The night takes the weight of the past day As I wander streets that I don’t know the names of Above me is empty black, in front buildings of grey The street lights attack the milky way And the blackened sky reminds me of the countless nights spent lying on the balcony With the best of company A beer or 12, a deck of cards, my blurry vision brings out the stars hidden by the city lights We look over a river of mud I silently will it to flood And when the levee breaks and the town drowns The balcony will keep us safe and sound And we’ll never have to go back down there ever again All anyone in this town wants to do is leave I say we stay and claim it as our own We could tear this whole place down And build it up into a brand new home And where is the love? Certainly not here One by one all my old friends disappear Running away for jobs we need but don’t want So let’s fucking drown the whole fucking lot Play drinking games until the town is gone We'll discuss what we knew all along Our greatest friendships are built upon Happenstance and alcohol We look over a river of mud I silently will it to flood When the levee breaks and the town drowns The balcony will keep us safe and sound We’ll never have to go back down there ever again No we’ll just get drunk up here instead

I was ready for your party I had hardly seen you in the past 12 months I was busy fucking up my life and getting drunk Then I turned on my phone and I heard about what had happened Your boyfriend told me, all he could say was There’d been an accident and you definitely were not okay And I’ll be honest it didn’t hit me as hard as it should have It didn’t even make me cry because I had pretty much said goodbye over a year ago And the distance gets greater I feel like a traitor See you on Facebook think I’ll talk to you later It’s hard to find the time when all we have is memories of a high school life And I talked to your mother after another Half-assed attempt at being your brother again I’m just way too obsessed with the bullshit in my own head But sis you know I still love you I just wanna be family again So if you let me lean on you one last time I’ll be there if you ever need a crutch again When you finally got out you slapped me in the mouth Then you hugged me and screamed “where the fuck have you been?” And I didn’t have an answer So I just brushed you aside And the distance gets greater I feel like a traitor See you on Facebook think I’ll talk to you later It’s hard to find the time when all we have is memories of a high school life And I talked to your mother after another Half-assed attempt at being your brother again I’m just way too obsessed with the bullshit in my own head But sis you know I still love you I just wanna be family again So if you let me lean on you one last time I’ll be there if you ever need a crutch again And I didn’t visit your hospital bed I’m so sorry but I was scared of what I’d see But when I found out you could walk again I swear it was the happiest I’d ever been And the distance gets greater I feel like a traitor See you on Facebook think I’ll talk to you later It’s hard to find the time when all we have is memories of a high school life And I talked to your mother after another Half-assed attempt at being your brother again I’m just way too obsessed with the bullshit in my own head But sis you know I still love you I just wanna be family again So if you let me lean on you one last time I’ll be there if you ever need a crutch again I’ll be there if you ever need me again No I won’t disappear again

I’m afraid to look out my window And see the world staring back at me The light it burns my eyes Through the glass I don’t dare to see So I'll just stay inside Keep the curtains as closed as my mind The television screen beams Is this what you meant when you said you wanted to be free? Remember when you said wanted to be free, my friend? I show you my songs You’ll tell me not to yell so loud Well are you proud of me now? Are you fucking proud of me now? Remember when you said You wanted to be free my friend? It’s their prison or your own At least out there you’re not on your own It’s all in your head The barbed wire fence you've built It isn’t there ‘Cause I’m sick of being the guy Who’s the first to say something but the last to act on his words And I guess these songs let me do just that But I swear that’s gonna change soon So let’s tell it how it is The day I claimed freedom was the day that I gave up ‘Cause I ain’t fighting for anything When it takes 2 hours just to wake up And 18 years ago, to that very day I was born to a loving mother and some prick who ran away And it didn’t take me long to figure out That choosing who you want around is what family’s all about Remember when you said You wanted to be free my friend? It’s their prison or your own At least out there you’re not on your own It’s all in your head The barbed wire fence you've built It isn’t there It isn’t there It’s just a Bottle of whiskey that you’ve sipped back A bullshit system that you just can’t hack You can run but you’ll always come back You’ll never be brave enough to make an attack so Call up your friends Spend all your money They’ll laugh at your jokes As if they’re really funny Down a few beers and play a few games Distract yourself from what really lies in your brain

This bloke in City Park, he turns to me He says “You know this place ain’t what it used to be” I tell him, “Man, I don’t know what to say, I was born in ’95, I haven’t known it any other way” Well it turns out, he had no account Of what life was like back then And it seems like everyone around today Has nothing good to say about Launceston And just sometimes, you know I feel the same But please don’t think I mean to complain We could make this more than just another city But I’m not quite sure if that still interests me or anyone around here at all Most of the time, the people seem alright When I stay locked up in my room or go to shows every night Don’t need a car, I’ll walk to where I need to be Ignore the people and places that can’t seem to leave me be There’s a bunch of kids spoiling for a fight They make fun of the walking man, that’s not very nice All the franchise stores only grow stronger I find myself buying more than I wanna This place means nothing, nothing to me Yet I doubt I’ll ever leave Maybe one day we’ll see What community really means This place means nothing, nothing to me I find it hard to believe That one day we’ll see What community really means Until that day this is just another city

Look me in the fucking eye and tell me that working for millionaires in exchange for minimum wage is a fucking privilege I’ll be okay I won’t ever have a job like that Or at least I hope not And I buy whiskey with money from the government ‘Cause they don’t give me enough to pay any rent So I sit in my grandmother’s house and write stupid fucking songs I only hope I get to do it somewhere else tomorrow And I insist This life is a life worth living So close to freedom I can taste it on my lips This is all I’ve ever wanted To stand in a room And shout along to my thoughts just like this I apply for jobs to get everyone off my back But if I ever actually get one I have no idea what I’d do I’m not lazy I’m just doing what I want to So why aren’t you Trying to make something more of your life Life is what you prevent them from making it I know it’s hard I may not feed myself with this guitar But if I end up sleeping next to it On the tracks out by the showgrounds That’s fine by me So what am I supposed to do When the world pushes me away And tells me that I’m the one to blame? So what are we supposed to do When the world pushes us away And tells us we’re the ones everyone should blame? So what am I supposed to do When the world pushes me away And tells me I’m the one to blame? Well I’m not going to live in their cage So put me in a van There’s gotta be a way For me to escape A life as a slave Maybe I’ll write some songs That people wanna pay for Save up some change For food every day And enough left over For me to make my way To the next place A life on the run is better than the one they have for me here And I swear This life is a life worth living And I’m so close So fucking close to being free Working in a bank was never an option It’s not a matter of choice for me This is the only way of life for me