Q: what is the inspiration for la de da de da de da de day oh? i feel like it has a lot more hidden meaning than some of your other songs.
A: the verse part was written somewhere in early 2009 when i was feeling like there's too many zillions of ways to do songwriting and i haven't even discovered most of them yet. so i was feeling like i don't have enough time to do stuff. the "be like you" is just a lyric swap i did when i picked it up to work on it in sept 2012. it just felt more 'in the pocket' musically. and 'believe them too' was from the same 2012 session, to match 'be like you' in that same pocket. prior to the sept 2012 session, i only had up to the end of the first pre-chorus, which is about 'wanting to write a song'. and it was all cued up to hit the chorus. so 'la de da de da' is like, that's the sound of a song being written. i got the entire chorus written on that session, and i was pleased with the results. that possibly made the song feel like it was up on a pedestal (afraid to touch it because i like it too much, i'm afraid i'll ruin it). and it stayed right there for years, with nothing beyond the first cho. it finally was up for selection in october 2017 when i was brave enough, and it was picked by the final random selection among about 27 other semi-final choices. i almost changed my mind the next day because i was still afraid to ruin it, but then i suddenly tricked myself into imagining the second verse, then the first 3 lines of the second verse came very quickly and then i was confident in the song selection. i continued the writing until the end, according to my standard songwriting practices and procedures