a fine english speaker but I'll hope you understand me! I'd like to say that this video was soo interesting. It's almost magical your traduction of feelings into lyrics, and how different we (as listeners) procesate them from u. my question is, have you ever had an interpretation of one song of yours by a fan that has changed your original perception of it? Like, do all of your songs begin and end in the process of writing/producing or have you ever learnt from the re-reading or seen your words differently due to someone's perspective
0 likes«Dreams and Ideas should not be the same thing» hit me like a train, cause I used to enter into not great relationships assuming they would last forever, and “you waited smiling for this” is such a perfect nail in the coffin for the realization that your childish optimism was misplaced.
0 likesi am very guilty of going quiet and not opening up so now i feel called out lmao
0 likesi guess i hadn't listened closely enough, i associated "hate myself" with a very close friendship that ended quite abruptly a couple months ago and feeling guilty about "causing" the void in my life where our conversations and our friendship used to be
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(i wrote "causing" in quotation marks because if i'm being objective it's not really 100% my fault, as it rarely is in these situations. i just started a conversation that was long overdue. still feel guilty about it though.)
0 likesLoved this video!
0 likesIf I'm being honest I don't understand anything she just said but I love listening to her talk
0 likesAn insightful slice of a rare perspective on the human experience.
0 likesI have a question, if you have a second! Are the minor shifts in “Before the Line” musically showing the before/after of derealization for you?
0 likesThe way you think is so interesting! I would love to talk to you and just like talk about random things and what you think about things. You have such a unique view of the world but also there’s so much that I can relate to.
0 likesYour music has so many universal feelings that so many relate to, but not many have the courage to put into words.
0 likesAnd hearing someone else put the feelings that you feel into words helps so much more than you can imagine to those who feel unheard and alone.
The past few years I've been coming to terms with and understanding depression that I've lived with for quite a while, and in some of your songs there are these snippets of "yes, another person understands"
So I guess just... thank you?
Ooh dodie, can we have a nail tutorial?? The colours are so fun!
0 likesIs there a list of both her released and unreleased (youtube only) songs? Some of these aren't on her albums and I'm trying to figure out just how much is missing. The internet is not being helpful. Thanks!
0 likesvideos like this make me wish every artist were a youtuber too
0 likes'It feels oddly good to hurt' - she
1 likeTHAT'S COS YOU'RE A 4 BABE
I always thought the promise you broke was in reference to secret for the mad where you promise "it'll all make sense again" and I was surprised it wasn't lol
0 likesJust gonna leave this here and say, “Secret of the mad” saved my life
0 likes"Talk about your taste in women" - im polyamorous and the first time two of my partners met i kind of expected to be the center of attention because id be the main thing they had in common. They spent an hour talking about Magic the Gathering...
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HAHAHA
1 like“We both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin”
0 likesAnyone have any interpretations of this line from Sick of Losing Soulmates?
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you know when people “take a break” in relationships? i think the lyric is saying that taking a break ends up breaking you or smth like that
5 likesthat and the fact people often say "i think we should take a break ", rather than "i'm breaking up with you". the phrase "take a break" implies that the relationship will resume at some point, when in reality it almost never does. people just use that phrase because it's easier to pretend it's a temporary separation, rather than directly facing the fact that this is the end of the line and what they had is well and truly over.
1 likeohh i took "the promise" idea as like promising myself "I'll get better one day" or someone else saying "you'll get better." I made this promise and I break it every day, it's not my fault because other people told me that I'll get better too. ya :)
1 likeI relate to Monster, Cool Girl, Guiltless, and Before the Line even more now. 💕Maybe I should go back to therapy… 😭
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Special girl and Ready Now are more calming/cathartic in my opinion. Thank you so much for writing them Dodie, if you ever read this. 💜
0 likesIf I'm Being Honest is not how I stumbled into Dodie, but it's a good deal of the reason I come back:
0 likesThis getting in a tangle to not appear to be tangled up, that was basically my childhood.
There were harder places.
"a dark politician will end up alone" for me is about my romantic relationship with boris johnson and how i dumped him ( for legal reasons i must claim this is in fact a joke lmao)
0 likes"I'm walking if it doesn't sting, a heartbreak only means that it was worth it" I interpret kinda like when you feel like a project isn't good enough if you don't pour your entire heart and soul into it? But like, as a relationship. Like if you aren't burning yourself out to make a relationship work then you didn't really love them
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I love that interpretation, I always interpret it to be: if your heart gets broken it means you felt deep love and that makes the pain worth it.
0 likesIt's so interesting how everyone uses their own life experiences and thoughts to apply meaning to dodies lyrics.
Love you doddles the good bad and not so pretty. Thanks for sharing.
0 likesi rlly wanna know about "not what i meant" when the lyrics go "oh i'll work a little harder but walk a little less" and "you saw my number and my number wasnt good enough"
0 likesA song I put my own meaning to is Rainbow. I know it‘s about your sexuality, and I‘m part of zhe LGBTQ+ comnunity as well, but I‘ve never felt out of place because of my gender or sexuality.
0 likesI do, however, struggle a lot with my mental health and being neurodivergent. So someone openly not only accepting but praising that part of me just makes me feel all nice and fuzzy.
