Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks

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  Song Meaning:From an interview with Of Monsters and Men singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir
  
  THE REAL "LITTLE TALKS": Okay. "Little Talks" is... How we usually make our lyrics is, Raggi and I, sometimes we come up with stories or situations. That one is about a relationship. Sometimes we haven't wanted to give too much away. We like people to read their own things in the lyrics. I guess I could share it. It's about a couple and the husband passed away and it's from the conversation between the two of them. We don't know if she's going crazy or if someone's actually there. We've kind of been inspired by people that lived in my house. This old couple that lived there for 30 years. The woman passed away, so it was kind of different.

  Flag Nikikeyaon May 17, 2013   Link

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  My Opinion:This song grabbed me the first time I heard it on the radio a few months ago.
  Reason being that, a few years ago, I had ridiculous anxiety attacks, lived in a constant state of questioning, and honestly had trouble telling reality from nightmares.
  
  My best friend came in, stood beside me, and helped me keep from floating away into that hell for good, at the age of 19.
  He helped me find what was real and not, and step by step, got me out of it.
  
  I listen to this song and it's him holding me at night and letting me spill out all the confusion I'd kept bottled inside me, and his calm voice helping me reason out what made sense and what was just in my head.
  
  In our wedding ceremony, he promised to always be my rock. And he is.
  
  We're in our mid 20s now, married with a beautiful child. And to this day, I know that, if that panic comes back, if my mind races too fast and I can't find my center, all I have to do is call for him. He talks me down, and grounds me.
  
  I thank God every day for a man like him, who could see past the mess I was, to the person I could be, a person he wanted to share his life with.
  
  This is our song.

  Flag Gebaon April 05, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:My aunt and I love this song, we think of my mom who passed away recently. It's more about a couple as the interview about the song revealed but at the same time it holds the same emotional meaning relating to the death of any loved one. We miss our talks with her and will see her again soon, if only in our dreams for now

  Flag cfurman92on January 31, 2013   Link

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  My Interpretation:I feel it's 100% about mental health in a relationship. Being diagnosed with anxiety and depression (with episodes of mania), this song is, line by line, a story of mine and my boyfriend's lives.
  
  From "The stairs creak as I sleep..." bringing up her feelings of anxiety to "some days I can't even dress myself..." talking about the roughest days of depression that can leave one feeling helpless.
  
  The especially heart wrenching part is the duet. Because of my disorders, I get flashes of anger and take out my emotions on myself and on him, and then regret it. "Don't listen to a word I say, the screams all sound the same..."
  
  We've lived together for two years now, and over the course of that I've kicked him out, and left multiple times because I'm so horrified and ashamed of myself after an "episode." This is the "You're gone, gone, gone away....Now wait, wait, wait for me..." portion of it. I just want him away from me, to protect him from my outbursts and issues... but our magnetism brings us back together.
  
  Yep. Haha (:

  Flag jennaaroseon January 03, 2013   Link

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    I am bipolar and I can certainly understand where you're coming from. I've burned bridges and I'm all apologies later on once the episode passes. My walls have holes and I have yet to get it plastered. I destroyed the shit out of almost everything I ever owned. No wonder I like punk rock, haha.

    Flag robertretro86on January 28, 2013  
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  General Comment:Luv Luv Luv this song! Had been trying for two weeks to recall the artist. It's just an amazing song. It's creativity reminds me of the Lumineer's newest hit Ho Hey. Very creative lyrically but especially musically.

  Flag ILUVUon December 19, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:This song really hits home for me, to the point where I actually tear up listening to it. It almost perfectly describes the death of my grandmother last spring.
  
  “I don't like walking around this old and empty house
  So hold my hand, I'll walk with you, my dear
  The stairs creak as I sleep, it's keeping me awake
  It's the house telling you to close your eyes”
  
  After my mother with all of her aunts and uncles grew up and left, my grandparents lived alone in a large, old, farm-style house, which had in turn belonged to their parents. So this house is about 90 years old, large, cold, and empty but for two small, fragile people. The woman in the song, who doesn’t like being in the house, and is kept awake by the thought of it, perfectly mirrors my grandmother. Over the past several years, her health had begun to fail her, and there was a sense of anxiety which our whole family could feel about her. “It’s the house telling you to close your eyes” sounds like something my grandfather would have told her out of love, in an attempt to help calm her.
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  “Some days I can't even dress myself
  It's killing me to see you this way”
  
  As my grandmother’s health declined, she needed help with everyday tasks. It honestly became hard to visit, simply because I remembered a time when she wasn’t in such a horrible condition. I remembered a time when she was a vibrant, laughing, able-bodied woman. I can only imagine how much harder it must have been for my grandfather to see his own wife that way.
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  “There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back
  Well tell her that I miss our little talks
  Soon it will all be over, and buried with our past
  We used to play outside when we were young
  And full of life and full of love
  Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right
  Your mind is playing tricks on you my dear
  
