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Would you believe me if I said I hadn’t yet heard of the song ‘Little Boxes’ when I wrote this? Or, that I had a guilty pleasure for late 90s/early noughties hip hop like ‘Ghetto Superstar’ and Black Eyed Peas ‘Weekends’? The way the rapped verses just cleave into this super catchy sung chorus.

Talking Heads was also a very obvious inspiration for this song. I had seen David Byrne perform an arrangement of ‘Once in a Lifetime’ live where none of the instrumentation – neither the guitars, bassline, drums, anything – changed for the whole duration of the song. This had a very disorientating effect when switching from the verse to chorus. My original plan for the song was to have a similar arrangement but I couldn’t quite convince the band to try it, which is probably just as well as it probably wouldn’t have worked (however, I’ve always wanted to remix this song – email me if you’re interested!)

Lyrically, the chorus lives out a dream of my childhood fantasies after reading ‘The Secret Garden’ while contrasting sharply with the verses, which depict the increasing claustrophobia and regimentality of modern living. I wanted this to reflect in the music where the atonal verse instantly cleaves into an ethereal melodic chorus and back again. The band were used to the cut-up approach to my song writing but what they weren’t used to were pleasant, catchy choruses. It took a bit of getting used to, but they warmed up to it in the end. I think the song doubled up as a relief to some of the family and friends who were coming to our gigs and who had more conservative tastes. It was so catchy in the end that we couldn’t not release it as a double A single (with ‘Noviciate’) when we launched the ‘A Crisis’ album.

Reviewers at the time were often taken aback by the lyrics of the verses. Back then I had the audacity to rhyme ‘in a box’ with ‘in a box’ over and over again – I’m not sure if I’d have that wilfulness today. I regret that the verse lyrics steal the limelight away from the lyrics of the chorus and the bridge which I believe are far more interesting in the long run.

- Michael Bayliss
Shock Octopus

lyrics

I live in a small white box
It is in a larger box
I live here with other people
They all live in boxes too
Our little box has no garden
Just a thyme plant in a pot
It seems boxed in (just like me)
So hard these days to find some space
We work all week for our enclave
With a box above my head
With a box below my bed
And it goes on right down the street
Box and box
Box after box
I find it hard
So hard to breathe
With the whole world closing in

This house I live in
It has so many rooms
It would take many years
To wander through every hall
And nobody else
Lives with me in this house
It’s just me on my own
To get lost in my thoughts
I feel boxed in

I leave my box to go to work
And travel in a small white box
And share a lane with other boxes
The radio blares from a box
My work is in a tall white box
I travel up a small grey box
I feel boxed in!
My office space, compartment box
I stare all day at a box
An Excel’s full of little boxes

Lunch time I go back down a box
Lunch today is bento box
Tea tonight in front of box
My minds not here
My mind has flown
To dream of bigger better things

This house I live in
It opens to a yard
It’s so large and so lush
And it goes on beyond horizon
And nobody else can find me way out here
It’s just me in the garden
To get lost in my thoughts

And I could walk all corners of my mind
And reach the edge and I know
That here too I’m confined

I lost my home I lost my box
I don't live in a smaller box
I lost my job I lost my box
I don't work in a smaller box
Closing in closing in
My whole damn world is closing in
I feel boxed in

credits

from A Decade Into Darkness, released May 29, 2021
Music and Lyrics: Michael Bayliss

Scott Andrews: Drums
Michael Bayliss: Vocals and Keyboards
David Blair: Bass and Backing Vocals
David Sayers: Guitar

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Shock Octopus Perth, Australia

Contemplative, Existential, Art Rock.

A collective stream of consciousness and social commentary by Michael Bayliss, David Blair and Scott Andrews.

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