The Actual Meaning of “Rowboats” ( = )
Today is a really, really good day. We’re witnessing a historic victory for marriage equality and that is fucking RAD. Amidst all of the celebratory content floating around the internet today, I’d like to join the party and contribute a story about the origin of our song “Rowboats”.
The story starts five years ago….at the very beginning of Indigo Wild. Spring time of 2010. Jason, Chris and Varun hadn’t even joined the band yet. Just Michael and I writing the beginnings of songs at the University of Cincinnati.
Michael and I were walking around campus with our dear friend Jay. Lo and behold, Jay is gay. (“whoah…that rhymes”). On the way to wherever the hell we were going, we noticed a pretty large group of people exiting one of the school buildings. There’s no need to label or get super political here, but this particular group of people did not, in fact, support the idea of same-sex marriage.
As we passed through the group, Jay said something along the lines of… “None of these people think I deserve the right to be happily married some day.”
It was a pretty simple comment. But it really sunk in for me. And I immediately felt a different energy as we walked by them. One of those “holy shit” moments. I probably said something like…”Man, that’s really fucked up, actually.”
Long story short, we talked about the concept of marriage and law until we found ourselves sitting down on a nice patch of grass with our acoustics in hand. And we literally wrote “Rowboats” that evening.
“Rowboats” is about a flood. A metaphorical flood. The people we were surrounded by that afternoon seemed, to us, like a massive body of water invading and flooding a community. So, the lyrics sort of pose a call to action. We’ve watched our homes flood, but we won’t let the land erode. We’ll sit in little boats and help drain the water, bucket by bucket, until all is well.
Today love overtook politics. All is well.
I see waves / Of dangerous waters in this place
They crossed the shore / Climbed up the beach / In the highest tide
And now we watch the sea level rise. //
We have watched salty waters cross the sand / Flooding all of our homes.
We have watched salty waters soak the land / We won’t let it erode. //
Soon enough, just soon enough some day / We’ll sit in our rowboats and say
Bring out your buckets and drain //
Bring out your rowboats and bring out your buckets //
This is a fistfight / With a wounded dove
So tell me, / Is this politics or love?
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