I miss how much of your life could gather around a band. The people you talked to, the clothes you wanted, the concert you were trying to get to. A song could give you something to look forward to for weeks. That feeling is where “Early 00s” comes from.
When I think about that time, the music is all mixed together. Britney and N*SYNC are there alongside Linkin Park and Green Day. Then Avril, Paramore, New Found Glory. I like that they can all sit in the same song, because that is how this kind of memory works for me. It isn’t a neatly organised history of a decade. One name brings back another, and suddenly there is a whole room full of music.
I wanted to get some of that excitement into the lyrics. Waiting for a video on TRL. Finding somebody who liked the same band. Getting far too invested in which song belonged on a MySpace page. Those things sound small written down, but music could take up an enormous amount of space in your life. You could build a version of yourself around it while you were still working out who you were.
The line I keep coming back to is the one about little punk bands taking the stage in town. There are all these huge names elsewhere in the song, then suddenly it gets much closer to home. I like that change in scale. Music could be this enormous thing on television and also something happening in a room nearby, with people who were still figuring it out.
Some of the words are pretty blunt about missing it. I can hear the frustration in them. I’m not going to pretend nostalgia gives you a completely fair view of the present; it doesn’t. But when I ask where those years went, I’m thinking about the feeling of being caught up in it all. Having a favourite band could feel like belonging somewhere.
The MySpace verse is probably the clearest way into what I mean. Sharing bands, talking late, making plans for concerts. There is a lot of hope in that little scene. The next song might be your favourite. The next message might be from somebody who understands why. I wanted to leave some of that in there alongside the complaining.
That is what I hope comes through in “Early 00s”. The affection underneath it. I can name the bands, but the thing I’m trying to get back to is harder to put a date on: being excited enough about a song that you have to play it to someone else.
It’s out now, and you can listen to Early 00s here. I’ve put the lyric visualizer below if you want to follow the words. The song page has the full lyrics and release details.