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Katie Gregson-Macleod on writing hit song 'Complex' and spending her student loan on music videos
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Feb 9, 2025
We're down at Gloucester's Barn On The Farm festival with Katie Gregson-MacLeod. The Forty-Five's Cere Ebanks talks to Katie about hit song 'Complex', her writing process, putting out music while at University and her Fuckboy Era!
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0:00
go three two one hello I'm Sarah and we
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are at barn on the farm thank you for
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joining us Katie thank you for having me
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[Applause]
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how was your set it was actually it was
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beautiful I had a great time like as a
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performer I don't know what was like for
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the audience but it was it was lovely
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had a great time yeah um the crowd was
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like so attentive and yeah and it was
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like good crowd as well which I didn't
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you never know I'm not I'm not from
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gloucestershire so you never know but um
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it was just a beautiful time I had a
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great time yeah I watched it and I
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thought it was really beautiful oh thank
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you so much thank you
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um and is this your first barn on the
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farm it is it is my first man on the
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farm it's a great Festival the lineup is
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just so perfect yeah and it's a really
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nice atmosphere everyone's just like so
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I'm not so like involved and so present
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and having a good time which is nice but
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yeah I'm gonna try and catch everyone
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tonight so nice should be good to see
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you I'm gonna try and catch Fizz flight
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the staves holy
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there are more that I would have loved
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to seen but I wasn't here until today
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but um the lineup is just great yeah I'm
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so excited about it yeah oh yeah it's a
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lovely atmosphere I almost fell careful
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now that's why
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um is this your first straw or two I
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know
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Our Lives
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so
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okay that's all we do you know do I have
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electricity up there so we have to just
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find some entertainment yeah in the
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fields
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um yeah so your set was really beautiful
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and I'm quite captivated by your lyrics
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thank you and I wanted to
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specifically talk to you about well I
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think you're a phenomenal songwriter
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thank you and I think your lyrics are
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just very relatable and beautiful and I
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wondered is that something that came
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really naturally to you or is it
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something you uh were taught how did you
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learn to write in such a
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a beautiful narration of your life thank
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you
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um
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I think that like for me it's just it
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comes the writing comes naturally
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because it's just like my form of self
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therapy and I guess it's just like I
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think it's always been my kind of first
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point of call for processing things so
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in that sense it's it's a natural
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process
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um thank you for calling me beautiful I
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don't know it's just it's just like it's
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just kind of what happens for me um it's
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it's like it depends on the song some
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songs Timor of a push and require a bit
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more tinkering and a bit more
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um thought but some songs are really
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just kind of like diary entry they just
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pour out but um generally with with
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lyrics especially I find them just like
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the most
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um
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they're just the most effective form of
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like understanding what's happening in
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my hand and what's happening around me
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so in that way it's a natural thing but
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um
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yeah I don't know yeah I feel like
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it's uh it's just been what I've always
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done so it's hard to I can't really
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think about the I try to not like muddle
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it with with thought too much try to let
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it just happen you know nice yeah that's
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cool how long did complex take you to
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ride that was a quick one because it was
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like it was like one of those things
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where I was just in it was just the
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exact right moment like I just struck
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the right chord
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and I was just like kind of I had like I
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think I'd like I'd like bumped into
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someone that just brought back
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like tons from the past then suddenly I
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was in this like state that just felt
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like I was ready to say some other
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things I hadn't said before oh and I
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just felt it was like I mean that's what
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I mean about like it's such a processing
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tool because it's like
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being able to just like say something
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that you've been thinking or feeling for
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a while but it's hard to articulate and
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then suddenly it works
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um so that's where that song was and I
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had no thought behind it and that's why
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it still baffles me what happened with
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that song because it was just like it
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was just like an evening of me like kind
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of like mulling over the past yeah and
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suddenly it was like
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heard by millions of people so it's kind
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of this crazy process but yeah it was
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very it was very much like a kind of
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quick Eve evening or a few evenings
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of just like
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you know looking back and reflecting on
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stuff and they worked out well I guess
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but yeah very well yeah yeah it's a real
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skill being able to articulate your
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feelings in that way thank you yeah I
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think I'm like probably chewing this by
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the way it's like becoming like it's
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like emulsifying yeah yeah
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am I right in saying that you released a
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song whilst you're at Uni
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there's a few songs actually I released
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what's that like oh it was hard it was
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hard I had zero pounds I use all my
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student loans to pay for like
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doing a music video and like putting it
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on Spotify which costs a lot of money
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and I didn't have any it was kind of
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like one of those things where I was
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like scraping together pennies I had
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some friends work for free and stuff and
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it came together I did like an EP when I
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was like 19.
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put that out called games I play and it
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was like that very like it was just like
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kind of like
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we can do the best we can do right now
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and then and then the song Ring I was
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happy with I think that then like I had
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a friend who produced it with me and
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then that was like a nice like chapter
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and then it was all while I was at Uni
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so it was like there's something popping
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off over there
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foreign
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[Music]
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some drummer doing a sound check and
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being way extra they love doing that um
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oh yeah I was just like basically I was
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just like at Uni and it's hard to do
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both and also I was working and stuff so
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it's like a lot to do at once but it's
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so fun I think that like I think that
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when you're in it you're like just
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stressed and running around but like in
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hindsight like obviously it's such a
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bubble Union it's like nice to I do like
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quite I feel quite nostalgic about that
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time and then I released a second song
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at Uni last year
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um called second single bed
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[Music]
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um and then I I yeah and then I I left I
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went into three years of unique last
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year and then
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that's me done that but it feels like a
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lifetime ago yeah um to be honest but
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it's hard to do both it's hard to do
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both and I envy people that can do it
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very well yeah honestly yeah that's a
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lot so what
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um also
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before you um sang White Lies you it was
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really funny you were just saying like
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there's a few lyrics in there that kind
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of allude to a bit of like a [ __ ] boys
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stage in your life and you don't get
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enough credit for just that yeah like
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give me the incredible when I first had
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that song I was straight up like oh my
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God like it totally spoke to me I was
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like I do all this are you a [ __ ] boy
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yeah yeah I love you you're not fair
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it's hard because it was like
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I don't think I was being a fat boy at
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the time but I think it's one of those
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times where like I
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perfect
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it's probably what I'm gonna say no um
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it was like it had been a long time
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coming
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it was this this muddled this great area
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with someone and then I all this stuff
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happened with [ __ ] hell all this
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stuff happened with
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um complex and then suddenly I was like
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living a different life and I realized I
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kind of realized once I'd moved away
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like not just physically but like into a
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new life I realized how little that was
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serving me but like you still have so
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much care for the person yeah and it's
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that kind of like
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I don't know on yourself but you know
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that when you're saying these things you
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don't really mean them and like you
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had known for so long we were like it's
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in this gray area and it was
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and it was written I feel such a
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different person there yeah I knew
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you're the same you're kind of stuck in
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that thing for me and you're not serving
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my life yeah but it's a hard one because
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the song is about them that ambivalence
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when I wrote with Matt Maltese and I
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went in
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my first ever writing session and I went
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in and I just spoke about how like I
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don't know if I just don't feel anything
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for him anymore because I was so busy
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and I'm away from him
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if I saw him would I feel the same yeah
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um and turns out I I wouldn't I didn't
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tell me yeah no I totally know what you
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mean yeah perfect thank you so much so
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much I got a restaurant right kind of
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tastes nice if anything that was a good
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Insight thank you so much thank you for
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having me I thought I forget that I'm
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gonna be here for you all day foreign
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