6/10 has such a special place in my heart b/c 1) my birthday is 6/10 lol and 2) I have such social anxiety around even my longtime close friends that I constantly feel like they hate me and want to make excuses to leave and go back home where I’m comfortable. Even tho I know that’s not true and they assure me of it, I still have the line “I know that you don’t want me here” playing on a loop in my head sometimes when I’m around them 🤷🏽♀️
0 likesi think dodie talking about the song all my daughters very interesting as a young female fan bc i had no clue what she meant by the term “daughters”, and to find out that it’s about people like me, but in a really weird context is strange
0 likesI like the idea of writing songs and then giving them to the world, so they're no longer yours, but theirs. I made your song Guiltless about a very different thing that it was written about; I use it as inspiration/soundtrack while outlining a novel I want to write about artistic gymnastics. Because I want to write a story that is realistic, I don't want gloss over the abuse that happens to young girls in the sport and this song captures that atmosphere so well. The softness of the voice combined with the sadness in the lyrics gives me the perfect "I'm hurting but fighting back is not an option" vibe. The line "you opened a door that no kid should walk through" is perfect for this setting. And the chorus, the acceptance of the trauma and the line "I can tell you believe you're guiltless" fits so well, because so many abusive coaches through history have justified their methods with the amount of medals they produce, or with making "better" gymnasts. The dark politician metaphor also works really well in this context. I love this song and I love how useful it is to me for a completely different purpose than the one intended, I guess. I don't relate to it personally, but it helps me create something new.
0 likesMy second college essay was just analyzing "If I'm Being Honest" and now I'm thinking I got the whole thing wrong lmao
0 likesVery unrelated but Dodie, I think you would make a great mum. Literally. 😭
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Aww
0 likesIn 'I Kissed Someone (It Wasn't You),' what did you mean by "put me in a bath, I forget you are gone"? I feel like there are so many different things it could mean.
0 likesI always though if I'm being honest was about expectations put on you when you're young and everyone watching you struggle to meet those expectations and trying to figure yourself out and grow up in all of that!
0 likesi feel like you’d be the girl that i was sort of friends with in school, but i wanted to be bffs with
0 likesThe line in "Sick of Losing Soulmates": "which part will you take cus we both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin", help? Like it can't be repaired?
1 likeA couple lines in Sick of Losing Soulmates have left me wondering, but mainly "Superglued human of proof"
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she mostly explains her lyrics in her tutorial videos! https://youtu.be/DUl75sVtsB0?t=128
0 likesThe way u say hope sounds a lot like a word in arabic "hop , it is pronounced like that" and it is amazing lol
0 likesI always listen to Hate Myself as trying to socialize while being neurodivergent because uhhh ya hit that one on the nail
0 likeshiii dodieeee!! okay so i swiped up on your story bUt saw that you posted this video already. i was curious about “my heart’s running out of sellotape/cellotape”. i’ve always wondered what that line meant. side note: i kissed someone it wasn’t you is SO good.
0 likesThis is my favorite video of the internet.
0 likesI always thought 'red pushing down on the green' was the redness of being embarrassed and the greenness of being sick haha
0 likesI'm kinda surprised that people asked you about some lyrics because I feel they're very straightforward, even when you use metaphors.
0 likesBut hey! It's nice to get some reaffirmation! Especially the whole "talk about your taste in women" because OF COURSE you mean yourself. Who else?! I dunno, it made me laugh.
For me - i feel very attached to all my daughters and hate myself
0 likesI know that all my daughters is directed at me and others like me - and its feel comforting in a strange way . Like were here growing up and shes here singing about all her problems and stuff yet it can relate to our lives so much
I only really realised what hate myself meant for me recently- at first i didnt get it but now it do . like for me its being so depent on one person’s view of you and wanting them to talk and like you but you have a small inkling that somethings wrong and you don't know why - and the worst part is when they wont open up
i love your more vulnerable moments!
0 likes“oooh don’t say it’s genetic”. i think ab this one a lot bc it feels like something someone would say to a kid experiencing mental health issues passed down from parents
0 likesI feel your guilt in so many of ur songs and it hurts to know how much u hurt on the inside knowing you've done some wrongs or wanting to show the world how imperfect u are. In all my daughters, I felt like u feel unworthy of our love because u think we love this perfect image of u but if we knew ur darker imperfect side, we wouldn't love u as much. I hope u find it in you to forgive yourself and accept that u are so worthy of all that love. I want u to see what we see when we look at u and listen to u. U are such a gem and a beautiful human being. We all have done things we are not proud of but learning to forgive ourselves and see ourselves as worthy of all the love in the world is so essential. Ik many of u are not Christian, but I'd like to share something about how my relationship with God gave me so much confidence and love for myself. Just knowing that He creating me purely out of love and that I am the daughter of the almighty, loving, forgiving God is crazy to me. He told me that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. He told me I'm more beautiful and worthy than the stars in the sky. And I believed Him. And now I believe I am worthy of love regardless of my mistakes.
0 likesI’m so excited for this video!!!
0 likesOoof i relate to the writing songs about a very specific feeling when you actually have a more differenciated view on the topic but that would be too much for a song... i always have to say that disclaimer to my friends before i show them my songs because otherwise i sound like a complete asshole 😅
0 likeswhat in the world does “I was raised by open mouths and tears eyes, passive wistful lullabies” from special girl mean 👀
0 likesthe jump from burned out to all my daughters is so cool
0 likesI remember the first video I saw of you was your hair tutorial lol
0 likesI didn't know you made music, i was just distressed about my hair xD
loveyouDodie
hey dodie have you ever considered adding trigger warnings to your videos? i know there's pros and cons so you don't HAVE to but i just think it would epic if u made a lil' list while editing and popped it at the start of the video and/or in the description - big ones for this vid (and others) would be "toxic relationships & abuse" and also probably "depression", "derealisation" and "suicidal thoughts". hope i'm not oversteppinggggg??? i just think it might be good because convos with such vivid descriptions of these things might be difficult for some ppl
0 likes"i watched you all ask all your lovers away" what does this mean please tell me
0 likes"she smells like lemongrass and sleep" WHAT DOES SLEEP SMELL LIKE.????
