Turn It Off

This song is not written from the point of view of someone who has lost their faith.

It's the difference between people who have a more tolerant view of Christianity and those who have a rigid sort of fundamentalist view. Also it's about her questioning her own personal beliefs. Along those same lines, it's about how Hayley is open to learning from difficult life experiences and exploring things in her music, even when it involves the questioning of faith itself. Basically, she starts questioning her belief but at the same time accepts it as a learning experience rather than pretending like she's perfect and hiding behind a facade.

"I scraped my knees while I was praying And found a demon in my safest haven, seems like It's getting harder to believe in anything Then just to get lost in all my selfish thoughts"

-- Obviously this is about her questioning her beliefs but more importantly, she's willing to admit it.

"I wanna know what it'd be like To find perfection in my pride To see nothing in the light I'll turn it off In all my spite In all my spite I'll turn it off"

-- The thing she's talking about "turning off" is the train of thought that has her questioning her faith. But she's also criticizing those Christians (or religious people in general) who don't have an open mind and see themselves as totally perfect with a high horse attitude. She's kind of sarcastically saying that she wishes she could be as perfect as these people.

"And the worst part is Before it gets any better We're headed for a cliff And in the free fall I will realize I'm better off when I hit the bottom"

-- This line is about how (during the time she wrote this song) she realized that the questioning of her faith would get worse before it gets better. But she's not giving up. She's saying that despite all this questioning, she'll be better off when she hits the bottom because it's a growing experience and perhaps it strengthens her beliefs or something to that effect.

-- It could also perhaps be about relationships within the band. The idea being that there might have been disagreements about what topics are appropriate for Hayley to explore lyrically. So it's the relationships between band members that's "headed for a cliff." Fans of Paramore will notice that "Playing God" is about Hayley writing lyrics that certain other people in the band didn't necessarily agree with.

"The tragedy, it seems unending I'm watching everyone I looked up to break and bending We're taking shortcuts and false solutions Just to come out the hero"

-- A lot of people she looked up to in her life are adopting false solutions to problems (either individual problems or social issues) and in doing so are denying aspects of reality in order to conform to a more dogmatic or rigid way of thinking. And instead of using the more positive side of faith they're diving into the mentally confining aspects. These people are shutting themselves off from parts of the world and are missing out on meaningful learning experiences. They are using fake solutions in order to seem like they're perfect but it's all wrong.

"Well I can see behind the curtain (I can see, yeah yeah) The wheels are cranking, turning, it's all wrong the way we're working Towards a goal, that's non existent It's not existent, but we just keep believing"

-- It's about how rigid fundamentalist beliefs are pushed onto particular aspects of reality in a way that just doesn't fit or make sense.

-- Essentially (at the time of writing this) Hayley is someone who feels that faith is a very important part of her life. However, she's not a fundamentalist. She has a more relaxed, tolerant view of Christianity. And more to the point, she focuses more on her relationship with God, faith and positivity as opposed to the dogmatic features that often plague religion. She's open to exploring the world instead of hiding from it even if it means questioning her faith.

"Turn it Off", "Playing God", "Monster" and "Renegade" are all along the same lines really and are probably at the root of why the Farro brothers left the band.

I assume one thing that initially happened is that Hayley was writing lyrics that question a belief in God. This topic likely wasn't well accepted by certain other members of the band and it could have been one of the issues that created a rift in the group. Basically Hayley was interested in exploring different topics through her music that were met with resistance.