1. TAKE CONTROL
It’s an instinct in my brain
To Live a balanced life but everyday so hard to maintain
Cause the when things I lean on seem to loose their meaning
Lost, alone and out of control is how I am feeling.

Take Control!
Understand your life is in your hands
Take control

You know it’s the way, the only way for you to live
But when you’re playing foolish games you can’t truly see life for what it is.
I’ve got one chance to do all I can
And with discipline and insight I have a plan.
I’ve personalized and dramatized life
but there no TRUE VALUE LIES
Stop reacting, take one step ahead
and have pride in the LIFE YOU’VE LEAD

This song is one that we have had for quite sometime. Aaron seriously wrote this soon after Open Hearts and Clear Minds was done being recorded. The idea to this song is quite simple, it's about balance. All too often we live life at some emotional high or low, whether we are excited about how things are going well for us or upset/depressed at how life isn't playing by our rules. Rarely do we find ourselves somewhere in the middle where we can see both the good AND the bad in everything that occurs in our life. That is the motivation behind this song, it's saying that I want to stop this cycle of ups and downs and live, not devoid of emotions, but able to exercise the limited amount of control that I have in life so that my life can see situations that arise as they truly are. Not through a skewed perspective. A real key to this idea is the idea of acting versus reacting. Everyone has a real tendency to go along through everyday reacting to the things that come our way. Of course some of this is unavoidable but alot of it is just a repeat of something that has happened a thousand times before. We can direct some of the course that our lives follow, that is where the idea/title of take control comes in. 

2. PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Searching for contentment, our life’s goal
Looking for something to hold and make us feel whole
But we don’t want what we’ve got as soon as we acquire
So we try to fill the void with something else we desire!

In Pursuit of Happiness
Living in ignorance there is no bliss!

Stop for second and contemplate
Is this cycle all there is? Is this our fate?
Whether it’s money, clothes, drugs or booze
If we quest for what’s impermanent there no way we can’t loose
I’ve seen in my life this pursuit doesn’t hold water
But to keep it safe and dry I’ll try harder and harder
There is nothing wrong w/ material taste
But see it’s true worth, understand its place
Cause this we’re in right now begins again
And it’s up to each of us to decide when it ends!

Happiness is not the problem here at all. We all deserve to be happy, it is a good thing! It's the fact that we purse it constantly. Granted, we all could debate what makes us happy on the relative level or on a more ultimate level. Yet, I see in my life everyday, that I am looking for what makes me feel good and rejecting or running away from what is hard and painful. If we really look at this pursuit it's pretty depressing because every time we find something that makes us feel "good" we start searching and obsessing over finding something else that makes us happy, whether it is new shoes, a new relationship or a meal that is exceedingly tasty. It all doesn’t last but somewhere in the back of our mind we think it will. This causes us pain because it's inevitable that our appetite won't be filled, that the void will still be there. This sounds like a real downer sometimes but really there is a positive side to it. We can learn from seeing this cycle in our life and start changing our thinking towards our personal happiness and possibly find real happiness and peace in our time. There is more to life than just making ourselves feel good, we can actually learn a whole lot from just sitting with our pain and trying to figure out "why exactly am I feeling upset now?"

3. GET WISE
JUST GET WISE!
Walking down the street I come face to face
With what little concern we have for others in this human race
Look around, you can choose the view you want to see
But it’s harder to care than to live in apathy!

JUST GET WISE!

When it’s ten years later and we’ve had our turn
Will our foundation crack or will it stand firm
Poverty, hunger, addiction disease
I want to lend a hand to those in need
I hear the critics but I know these thoughts are real
And I know there is part of you to, who feels the way that I feel!
I’m searching! Open your eyes! JUST GET WISE
Live our lives so that suffering may cease,
live our lives so one may walk in peace!

This one is a real slammer. It's hard to sing because almost all of it’'s not only at break-neck speed but it has no pause in the singing. We wrote this song about caring. In the hardcore scene and society as a whole people don't tend to think (I am putting myself and band mates in this as well) about the effect that their effort and life have on the very fabric of our world and the way others currently live and will live in the future. The truth is, we very often walk down the street and pass by hundreds of people and don't think about uplifting them, whether they need it or not, we are really much more focused on our own lives and our own situations. But the fact is that we each have a chance to make the world we live in a better place while we are here. That is such a precious gift, such an opportunity to be in a position to effect another person, or group of peoples life in a positive way. This song is as much a song to ourselves saying that it is easier to not care about anyone or anything but what is really hard in life, what really takes energy is caring about someone or something other that yourself. We all find ourselves walking the other way when we could be extending a hand, in anyway, to another human being. You don't have to be a peace activist or work for Global Relief and Development to make a change in your world, you can do it by taking a look at who is around you and offering them an ounce of thought and concern. 

4. NO GOOD REASON
Talking your shit, playing your games
You try to tell me who is righteous and tell me who is lame
So easy to point fingers, to criticize
But while everyone is laughing the spirit dies!

