I saw that on a T-shirt about ten years ago. At the time, it just felt clever. But the idea stuck with me. It lingered. It grew up alongside me.
Cut to the final stages of Wave 1. The album was done. Tied off. Ready to go. But that old phrase popped back into my head—almost like a whisper from the past—and I couldn’t let it go. So I wrote one more song. One last message before the credits rolled.
That’s how “Don’t Grow Up (It’s a Trap!)” was born—the final track written and recorded for Wave 1.
When we’re kids, we can’t wait to grow up. We want the keys to everything—cars, love, independence, money. But when we finally get them, we realise those keys also come with locks. Freedom isn’t free. You can drive anywhere, but you have to get back in time for the job that pays for the car. You can earn all the money you want, but you’re now responsible for everything that money has to cover—rent, bills, family, obligations.
It’s not that adulthood is all bad. It has its joys. But real freedom? That might’ve existed before all of it—before we knew what we’d be trading time for.
The original version of this song had that classic pop punk energy—punchy drums, fast chords, full of urgency. Sometimes when you’re in that mode, you write lines and melodies that fit the vibe, without fully realising the weight of what you’re actually saying.
It wasn’t until I recorded the gentler Flashback Version that the lyrics really hit me.
Slowed down, stripped back, everything is laid bare. You can hear the meaning in every line—the ache, the irony, the innocence. It’s almost like hearing the song for the first time again, but from the inside out.
So this track closes out Wave 1 in two ways: one as the impulsive, shout-it-from-the-rooftops anthem—and the other as the quiet reflection that follows, when you’re alone and really thinking about what it all meant.
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