Burning Out

You can never be well prepared for a sudden bout of inspiration. Burning Out was, slightly unsurprisingly, conceived at Tero's workplace in fall 2007 in a conversation about burning out between commitments to work and studies. Own and borrowed experience wove itself into one of Snowclone's most powerful texts. Content-wise, BO can also be seen as some kind of a sequel to Waiting for Life.

The most exceptional aspect in Burning Out is the structure - the chorus is repeated a total of four and a half times, not twice alike, though. The D part, where the song ventures into 3/4 time, adds a surprise element. That part was actually more or less directly borrowed from a old song called "Everything Between", which itself isn't likely to see the light of day anytime soon.

If My Song's arrangement took some coming by, BO's needed a crusade. The initial intention was to build a radio-friendly pop track with a windy and barren atmosphere. However, the right style didn't want to be discovered, leading to an exploration through different genres including punk and latin dance. Watch out - the discarded ideas may still resurface at some point, in one form or another.

Every day my world goes off in flames
Every night I drown in tears
Grandeur to decay
How I wound up this way?
Burning out, caving in
Cracking up, breaking down

I was bound to rule this world
Greatness stood by my door
Affluence, no pretense
All my goals seemed to be within reach
I was trapped inside my mind
Doomed to chasing ubiquity

Shattered dreams cut skin like glass
Bleeding wounds on my feet
Never seem to heal
But I can conceal
Failures and anguished voices

Every day my world goes off in flames
Every night I drown in tears
Grandeur to decay
How I wound up this way?
Burning out, caving in
Cracking up, breaking down

I have fallen on my face
Can't revive sense of irony

Castles built on shifting sands
Fading vestige of hope
Nothing up my sleeve
Too much to achieve

It's still too amusing, annoying
Astounding, appalling
To start accepting my fate

Every day my world goes off in flames
Every night I drown in tears
For this squandered brain
There's a way down the drain
Barren thoughts congesting my mind

Every day my world goes off in flames
Every night I drown in tears
Grandeur to decay
How I wound up this way?
Burning out, caving in
Cracking up, breaking down

For this squandered brain
There's a way down the drain
Barren thoughts combusting me
Stifled cries breaking loose
Burning out