  My grandmother began falling into dementia at one point. She would occasionally forget who people were, or where she was. Her mind was literally playing tricks on her, just like the woman in the song. Everyone in our family knew she was coming up to the end of her life, just like the line which says “Soon it will all be over, and buried with our past”. She spent a year or two before her death in a nursing home, where my grandfather would go to visit and try to talk to her. I guarantee that at some point, while watching her sleep, he had thoughts similar to the man in the song, lamenting, “We used to play outside when we were young, and full of life and full of love.” He is now 94, and she was 89. They actually had been together since they were young, just like the couple in the song.
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  “You're gone, gone, gone away
  I watched you disappear
  All that's left is a ghost of you
  Now we're torn, torn, torn apart
  There's nothing we can do
  Just let me go, we'll meet again soon
  Now wait, wait, wait for me
  Please hang around
  I'll see you when I fall asleep”
  
  After time in the nursing home, my grandmother finally passed away in April of this year. If I were able to get an inside glimpse at my grandfather’s thoughts, I know for certain this stanza would be exactly what he was thinking at the time. His lifelong wife was now gone. He watched her disappear. Pictures of her are still up around their house. The two slept in separate bedrooms, right next to each other; he hasn’t touched her room at all. It’s almost as if he is waiting for her to return someday, and go back to her room, so he leaves it perfectly unchanged. It truly does feel as if her ghost is still hovering around there. In the song, “Just let me go, we’ll meet again soon” would be my grandmother telling him to move on; they both believe they will meet in an afterlife. But despite knowing this would happen eventually, my grandfather was not ready to let her go. “Now wait, wait, wait for me/ Please hang around/ I’ll see you when I fall asleep” is my grandfather trying to hold on to the faintest feeling of her, for just as long as possible.
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  “Because though the truth may vary
  This ship will carry
  Our bodies safe to shore”
  
  I’ve always seen the ship in this song as the house. That house has been around for nearly a century; figuratively speaking, it has served as the backbone of our entire family for decades. Children were raised there. Holidays were spent there. Since my grandmother’s passing, my relatives have been trying to coax my grandfather into moving to an elderly housing unit, since he doesn’t necessarily need a large house just for himself. He is extremely reluctant to leave the house though; I’m starting to feel as if he just wants to stay there for the rest of his life. To him, it’s home. It’s safe. No matter what has happened to him over the last 70+ years (“Though the truth may vary”), that house has always been there for him to come back to. It’s like a trustworthy vessel. And a captain always goes down with his ship. He wants to ride it out to the very end.
  
  What made this song exponentially more emotional for me was that the first time I heard it was when I was actually in their house on a visit, last month. I was unable to make it to my grandmother’s funeral in April, so this was the first time I had been back to visit. The moment took on such a surreal feeling, it was honestly hard to believe.

  Flag 4t0utl3m0nd3on December 12, 2012   Link

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    I completely agree with your interpretation. I bawled the first time I sat and listened to the lyrics because it is my grandparents story too, only it was my grandfather that is slipping away. Great job with the interpretation.

    Flag bigsmiles89on January 25, 2013  
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  My Interpretation:I know they wrote it about the couple, but I see it as a girl with and imaginary friend and she's panicking because she's growing up.

  Flag Imaginary1on November 01, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:Well,I have different thoughts about this song.While I listen the song,i have gradation of feelings,and there are not bad .might be something in the music,in the sound,that is positive,that makes you feel like winning something,some upper truth,or your own truth!I think that song is about going deeply in yourself and keeping that what you found there,that`s how you can communicate with your lover,friend,anyone ,better.

  Flag mamamisicon October 10, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:After giving the lyrics a once-over, I immediately believe the song to be about the difficulties of a relationship while dealing with depression. In this case, the man longs for the happy girl he remembers his lover to be while the woman only sees despair and failure because of her mental condition.
  She fights to make excuses about how shes falling lower and lower and there is no hope for her to become normal again but he quickly dismisses her pessimism and tries to lift her up.
  In the end, the severity of her depression will overtake her and she will no longer be the woman she used to be.

  Flag MRDuffy573on October 10, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:I had a slightly different interpretation. Its about someone who has lost her faith, but a lifetime of upbringing has left doubts if thats the right thing to do. The male voice is the church - or God - trying to coax her back. "The truth may vary" = maybe there is a God and maybe there is not. "This ship" = organized religion and the comfort it provides, regardless of the final reality.

  Flag geoffcwilson September 02, 2012   Link

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