State Champs say “Elevated” message made members “a lot closer”
Fans of State Champs know their song “Elevated” is a straight-up banger, but vocalist Derek DiScanio reveals it’s an important part of the band’s history.
In an interview with Rock Sound, DiScanio says the song is about guitarist Tyler Szalkowski’s worries as they prepared to release their debut record.
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The vocalist says the song is directly about Szalkowski’s concerns that their growing success was having an impact on his mental health.
“Fast-forward to 2012, we were on one of our first DIY tours, probably the furthest we’d been away from home, and Tyler was going through a lot of shit, wasn’t in the best mental state.”
He says “Elevated” was the response to the guitarist’s worries once they arrived home and started writing their debut record.
“At one point after a show, he took me aside, we went for a walk and he came clean, like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I can do this, or if this is for me – I think I’m going to have a mental breakdown. I just want to fly home and not do this anymore’. It was a real big shock to me, because [it was] when stuff was just kicking off for us. We’d just signed to Pure Noise, and we were about to go and record our first album.”
He continues by explaining the lyrics are a back and forth between the two of them where the first line begins with the guitarist blaming DiScanio. By the chorus though, they’re backing each other up by showing support and understanding everyone has dark moments.
“Lyrically it goes right back in time, [from] the first lyric when he came at me and was a little mad, like I was to blame for it, which didn’t make sense – and I don’t think he meant it that way. But go a little bit ahead to the chorus and I’m trying to explain to him that everyone has those feelings: everyone has those worries in dark times, and goes through those rough patches, but it’s up to us to stick together, get through these things step by step and hang in there. I think that song made us a lot closer. Instead of me just trying to explain to him and talk him through that time when the issue was at hand, it was more important for me to just listen to him and be there as a friend,” says DiScanio.
What do you think of the meaning behind State Champs’ “Elevated”? Let us know in the comments below.