1 likeI don’t know why but whenever I listen to sorry my first thought is Snow falling in Edward Scissorhands?
1 likefor me, "when you go quiet, i hate myself" is kinda the opposite of what you said... i'm a very quiet person, and the only time i get to think about stuff is when i completely shut down from the world and there's not a single sound from the outside to distract me. so it's like, "when you go quiet" and you finally stop making noise and i can look back to everything you just said, i start to feel bad about those things and "i hate myself".
0 likesI love stuff like this YES PLEASE TELL ME THE ANSWERS I HATE CLIFFHANGERS
0 likesbefore the line is a really meaningful song to me because i have has disassociation on and off my whole life and now it’s on and this is the longest it’s been on and i feel like that line is being created for me right now and the song makes me feel not alone in it
0 likesoh I LOVE this thank you!
0 likes1:21 and all this time I thought red pushing down on the green was talking about the blush on someones face being stronger than the sickness in their face... well hell
0 likesI’m glad you said the songs are ours now because Four Tequilas Down (or Five Tequilas Down as I often sing) is My Song Now
0 likeskind of related but in boys like you i misheard the lyric ‘turns out you’re just good at this’ and thought you were singing ‘turns out you’re just going to piss’
0 likessort of like someone was going to lean in to kiss but moved instead to go piss. took me an embarrassing amount of time to release the real lyric
BITE BACK! what is it about? feels like caught in weird tension with a close friend who you are trying to help
2 likesIn the bed is just too beautiful for it’s own good. Just wow
0 likesI WANT A DODIE CONCERT SO BAD NOW
0 likesDodie: this is gonna be a long one
0 likesMe: okay so like an hour
Video: less than twenty minutes
Me:oh... okay
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lol me too
0 likesHeh... my impression of Monster was a bit darker. 😅 I definitely thought you were talking about placating with your words so that they wouldn't be a true danger to you and no one be able to listen anymore.
0 likesdoes anyone understand the line "write a postcard to you at 84" in party tattoos? I've never grasped if 84 was an age or an address
0 likesIn intertwined, what do you mean by the phrase 'you create a rarity of my genuine smile'? Is it a good thing? Bad thing? I've always wondered
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I always thought of this as being a darker lyric bc it says “rarity” meaning that she rarely smiles genuinely around this person ,, so the relationship isn’t very healthy. (also I think the song may be a bit about being really really dependent on someone almost to an unhealthy point?) At least that’s what I got from it! :)
1 like"my flatmate is pissing... very loud" is going to be a lyric in the next song right?
0 likesoh gosh I could listen to you talking for infinity
0 likesoh gosh I could listen to you talking for infinity
0 likesFrom this moment on, we are the daughters
0 likesi feel guilt about being a fan of somebody's for inadvertently pressuring them w my expectations. having been a long time fan of both you and bo, part of me always thought i should look away bc i'm contributing to a problem. i know it doesn't make sense bc i respect people's boundaries and if an artist is sharing their art they want people to see it, but i still feel the guilt. also i think it's incited me with fear about sharing my art online, i see the negative side affects and worry it's not worth it :-( will i regret not sharing? would i regret sharing? oof idk..
0 likesI think about these thoughts all the time... I swear we're twin flames ahhh
0 likesHate myself always was special to me as I often based my self worth on someone else loving me so “if you go quiet I hate myself” meant that as soon as you stop loving me and giving me attention I stop loving me and that I did something wrong i must have done something wrong other wise you wouldn’t be upset/quiet
0 likesglad to see everyone asked about all my daughters
0 likesHAHAH the shock on ur face when u said “i’m writing myself”
1 likegosh the LIGHTING of this video feels so cozy!!!!
0 likes1:27 This is the moment where I realized she says "all fingers" and not "orphan girls"
0 likesguess we will never know what dodie meant when she said “green looking time” in when 😔
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I understood it like: The grass is always greener on the other side, and so is the time that is not now.
2 likes@Nicolas Neubauer oooh thank you i never thought of it like that before
1 likeSick of losing soulmates hit hard because i attach so deeply to every person i fall for and even when it goes to shlt I try to put it back together bc "theyre my soulmate" and ive lost to many people already. Eventually that turned into detaching from everyone i get feelings for but yeah, and then When was also a monumental song for me bc i experience DP/DR 24/7 and im constantly cursing myself for not actually experiencing life and instead im stuck in this horrid cycle of day to day life without actually living. Anywayyys thanks for making relatable songs that make me feel understood :D
0 likes„tell me again about how it hurts being awfully loud for an introvert“
0 likesThis is my first time watching one of her videos and DAMN SHES PRETTY
0 likesHey dodie, just out of curiosity, is there a trick to you remembering how to play all your songs? I play uke and can never do it without tabs.
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LOL I literally had to relearn most of them for this video
0 likesI forget all the time !!
I always thought of sorry as the follow up to the four tequilas down story 😩
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It def is in a way !!!!!
