Delete Forever

* Album
* Remix

Song artwork

Rave Edition artwork

**Delete Forever** is a song by Grimes. It is the 5th single and the 3rd track on her fifth album *Miss Anthropocene*.

Delete Forever is the Demon of Addiction.

## Background

An un-mastered version of the song entitled "Black Swan Blues" was leaked alongside the other tracks of the album on October 25, 2019. This version of the song had a length of 4:20, with 22 seconds of silence and noises of Grimes in lower volume in the end, as well as slightly different instrumentation throughout.

### Meaning

Grimes told Apple Music:

>
> ❝ A lot of people very close to me have been super affected by the opioid crisis, or just addiction to opiates and heroin-it's been very present in my life, always. When Lil Peep died, I just got super triggered and just wanted to go make something. It seemed to make sense to keep it super clean sonically and to keep it kind of naked. so it's a pretty simple production for me. Normally I just go way harder. The banjo at the end is comped together and Auto-Tuned, but that is my banjo playing. I really felt like Lil Peep was about to make his great work. It's hard to see anyone die young, but especially from this, 'cause it hit so close to home. ❞
>
>
>
>

She expanded on a podcast with Zane Lowe for Apple Music:

[**What is the song about?**] It’s a pretty bummer song. I guess it’s kind of about the opioid epidemic. I’ve had quite a few friends pass away, in particular, one friend when I was 18 passed away from complications related to opioid addiction. Artists keep dying and stuff so I wrote this song on the night Lil Peep died because I just got super triggered. Lil Peep and Juice WRLD were both artists I really liked. The artists its happening to specifically feels… a little too on the nose. I think [they were] people who in my opinion were best expressing issues of mental health. So to have them die specifically just feels like a weird hopelessness.
[**How did you come up with the title?**] I actually finished this the day Lil' Peep died. I got super triggered when Lil' Peep died. I really liked him as an artist. I thought he was a great artist, actually. I was just a big fan. So I went into my weird office and made the song. Because now there’s a lot of musicians and stuff dying. But before I was like, “Am I crazy? How is this? Do I just hang out with bad people?” So that kind of entering the public discourse more and the mainstream press more, has just been very intense for me. Because you’re just constantly reminded of the state of affairs.
[**What was the songwriting process like?**] I have this guitar sample from somewhere. I didn’t actually play the guitar on this one. I sang over the guitar sample. I originally was going to not have drums on it. Then I changed the drums. The drums have changed on this song many times, that’s sort of the main editing that occurred on this. I wanted it to be this raw, punk song—sort of opposite of what Grimes normally is. You know, super clean vocal, not even auto-tune on the verses or anything. Something kind of like emo energy, although it’s actually pretty produced and it’s a loop.
Grimes has gone on record saying that she has never done heroin.

## Trivia

* The song was originally titled "Black Swan Blues".
* The inspiration for the name came from a day when *c* was deleting old files. She came across a file named Forever, and when her computer asked her if she wanted to permanently "Delete Forever", she thought "I guess so."
* The stems for Delete Forever were officially released on April 30, 2023 (along with stems from all the songs off of *Miss Anthropocene*). A total of 233 stems were included, including 18 mixes and 2 demos.

## Media

### Video

 **Notes** | Caption: It’s about losing friends to the opioid crisis and the self-hatred that arises when the grieving process mimics the behaviors that cost your friends their lives
Music written, produced, performed & engineered by Grimes
The video is a collaboration between Grimes, Mac Boucher and Neil Hansen. It depicts a tyrant’s lament as her empire crumbles.
Miss Anthropocene is out February 21st!

#### Additional Credits

* Hair: Chanel Croker
* Makeup: Natasha Severino
* Styling: Natasha Advani

* Art: Natalie Fält
* Throne: Carlos Flores

* Gaffer: Matt Hill Key
* Grip: Luis Batres
* P.A: Symone Holliday

#### Background

In an interview with Pitchfork, Grimes said:

This was actually one of the hardest, most intensive videos we’ve ever made. My brother Mac and our roommate Neil [Hansen] literally did all the 3-D modeling and built the whole world. It’s based off book four of *Akira*, which is one of our favorite illustrations. The original idea for the video is it would be a queen in a palace counting her jewels as the world burns around her, kind of like Nero on the violin while the city burns. It’s super loaded imagery. We were also trying to figure out how we can get better at building things in Blender and just making everything on our own, because it’s so expensive to make CGI, and you don’t have full control. So mostly my brother Mac does it. He’s a good artist who I trust, and we have very similar tastes. We can reduce our price point a lot, so we’re trying to be able to do this effectively in-house. It would be sick to create this level in [video game software] Unreal Engine and allow people to enter it eventually."
## Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Lying so awake, things I can't escape

Lately, I just turn 'em into demons

Flew into the sun, fucking heroin

Lately, I just turn 'em into reasons and excuses

[Pre-Chorus]

Always down when I'm not up, guess it's just my rotten luck

To fill my time with permanent blue

But I can't see above it, guess I fucking love it

But, oh, I didn't mean to

[Chorus]

I see everything, I see everything

Don't you tell me now that I don't want it

But I did everything, I did everything

More lines on the mirror than a sonnet (Woo)

[Verse 2]

Funny how they think us naive when we're on the brink

Innocence was fleeting like a season

Cannot comprehend, lost so many men

Lately, all their ghosts turn into reasons and excuses

[Pre-Chorus]

Always down when I'm not up, guess it's just my rotten luck

To fill my time with permanent blue

But I can't see above it, guess I fucking love it

But, oh, I didn't mean to

[Chorus]

I see everything, I see everything

Don't you tell me now that I don't want it

But I did everything, I did everything

More lines on the mirror than a sonnet (Woo)

[Chorus]

I see everything, I see everything

Don't you tell me now that I don't want it

But I did everything, I did everything

More lines on the mirror than a sonnet

## References

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200228203815/https://www.grimesmusic.com/
2. ↑ https://youtu.be/IdWSTpcVV8I?si=AC54k0jOHuoZByr\_&t=328
3. ↑ https://music.apple.com/us/album/miss-anthropocene/1496782284
4. ↑ https://grimes.fandom.com/wiki/File:43ece5a5-276d-4df7-b80b-9cc6d3cfac46-610x1220.jpg
5. ↑ https://genius.com/Grimes-delete-forever-lyrics
6. ↑ https://grimes.wetransfer.com/downloads/ac9dd0c91efb624faa8b608bc1b3144720230501062137/e22ff7
7. ↑ https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/grimes-miss-anthropocene-interview/