Songfacts®:

• This island-tinged song finds Bird balancing elements of Americana and calypso. He told The Guardian: "I've always been interested by music from the American south into the Caribbean, down to Haiti. And maybe that song didn't go in the direction I was hoping, which would have been more like a stomp – it went more Afropop. But that's fine. It's hard not to have a blast playing that kind of music, because it's only three chords and it's really joyful."
• Speaking with About.com, Bird explained the dominant theme of Break It Yourself is "definitely the idea of self vs group; and the conflict that it creates, about being self-contained vs our need for others." He added that this song "talks directly about autonomy."