No Good Reason!
THERE IS NO GOOD REASON!

Stand for your cause, look at the energy spent
You say it’s real but does it make you content
Cause friends are divided it doesn’t seem right
And you’re standing your ground but not gain insight!
JUST MAKE IT WORK! We can MAKE IT WORK!
We won’t always see eye to eye
But we can see the good in each other and learn to compromise
It’s a path we all tread and for it I’ll stand
But won’t live in competition with my fellow man!

I won't say this song is a togetherness song but at the same time it is our comment on the fact that there is so little merit to alot of the divisions between groups of people throughout the scene. So many of us are so similar but choose to define ourselves on such a simple difference. This really arose when Impact Fanzine came out. So many people loved it and so many people hated it because they thought it arrogant or pretentious. So many of our friends were divided up by this, people who only a few months prior would have potentially hung out now stood on opposite sides and just talked bad about the other side. Of course, everyone has been on the outside of this and in the middle of it but being that we were very much on the outside of this situation there just seemed as though all the people involved in this and any similar struggle could make it work but were often, not always, more interested in being "right" when everyone was right and wrong. The basic end result is that the spirit inside people and in the scene in general is really hurt by this sort of stuff, this constant finger pointing, this constant back and forth, when really we all could be gaining ground and gaining wisdom by listening to the other side of an argument. I guess we wish that the guys in TFS and everyone could, in situations like this, see the good in the other person and come to some sort of understanding. 

5. CUTTING THROUGH
We’re each true and flawless INSIDE
With barrier built in our minds, the roles we accept and the roles we assign
We can’t see the wisdom and honest that is basic in each human being

WE’RE CUTTING THROUGH
See what’s false see what’s true!
WE’RE CUTTING THROUGH

We all try to control our reality but we just won’t find immunity
We all have the power and courage to transform our lives
W/ a little understanding we can liberate…
OUR POLLUTED MINDS! WE’RE CUTTING THROUGH

The idea for this song came from the book "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" by a very realized Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. At the very core of Buddhist philosophy is the idea that each being is flawless and perfect at heart, at their core. It is our perceptions, our reactions, our attachments that make us unable to see this in ourselves and others around us. Buddhist teachers have used an example of an onion to illustrate the complexities of this idea. You can't just peel away the first layer because there is another underneath that and another underneath that, but over time and with directed effort those layers of obscuration can be stripped away and what is left is a clear picture of the center of the onion, or in terms of human beings, our true nature. We as people build up barriers based on what we see, what we think we see and how we interpret all of this. These barriers do not allow us to see people or ourselves as the good, honest, beautiful people that we actually all are. The song is saying that all of us (especially those of us singing the song) can do this! We have the ability and the courage to expend the effort it takes liberate "our polluted mind". That is the idea of cutting through. 

6. WHAT WE KNOW
We’re just kids trying to do our best
Do what makes sense to us, forget what’s good for all the rest
And it’s not what we wear on our hands or on our feet
It’s the good we’re trying to do, the goals we’ve set and wer’re trying to meet

Try our best to learn and grow WHAT WE KNOW
True colors will always show WHAT WE KNOW

Not afraid to say what’s in our hearts
Of if you put it down or tear it apart!
Cause we’re standing on a solid foundation
Build on caring, honesty, the edge, trust and dedication
We will stand alone if that’s the way it’s got to be
But we could stand together with if only you could see
We’re not trying to lead, but we won’t be lead
Just putting words and music to
What we’ve always felt and the thoughts in our head.

Probably my favorite song to play as of late, not only because of the music itself but the words just feel so awesome to yell. I am going to do this one verse by verse. The first verse is simply saying that we are just people trying to do our best with everything we do in life especially this band and we are really concerned about doing what is right for us as people and not what others think is good for us. The last couple of lines of this verse are pretty powerful to me because it touches on the idea of more than fashion. Alot of people will say hardcore is more than fashion but then judge people on what they wear. We've gotten flack for wearing old straight edge shirts and to us, that is what we like, those are the bands we like (as well as other current bands like Our Turn and Damage Control to name two) and it's just what we know, not a fashion. What is more important to us than clothing, shoes or even straightedge are the good things that we want to do with our lives. The second verse hits in the fact that we know people are going to take what we say how they want to, tear it apart and put us down for feeling the way we do, which is how it goes. Yet the fact is that we are standing on a solid foundation that we can and are building on. This is something that words really can't even dent whether it's where we stand or anyone else but this isn't prideful or blind. We make mistakes but when it comes down to it we are aware that we aren't trying to get something over on other people or live life in some kind of messed up way. The final verse is kind of a continuation of the first and second. The first two lines just express the viewpoint that we aren't looking to separate ourselves from anyone but we aren't afraid to stand on our own either. The First Step isn't trying to lead anyone or tell them how to live but by the same token we aren't interested in being led around by anyone else's view of how we are as a band and what we should do. "Just putting words and music to what's in our heart and in our head". This is how the song ends. This is really why we started the band and the main motivation for continuing to do it.