0 likesDidn't realize that I was emocional for the same reason she wrote "if i'm being honest", how cool lol
0 likes'Sentences sit in her mouth that are templated' Are you kidding? Somebody thought of that? Correction... YOU thought of that! Damn, that's a wicked line! I fucking love your mind!
0 likesAlways wondered about "to want to know me/is to ask me to ask you to tell but you won't" from bored like me !! I can't figure it out. In other news does anyone know any similar songs to this ?? I really like the wordsoup with the masquerade ball kind of vibe !!!!!!
0 likestell me why i cried during this video
0 likesyour hair is so pretty at any length <3
0 likesWhy do i understand every single word you said? ✨ 25 years alive is a scary thing for me, ty for making this age semi-ok . I had a massive panick attack inside the hospital 2 days ago. Everything is foggy ☁️ and blooby dlobi 〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜. I think that we only at the beginning.
0 likesLife is wonderfully weird, ty for existing - you made my disconnected brain to feel that it's ok to fly high without any control and im not the one to blame. ✨
Dodie is glowing wow
0 likesi always rlly resonate with cool girl, i'm quite a loud and probably annoying person and constantly wish i could be the cool calm and collected person that everyone seems to love, i wish i could just be less dramatic abt everything :///
0 likesLITERALLY FUCKING BLOODY BRILLIANT YOU ARE. WOOOOWWW
1 likeHey new fan loving it
0 likesso glad for all the in the bed explanations LMAO
0 likesI took cool girl (for me personally) as that but in terms of my gender. im a trans nonbinary person and it just reminds me like cool girl (my assigned gender) being okay with like i don’t know being misgendered and i’ll be easy and quiet and won’t push people to use my proper pronouns or proper name and it’s not a big deal and it’s so damaging and. ouch
0 likesIt would be sooo cool if you wrote a movie about song composition !
0 likesLike : a band that play some covers for fun together, have a chance to play somewhere cool. The drummer of the band is already in a professionnal band and is like "It's fun but I don't have much time and we only do covers so sorry I don't want to", after some discussion he semi-agreed to participate if there is at least a good original song.
The following would be the main character, you, singer and rythmic guitarist of the band, to write the song.
We would see all of the processing, trial and error, inspiration chasing, fun scene of discovery (you know like you could be in an argument with someone and telling someone something cool, immediatly stop and writing it down while humming like no-one was near, or walking in the forest and then having the melody but nothing to record etc), stuff like that.
And for the third act, I saw videos of Neely where he was preparing for a gig and people said it looked like heist movies. This would be fun to see every one trying to find a place for the rehearsal and convincing the drummer, finding a simpler way for the rythme because there isn't anytime for the 11/8 part (but the bassist will eventually play a part of it at the end of the song and everyone smiles at each other for the private joke), good harmonies at the last minutes and all.
You know, a slice of life movie with some different flavor as the movie progress !
Hope my english isn't too much broken, I'm baguette du fromage sooo...
Anyway, great work ! Have a nice day =)
Ahhh this is the video I've been waiting for, for the longest time lmao. You are so cute ahhh we need to collab!!! ☺
0 likesi have now drafted 2 different comments but my head is spacey and they made no sense. beautiful explanations, chill vibes, amazing music. <3
0 likesOooh could you do a video of lines you almost used but decided not to because you just were never happy with the exact wording 😂
0 likesI thought the it feels awfully good to hurting was based of the cliché of “I love you so much it hurts”
0 likesi think my new wish is to sit down with dodie and talk about what her songs mean to her and what they mean to me
0 likesi love you dodie
0 likesthousands and thousands of eyes just like mine, aching to find who they are. always wondered where the emphasis was. as in them finding themselves or you finding who they are?
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Both me and them are alike - we’re all aching to find out who we are and that’s what makes us a community !
1 likei think i find a lot of your lyrics quite self-explanatory but maybe that's just trauma baby
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💁🏻♀️
1 likethe keyboard playing in the dim room with the red light in the bg gives me MAJOR bo burnham vibes
0 likes"In the middle" is about a tree-some ? I thought it was about introducing your bf/gf to your dad
0 likesnow i need to listen again with this knowledge
0 likesThank you for this
0 likes"maybe id be a little better if my feet just were more sweet " ( im pretty sure thats the lyric ) I"VE ALWAYS BEEN CONFUSED ABOUT THAT
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Maybe I’d sound a little better if my features were more sweet :”)
1 like@doddleoddle oh my god im so sorry ive been listening to it thinking you were talking about your toes thats a great lyric though
0 likesMy name's Sophia, circa 2015 (my first year of hs). My name beforehand was Sophie, and my line is quite literally drawn by what people call me. I was a sad kid, but the world was still vibrant in its horror. Now, its beige and grey.
0 likeswhen she didn't answer my question about guiltless... honestly yes good for you babe
0 likesGenius mind!
