Between the Lines - Part 1

Lyrics Behind "Still Here" by Digital Daggers

By Mel E. FurnishPublished 6 years ago • Updated 3 years ago • 4 min read

I happened upon this song by accident one day when "YouTube surfing" and I was instantly drawn in by the words and beat that was beautifully intertwined. At times that I have listened to it over and over again, I was stuck between two possibilities. Could this be about a rough breakup, or losing a loved one to the cold clutches of death? However, the more I have thought into it, it could easily be both.

The implication of possible suicide attempt or drug abuse, maybe both with a possible overdose, within the lines:

"Losing my grip in the grey.

Numbing the senses,"

Pain overall can leave one numb, but the power behind these lines I feel has a deeper meaning. She is feeling lost and alone and is losing someone who once meant the world to her.

"I feel you slipping away.

Fighting to hold on,

Clinging to just one more day."

Despite when people say you should let someone go, of course, it's never easy. In my own personal experience of a bad breakup, it is rough and it doesn't help any when you get mixed messages from "the universe", possibly telling you that maybe it will work out in time, just keep holding on. But as time goes on, and as the pain and dreams seem to string you along, the grip starts to tear into the flesh on your calloused hands and sooner or later, you'll find that you physically cannot hold on any longer, and the only option is to let go, because the pain is costing you more than what it will be worth in the end.

"Love turns to ashes,

With all that I wish I could say.

I'd die to be where you are.

I tried to be where you are."

Here is where I thought possibly that it could even be suicide and loss of a loved one, but that might just be reading too far into it. She simply means that she would die to be where her lover is, she would do anything, go as far as dying, just be there by their side. Unfortunately, the torment of that kind of thinking can lead to self-harm, for many reasons, for either the need to feel you're still even alive or the dire want to show how badly you need/want the person. To express how far you'll go to feel something more, or how far you'll go to let them know that you want them more than life itself. That sort of thinking is dangerous, poisonous, and toxic, even though it is meant to be expressed from a deep love and caring too much, it can also be used to manipulate and attempt to force that lost lover to return.

"Every night, I dream you're still here.

The ghost by my side, so perfectly clear.

When I awake, you'll disappear,

Back to the shadows

With all I hold dear."

Longing is a good thing in a relationship, but to the point of driving oneself mad is unhealthy and even deadly. She dreams of her lover being by her side again, despite the lack of their physical presence, the memories and thoughts of them remain to haunt her mind.

"Hidden companion

Phantom be still in my heart

Make me a promise that

Time won't erase us

That we were not lost from the start."

At this point, all she has left are the memories and haunting thoughts of their time together. She hopes that even though they did not last, their relationship will not fade entirely, that even her lover agrees and also feels that they weren't bound to fall apart from the beginning of their bond.

The song ends with her still dreaming of her lover, holding onto the love she still feels in her heart, no matter how broken it has become. Despite the distance between them, physically and emotionally, she knows her lover is out of her reach, yet she still tries, because no matter how far apart the rift between them grows, she believes their history, her love, and her relentless attempts to hold on, keeps the abyss from growing.

However, the last line in the song is:

"But it breaks so easily."

Is this her beginning to let go? Is she starting to come out of her end of the abyss and climb to safety on the edge of what she once was without her lover?

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