Naivety

Album: Bad Vibrations (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • A Day To Remember singer Jeremy McKinnon explained the song's meaning to Kerrang!: "This was about the feeling of growing up, and losing that naïve outlook on life. I talk about those simple, stupid things that you think about when you're young. It's about growing up and coming to terms with who you are."
  • McKinnon told Kerrang! this pop-rock tune explores the sorrow of lost innocence. "It's like the world's your oyster, and you can do whatever you want," he said; "It's that feeling before you try, and then you get killed."
  • Guitarist Kevin Skaff told Chorus FM how the song was written.

    "I was playing on a couch in the studio. I forget what was going on. I feel like everyone was pissed off or something, so we all went off into different rooms. I can't remember what happened, but I was playing an acoustic guitar and humming melodies or whatever.

    Jeremy walked by the studio I was in and was like, 'What's that?' I was like, 'I don't know. I'm just in here f--king around.' He's like, 'Play it for me again.' So I played it for him again. Then he left and came back 45 minutes later and was like, 'All right, let's go in the room and all work on this.'

    We went in the room and he showed us what he had done to the s--t that I was doing on the acoustic guitar. We were like, 'Oh, sick.' That song was done within like three hours after."
  • Jeremy McKinnon revealed to Radio.com how producer Bill Stevenson of the Descendents helped him complete the song. "I had hard time fishing some of those lyrics," he explained. "So we went outside and sat on his little picnic tables next to this little creek that runs next to his studio and me and him really focused on getting the lyrics for that song just right. Feeling like you're an adult now kinda looking back fondly at being a kid and not knowing what life had in store for you and not knowing your own limitations and coming to terms with who you are and accepting that as an adult."

    "He really helped that song," McKinnon added. "And maybe I'm just saying this because I know he helped me finish writing the song but to me it sounds most like a Descendents song. It's one of my favorites because of that."

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