0 likesI never understood the line « chill out if it’s late or every heavy sigh will seal a fate » in Cool Girl, could you explain? 🧐
damn i thought i couldn’t love before the line more but holy shit
0 likes"Oh this lines kind of sweet, I just wanted to ingest them"
0 likesRight now cool girl and all my daughters really been speaking to me because I've been trying to be more relaxed and cool and not bother people because lately I felt like a push people away by being too inquisitive or talking too much and even though it's not something that anyone really said to me after reading a bunch of things wondering why I have trouble in a specific area I've been trying to just be more relaxed but it's made me incredibly lonely. I do think I have a history of people pleasing or maybe changing a little to suit people and I'm trying not to do that and being scared to open up to new people now it's just been exhausting. And when Dodie said " a you bad things" I feel bad too because I've been looking back on my past and little mistakes that I made here and there that led to embarrassment and hurt feelings and things I wish I could do over knowing better and that's been really hard for me but also all the childhood trauma that I faced and how I grew up it's really hard not to shut down after all that happened and I tried to keep going and I try to be a bright person and make people feel Joy but then people don't open themselves up to that Joy so I start to feel even more closed off and it's just this endless cycle of trying to do the right thing and trying to be friendly and good and positive and getting shut down.
0 likeswhen you said “one thing turns into being about everything”
0 likesi completely respect that the dark politician lyric is personall. but was wondering if it’s a metaphor?
0 likesI've always seen All My Daughters as an update or sequel to Burned Out
0 likesall my daughters is so so good
0 likesThis video is so special to me oh my god
0 likesOne thing that I don’t even know if it was intentional but adds so many layers is that at the end of She it sounds like you sing “She... he... means everything to me.” So it makes me think maybe the narrator rewrites the narrative at the last moment, crossing out she to replace with he out of shame or maybe she moved on or maybe the person saying the final he is the she the narrator has been singing about
0 likes<3 queerbbby from ig here. I gave that prompt for „a dark politician might end up alone. I appreciate that you put your response in even tho you didn’t elaborate on it :) 💓
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♥!
1 like@doddlevloggle ♥ :)
0 likesYou've used the word "gasp" a few times in your songs, like "i gasped for him". What does that mean?
0 likesis the specific term "Cool Girl" inspired by gone girl or is it just a coincidence lol
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Yes it is !!
0 likesI know we should speculate, but…I think dodie is human and perfectly flawed. She wouldn’t be able to make such magical relatable music if she wasn’t living life, making mistakes, feeling pain, feeling joy and happiness. Most of my favorite songs, the ones that really dig into me, are the really dark sad ones because my darkness recognizes like and is comforted that it isn’t alone. I don’t need more details than that
0 likesBefore the line was something I thought as 'before the finish line' because I can never reach that finish line
0 likesWhen i heard "would you be so kind"
0 likeswhen you said "how are your lungs? are they in pain?"
my first thought was lung cancer...
I just always feel so comfortable here
0 likesDamn dodies mind really do be on sex 90% of the time. And it makes for sick songs
0 likesjesus dodie you're so so beautiful.
0 likesok. so. you're a lyrical genius. got it.
0 likesI asked what does "a dark politician always ends up alone" mean? I genuinely don't know.
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A politician is someone who will change their answers and speak so defiantly it makes you feel gaslit and mental !!!
1 like@doddlevloggle oohk, thank you
0 likesthese aren't lyrics, these are poems.
0 likeshi ily and can’t wait to see you in october and have loved u since i was like 10 years old and i’m just so thrilled :’)
0 likesomg YES I WAS WAITING FOR THIS ONE
2 likesi thought the lyric ‘talk about your taste in women’ was awesome bc it’s like sneakily it’s me... talk about me 😏
0 likesi kissed someone relates to bipolar manic hypersexuality, and regret that comes from that, for me x
0 likesdodie when publishing burned out "I didnt mean leave life!!!1!" , dodie now " someeee suicidal ideationnnn"
1 likeDodie, how are you so cool? 😣
0 likesDodie is very spicy in this one!
0 likesDODIE YOU ARE GORGEOUS!!!!
0 likeseveryone falls for the sunshine disguise, distracted by who theyre thinking of
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As someone who spent of lot of life so frustrated that I didn’t get crush’s and thought I was broken this always stung - I wanted so desperately to fall in love
0 likesWow. I have a same "the line" in my life
0 likeshas been so excited for this one <333
1 likeNot necessarily a lyric question, but did you have a particular visual or scene in mind for “Instrumental”? I love that song so much, it reminds me of a mix of the opening from “Over the Garden Wall” and the instrumental bit from Waitress “Pomatter Pie” but with fairies? I don’t know I was just curious because it feels very much like something that would be in like a play.
0 likesSide note: Just a huge thank you for all of your incredible music! You give words and sound to feelings that sometimes feel otherwise unspeakable or unheard of. Listening to your work through the pandemic has been so uplifting and helpful, and after watching this there’s honestly new dimension to quite a few of my favorites. “All My Daughters” is one that I deeply identified with, especially the line “but I’m screaming underwater” it’s just amazing! Also it makes me so happy to see you be firm and happy in your boundaries. I started listening to your music when I was fifteen, and I loved when you would make videos about your life because it made me feel validated in what I felt as a young woman, but as I’ve grown I see how important it is in your own life to remember it is your life. You have no obligation to share Your world with The world, and your music is a privilege to peak into the depths of emotions we all share, but they started as yours. Anyway, thank you so so much for your music, your words, and for just being you! I hope you feel better soon!
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Also have you noticed that it's musically very similar to One Last Time Please at the beginning?
1 likethe one goddamn lyrik which I really wanted to know about because I feel it way too much and she just goes
0 likes"no :)"
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but well, "a dark polititian will end up alone", to me, is about how someone is wielding what leverage they have over you emotionally against you and how you promise yourself to leave them over it as soon as you´re able to, for the damage they´ve done, no matter how lonely they´ll end up without you, since thy have brought this upon themselves.
