Of Mice And Men reveal new song "Back To Me" is about carrying on without Austin Carlile

May 22, 2017

[Photo credit: Lindsey Byrnes]

Of Mice And Men premiered a new track on Daniel P Carter's BBC Radio 1 Rock Show. The new track, titled “Back To Me,” is their second single with bassist Aaron Pauley taking over frontman duties.

We caught up with Pauley and drummer Tino Arteaga at Rock On The Range to get the story on the new track.

“A lot of times I find lyrically that when I’m working on stuff, that it doesn’t really reveal whats it's about until I can objectively look at it when I’m finished with it,” Pauley shares of the song's meaning. “I think that song is hugely about a fire, a passion that’s inside you to do it. I think lyrically when it says ‘Maybe I can light the way back to me’ its almost like maybe if I can harness this passion I can find my way back to myself. The way that I was before this loss, the way that I was when I felt like I was stronger.”

Pauley goes on say that intially he wrote it as if he were talking to someone else, but after further reflection, he had a revelation.

“I think in reality now that I look at it and I think about where we were, where I was, where we all were when we were making this song, it’s really about finding a way back to yourself,” he says. ” I think that kind of blew me away a few days ago sitting and thinking about it.”

He then goes on to reveal how former frontman Austin Carlile leaving the band played into the creation of this song.

“For maybe a fan of the band this is an entry on our Wikipedia page about the chronology of the band, but for us Austin leaving the band was a life a event,” he says. “That's a big thing, and I think in major life events, it's easy to feel like you lose yourself or to feel like a piece of you is gone or to feel like, ‘How can I be the me that I’ve always known that this is different now?' If you can hold onto the passion—whether it’s passion in art, or music, or, I don’t know, video games, anything—if you can find what you love and work diligently towards it and remember that that’s a huge part of you, then you will always be able to find a way back to yourself.”

Check out the interview and their new song “Back To Me” below!