Trainwreck

DJ Dahi

Aron Forbes

Jesse Rogg

Aron Forbes

**"Trainwreck"** is a song by American singer and songwriter Banks. It is the fifth track and last single off her second major-label album *The Altar*, released on September 30, 2016. The music video for the song was released on January 18th, 2017, directed by Marie Schuller.

## Background

In an interview for Idolator, Banks revealed that she wrote the song when she was 14, and it is one of the first lyrics she ever wrote. "I knew that there would be a home for those lyrics at some point. I was like a trippy little girl and that’s what music does to me. I felt like an alien and it was like a place for me to be an alien.

[The lyrics] stayed in my head! It was like a chant. I do remember writing it — I wrote it down in a notebook. I always remember those lyrics, though. There are some lyrics that I’ve written that I always will remember." – said Banks.

On her track-by-track interview for Refinery29, she said: "[The verses were] like a stream-of-consciousness thing. They still mean so much to me and they still correlate to my life sometimes and they're still me, somehow. So I feel like this song's been a part of me for a long time."

About how the song that was released came to be, Banks said for Coup De Main: "I always wanted to use [these verses]! It was almost like when you've had something for so long you're way too precious about it, and then when I was in the studio with DJ Dahi I just heard that beat and I was like, "Fuck it, I'm just going to go for it, I'm never going to find the right home for it unless I just find the right home for it and stop being so precious about it." So I was just joking around, and it felt almost like a rap, so I did it and they were like: "What is that?" I was like, "I wrote it when I was younger," and they were like, "That's tight!" So that's kind of how it happened."

## Theme

In the song, Banks sings about getting out of a relationship that became a trainwreck. In the begining she thought that she could fix him and people tried to warn her, but she didn't listen, and soon she realizes it was a bad idea.

## Lyrics

Hey, I heard it from the state

They told me you were never gonna let me get away

And if you took me fishing, you would never give me bait

I had to get away, I had to get away, ay-ay

Hey, you try to compensate

For thinking with your one brain I should decapitate

You showed me all your letters that I should've confiscated

Both of my eyes were weighted and I had to get away

Talking to ears that have been deaf for as long as I can remember

A self-medicated handicap, so I speak to myself

And I try so hard to get his stupid deaf ears to hear

That I've become illiterate, I've become dumb

When I come through, you were dark blue

And I saved you from your darker days

Born to take care of you, or I thought so

Maybe it was just a phase

Hey, I heard it from the state

They told me you were never gonna let me get away

And if you took me fishing, you would never give me bait

I had to get away, I had to get away, I had to get away

Hey, you try to compensate

For thinking with your one brain I should decapitate

You showed me all your letters that I should've confiscated

Both of my eyes were weighted, I had to get away

Shot down by a guy I never wanted to kiss

And I can hear the singing of his ringing triumphing

And I'm chugging along in a train

And I'm heading the wrong way, and I'm a trainwreck

And my heart goes "Beat, beat, beat"

To the music of this sad, same song

It's quite depressing

There is no fixing to the problem when you're talking to an idiot

When I come through, you were dark blue

And I saved you, from your darker days

Born to take care of you, or I thought so

Maybe it was just a phase

Baby, only maybe

Just a dreamer, but I soon found out

That the train tracks were behind me

Tried to warn me, but both of my ears went out

(But then my ears went out, out, out...)

When I come through, you were dark blue

And I saved you, from your darker days

Born to take care of you, or I thought so

Maybe it was just a phase

Hey, I heard it from the state

They told me you were never gonna let me get away

And if you took me fishing, you would never give me bait

I had to get away, I had to get away, I had to get away

Hey, you try to compensate

For thinking with your one brain I should decapitate

You showed me all your letters that I should've confiscated

Both of my eyes were weighted, I had to get away

## References

<references>

1. ↑ http://www.idolator.com/7662473/banks-offers-emotions-altar?adblock=1&chrome=1
2. ↑ https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2016/09/124787/banks-track-by-track
3. ↑ https://www.coupdemainmagazine.com/banks/13195