0 likesthis is off topic but your hair looks so pretty in this video
0 likesREALLLYYYY curious about "you all plead and demand, all your needs but you can't, he'll be asked till he's bored, I would know, I've been bored before" from cool girl :))))
0 likesPlease do a video about all your beautiful dresses and fashion in general!
0 likesLol just seen your recent video
In she when you describe what she taste like then you say "but to her I taste of nothing at all" what exactly do you mean by that.
0 likesyou’re a lyric god. marry me
0 likesI don't know how to describe this but like-- is dodie getting more saturated??? Like she's still the soft under the covers nighttime toned dodie but just more color?
0 likesThis was so damn interesting
0 likes2:12 - "I'm inviting people to have a lil look at my ✨ b o d y ✨"
1 likeI promise you
0 likesIt will all make sense again
Is a lyric of yours that completely changed my life. The night I found your music I hadnt left the house at all in two years was in a really dark place staying up all night sleeping all day not eating, hadnt taken care of myself at all had a lit of input from services but that was all same old same old "your own fault" or if not mine my families. Quite frankly I wanted to leave the world, nobody understood me I had just been diagnosed as autism something which at the time I seen as a terrible thing as the only autism I'd ever seen was ya know rainman and I thought I was then that persona of autism. I searched and searched for music or something to describe what i was feeling then i found you, I would easily say you saved me. To see someone else struggle was a real eye opener, I didnt get better myself I was sectioned in a traumatic way, only after not eating for 20 odd days, and in a psych ward for 6 months. I introduced my best friend to your music and I left the psych ward in october 2018. It took a long time to bring myself back to life but slowly buy surely I got there, i started a ASN school in feb 2019, celebrated my 17th birthday on march 1st and march 15th seen you live, my birthday present from my best friend, I cried during secret for the mad and 6/10 remembering how far I'd come and knowing how hard it must've been for you to even imagine those lyrics. Since 2018 I have met a lot of people who struggle with their own mental health and in their moments of need I use that line so please.. you might not see it now but it really does get better things will make sense again the broken jigsaw that is your life will be a whole again it takes time to heal and it takes courage but you can get through this and one day you will be the one saying I promise this gets better, I promise it will all make sense again 💖
yeah I was wondering what the line in "?" means, the one that goes "mmmmMMMMMMMMMM aaaaaaAAaaaaAaa"
1 likeIVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS OH MY DAYS
0 likesDodie I love you
0 likesRed pushing down on the green was a definite unknown for me
0 likesthis is the video i have always wanted from u
0 likesIs Guiltless about trauma? I just wanna make sure I’m hearing it right
0 likesthat line in guiltless was the only one I asked about dodie whyyy (jk I completely respect you not sharing 💖)
0 likes4:40 "I was in silly goofy mood"
0 likesLOVE THIS SM
2 likes4:20 HER LITTLE FACE
0 likesOh noooo I was so excited for "a dark politician will end up alone"
0 likesi thought the whirring machine was a vibrator
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HAHAHA O SHIT
4 likesThis makes me happy
1 likeOh I'm so excited to watch this!
0 likesLovely :)
0 likesCool Girl has become my chronic illness anthem
0 likes"how are your lungs? are they in pain?"
0 likesNO WAY I'VE BEEN WAITINH FOR THIS SO LONg
0 likesWhere are my fellow dodie daughters 😌
0 likes16:19 Recycling single teaser ideas again, are we?
0 likesI mean, do you have those harmonies in your head and do you try to make sense of something?
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ok sometimes it hurts but it's not you it's your songs they have life
0 likesIm sorry for asking about the guiltless line😳
0 likesFuuuck 12:38 pierced me in the heart
0 likes14:07 too
Genius interview thingies could never
0 likesIt’s only been 24 hours since I saw you in Seattle yet here I am already ugh miss u
0 likesi feel so attacked by some of these explanations
0 likesur songs ARE therapy actually
0 likesDang okay I knew the promise bc I made the same promise 😬
0 likesam I the only one who thought of harry potter, when she talked about growing bones and how it was painful?
0 likesI can't wait to see you at your show in southampton!
0 likesI can't tell if this is pre covid, mid covid or post covid dodie..
0 likesyou are a GENIUS
1 like“we won’t eat our words. they don’t taste so good.”-monster
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Here's my interpretation:
2 likes"Eating your words" means regretting what you've said and wishing you could take it back. If the things you've said are particularly bitter, you literally don't want to eat them because they won't taste good, and it would feel better to get them out and direct them at the other person and not regret it, and just go full monster in their eyes.
hate myself is sort of about social anxiety for me. constantly worrying about saying or doing something wrong, thinking I'm insane for feeling like this, and when I fuck up the conversation, or talking with people, they go quiet and I hate myself
0 likesi was right abt the meaning of if i’m being honest
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i literally resonate w all her music so much
0 likeswhat does "show me the eyes" from Sorry mean?
0 likesDodie? More like Dodictionary
1 like“Superglued human of proof” from Sick of Losing Soulmates?? pleaseeee
0 likesIt's been years and I still can't seem to get "I'm sick of faking diary entries" from When
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to me, it feels like lying (even to yourself, in something so private and personal as a diary) about how you’re doing and feeling (like feeling so unable to face your reality that you’re trying to fake a different one to cope)
1 likeI WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT THIS VIDEO Oh my word
0 likesA lot of these comments are telling me that not is Dodie very smart/clever so are all of you!
