The initial inspiration for this tune came when I met this guy from Sussex, England. I did not know Sussex isn’t exactly thriving these days and he was dirt poor but blissfully happy and jazzed up about life. Then there was me, blessed with everything and still not being content. I felt slightly embarrassed.

As often is the case, a song is inspired by something autobiographical and then once you start working on it, it evolves into a composite of reality and fiction. Unlike the protagonist of the song, the British guy I met was not married nor unemployed. However, the lyrics Antti provided for the verses and the middle-eight, needed the character in the song to be both of those things. I edited the bits we wrote together and painted a picture of a disappointed man, on his last legs, waving goodbye to all the mundane, trivial and hurtful issues of everyday life, saying, “You win. You can be as nasty and indifferent towards me as you want, I won’t fight back from now on but I won’t rent space in my head or heart for you anymore either.”

The promo shots and the video for the release were shot in a real circus tent. It was a lot of fun doing that. Antti floored everyone with his acting abilities and also, I love the single cover, doctored by Sven Klitsch, with the little circus bits in it.

Excited about how the photo turned out, I showed it to my four-year-old son. He looked at it slightly worried and said, “Were you scared of standing so close to the tiger?”

“Not one bit,” I answered.

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