Songfacts®:

• For many years Taylor Rice felt uncomfortable with the expectations of being a male; this song finds him examining his own sense of masculinity.
  
  Shy under the weight of design
  Tame turning into the wild
  I see but don't recognize
  Afraid and able
  
  However, by the end of the song Rice feels more at ease in his male skin.
  
  God, it's a perfect save
  It took me thirty years and now I feel right
  How did we get this way?
  
  Rice explained in a Consequence of Sound track by track: "I've never felt comfortable with many of the expectations put on boys at a young age. Those expectations are starting to change as culture more broadly starts to push back against a patriarchal establishment, and pushing for women to a claim a share of assertiveness and power."
• Half way through "Shy" producer Shawn Everett incorporates a huge horn freak-out inspired by the Fleetwood Mac song "Tusk." Rice explained in a Reddit AMA: "I wanted something to mix up the song and take a left turn, and we thought a horn freak-out would work."