0 likesthe intro lmao that's smth I'd say
0 likesi always thought sorry was the follow up to four tequilas - like the woman got caught cheating and this was to the other woman
0 likesgah she’s so beautiful
0 likesI can't wait to see u in the concert :''((((
0 likesI hate when artists say decide your own meaning. Most of the time I have no clue what a song is supposed to be about because artists use all these random metaphors and I have no context, so just tell me what it’s supposed to be about so it can actually mean something and not just be pretty sounds and a jumble of words
0 likesTIL Dodie is a lot hornier than i expected.
0 likesthis video is my favorite
0 likesWhen I see her I just think of the song paint ONLY OGs
0 likesspecial girl is sooooooo relatable tho
0 likesunrelated but what polish are you using? it's so subtle and cute 🥰
0 likeswhat about “put me in a bath/i’ll forgot you are gone” from I kissed someone it wasn’t you? I can’t seem to figure it out lol x
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It’s like ! In a drunken night you’re like oh do whatever you want with me like someone tell me what to do
0 likesTake me home and bathe me because I clearly can’t look after myself
And then I’ll forget you are are gone is just like a route thought in thay
You are an angel
0 likesDoes anyone know what her tattoo says?
1 likeAmazing start lmao
0 likes@doddlevloggle "Do me a favour, can your heart rate rise a little" from "would you be so kind". I thought it was "Do me a favour,can your heart re-write a little" I made a TikTok you commented on. hi.I love you
0 likesUR TELLING ME /I'M/ THE DAUGHTER????? IM CRYING
0 likesi'm very tired and only have two braincells but... what if dodie and bo burnham like............ made a song....
1 likehas there been a Build a Problem dance party vid, or did i just miss it ????
0 likesThat last comment: ‘My Flatmate is pissing very loudly…’. That is an experience everyone has eventually.. future song lyrics?
0 likesBurnt out makes me cry
0 likes🥰 dodie smart
0 likesreading these comments...isn’t music just so fucking cool. how everyone interprets it slightly differently but it’s just as meaningful regardless. <33
0 likesLooooove your Genius &glorious Music humor divine expression 🙏 Not talking about my taste in women 💪❤️ UR a gift to Allofus😍🎶💞🗽💞💎💯🎉 Thank U for sharing from the heart 💞Love U☀️
0 likesSpecial Girl is 💖🙌🏼🥺💕
0 likes💖💖💖
0 likesmental disorders are rude sometimes :( hope you feel better now.
0 likesrolling your eyes to to backs of your heads surely you know to close them instead. I thought it meant close them as in when you kiss someone you should close your eyes!
0 likeswhat “am i missing something vital here?” in don’t quite belong means?
0 likesoh jeez i relate to special girl far too much...and cool girl...(so many girls) and human...and sorry...and hate myself...
0 likesmaybe I should go back to therapy
i love you so MUCHHHHHHH
0 likesThis may be a new comfort video-
0 likesI want to write you, I just don't know how lol If anyone could tell me where to send the damn thing... I would very much appreciate it.
0 likesNO I GENUINELY DON'T KNOW WHAT "MY SUGA GOT AN EGGY BUM" MEANS AND IDK IF YOU'RE TEASING OR NOT??? is it like...about farts or somethin? please. I need to know what I'm randomly singing around the house
0 likesI still can't make out what the line after "I'm only proving how" is in Hate Myself lol
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"I'm only worth losing now"
0 likesshe's proving how the relationship isn't going to work out, the only person will have to loose her "im only worth loosing now"
0 likesAhhh, thank you!
0 likesI find If I’m Being Honest about looking back on your past self and just kind of apologising
0 likes14:17 harry potter reference
0 likeswhere is the swan print from omg!
0 likesIt’a kinda not attractive when people are so in love with themself.
0 likesThis is unrelated but i really like your nails and idk how you did them
0 likesI feel an idiot for not understanding that half the lyrics are sexual LMAO
0 likesa dark politician will end up alone was mine lolll
1 likeOmg is SHE HEALED FROM DPDR
0 likesbecause... Im really smart! Gosh i loved that!
0 likesWay better than Genius
1 likei dont listen to- i mean i listened to a couple songs i- i just- i was just staring. at. hair. and. everything else.
0 likesu r a genius
0 likeshow do u feel now after covid? hope ur betterr
0 likesWe"re okay? we're okay
0 likesPLEASE what is the placement/meaning behind . and ? on the album. please. why were they positioned right there? what does it mean?
1 likeWhat does 'does exactly what it says on the tin' mean?
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It means that something literally does what it is called. You use a hairbrush to brush hair. It does what it says on the tin.
0 likesSomeone else wrote a comment about how the line is like wordplay, where taking a break/pause causes your heart to break.
WHY DIDNT U EXPLAIN A DARK POLITICIAN WILL END UP ALONE I WANT TO UNDERSTAND IT
0 likesi love you so much
0 likesYES DODIE YOU /ARE/ VERY SMART
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THANKU
1 likeilysm<33
0 likesI feel dumb bc I still don't understand the Sorry lyrics properly loool
0 likesIn "would you be so kind" what does "let's swap chests today" mean??
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not her obviously, but i think it means something along the lines of "having this crush on you is making me short of breath, and if you could feel that, you could feel how serious i am about you, and how good it is to care about someone"
2 likesyou are SO clever omg
0 likesDodie is so pretty.
0 likes💕💕💕
0 likescoming to see you in belfast!!:)))
0 likesOuch ouch ouch ouch the promise wrecked me
0 likestw: s*icide mention
0 likesFrom ‘Sorry’
‘Let me go back/show me the eyes/so I’d really know/just what it looks like/there was the end/I couldn’t find/found too late (and then all of the next bit which is just cinematic I can hear colours when I listen to that)
right so maybe I have a dark mind or maybe i mould words to fit what I need them to say but I interpreted this as someone facing their family after a s*oxide attempt. Seeing their eyes, seeing there was hope all along. The end (to their pain) they couldn’t find, they found it too late having done something they now deeply regret. Then it goes into ‘didn’t want to believe such a monster in me’ and on and on and it fits so well like that self hatred afterwards, the shame, the guilt. And then the beautiful strings coming in at the end like, I’m alive I’m alive I’m alive oh thank god and I am so sorry and I am feeling so ashamed but simultaneously grateful
yeah so that’s why I sob uncontrollably at it
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also I have a line from Ready Now tattooed
0 likes‘a promise of hope is enough to feel free’
In my darkest moments, even though it would anger me so much I always have this little sticky bit of hope that prevents me from disaster. I am naturally optimistic, possibly a little doe eyed and sheltered, but I have unwavering hope and as long as it’s there I can get through anything
A promise of hope is enough to feel free!
3.34 LOLLLL
0 likesClever. very clever
0 likescw/sexual & physical abuse, (please dont read if you think these topics will do you more harm than good to read about !! go stream build a problem instead!!).
0 likesbut for me, cool girl is about the sexual exploitation ive been through / am going through.
"i carry the time we don't talk in a backpack",
when i tried to ignore/not respond to men who were hurting me, it weighed down on me sometimes, partly because i'd get punished later for not doing what i was supposed to.
"leave it on the side with the nights you didnt call me back,"
but when i had times when i wasn't being demanded to do things, or getting threatened, it was a weight off.
"& all the ideas & the hope i'd never ask him for, i'll throw them away, its okay, without a second thought,"
sometimes when i was younger & the adults who were there & paying attention to me & saying they were proud of me, were the ones who would also force me into sex. i had to put up those boundaries in my head as to not get attached, not build hope on these people who only want me for my body, even though it would be easy to lean into the comfort of them acting like they care.
...(skipped a bit),
"rolling your eyes to the backs of your heads, surely you know to close them instead,"
when i was being abused by multiple men in a night, or very intense sexual things happening non-consentually, it was really intense pain. i felt like i couldnt exist inside my brain. pain so bad to make your eyes roll back. but no, instead, i'd try to close my eyes & wait for it to stop & think of a person who i knew would save me if she could. 🌿
"cool girl, i'll be different, i'll be quiet, i'll be easy."
i wasnt very good at obeying orders & doing what men demanded of me. & i told myself, i gotta get better at this, at doing what they say, i'll be different. & quiet & easy like they want me to be.
"how much of a tongue can i bite until they notice blood, just spit to the left, carry on, just smile & say ur good."
it didnt matter if i was bleeding or in pain, it carried on anyway, so it was easier emotionally for me to act like i was okay, than to beg for it to stop cos of the pain & not be listened to. & specifically spitting to the left, reminded me of my very particular ways i deal with it.
"you all plead & demand all your needs but you can't help be asked til he's bored."
people demanding me things & hurting me & physically abusing me sorta cos it was something to do.
"chill out if its late, or every heavy sigh will seal her fate,"
had to some how make my body chill out & be okay with the fact that sexual things were happening to me & i didnt want them to. the more i'd heavy sigh, the more forced & hurt i'd get.
(gonna stop there ,, but for me the song is about tryna be a "cool girl" cos i was taught that i was good & they were proud of me if i let them use me & stayed still & quiet about the abuse, & i kinda felt like that was the right thing to do).
YESSS ❤️❤️
0 likesDCU - dodie cinematic universe
0 likesCovid? More like content
1 likethe typos is the closed caption makes it better
0 likesI love you
0 likes💖💖💖💖💖
0 likesAyy in the middle 🎉☀️😎🤣
0 likesi love you
0 likesi wish there was a lil door in the back of their head so that i can have a lil peak at the genius that is dodie
0 likesI still never got my answer to a dark politician will end up alone. english isn't my first language dodie please help me out here what does itMEAN /hj
0 likesso many dodo videos
0 likesBut are you coming to Nashville?
1 like“‘Cause I’m really smart!” Heck YEAH you are!
0 likesBruh, why u so pretty?
1 likeomg i am here early. love from brazil!
0 likesdodie post. click on dodie face. i am here
1 like12/10
0 likesyay dodie
0 likesgenius but diy
0 likesyeah ok not that deep
0 likesu most genius.
0 likesI’ve never been so early in my life
0 likes"sepicif" what the
0 likescried
0 likesare you an enneagram 4??
0 likesNot trying to be rude, but what’s on the bottom of your eyelids? Are they tear tattoos? Because that would be cool!
0 likesI’m really smart<3
0 likesu look soooo cute omg
0 likesnew dodie hypers
0 likesdodith .
2 likeswhy do u pretend?
0 likes4:23 ?! ._.
0 likeshuge brain
0 likesThree minutes ago gang!!! 😍😍😍
0 likesEllo im the most early ive been for any of these videos
0 likesI’m here
0 likesgamer
0 likesI was 69 th like lol
0 likesyo
0 likes