“Georgia” the song, came to me (Hi, I’m Chris -singer of RG) in a matter of fifteen minutes while strumming on a guitar. I only had 30 mins when I started playing before I had to leave to visit my dad in… well… Georgia. After writing the songs entirety and recording it, I was left with only 5 mins to get my butt in the car for a 8 hour drive in the dead of night.
I frequently vacation to Georgia as I spent a chunk of my childhood here and it’s a cheap vacation spot to spend with 2 of my best friends (dad and step-mom) and relax in a warmer climate. Getting to Georgia when I was a child though was rather painful as my move to Georgia was the first significant change that happened in my life. Which made sharing this song very hard, mostly because it felt like a huge “Fuck you” to my parents. It’s not guys, I swear, I love you very much.
first verse-
~the permissiveness, I think comes from the way you look~
~like you were hurting, while I deserved to stay crying, crying, crying~
I wrote this line through the lens of my younger self. When my parents told me that we were moving it meant being removed from the lives of my best friend and classmates I had come to know. Next to my parents, however, this move was a solution to a much bigger problem that I just couldn’t understand. They felt sorrow too, but our inner children need to feel as if they are heard. To me, this move was the dumbest thing I had ever heard and man was I mad.
chorus-
~Again, a move, I wanna stay~
~Again, a move, just leave without me~
The chorus and the killer backing vocals that Ande throws at us, are repetitive and to me felt like a god’s honest temper tantrum. You see, as a parent myself, I also had to move myself and my child away once. My daughter angrily yelled over and over that she just wanted to stay… Which hurt me deeply, but just as it’s important to express herself. I found catharsis in singing this with my daughter. which at the end, you few with careful ears might recognize the sound of a 5 year old’s harmony!!
second verse-
~I’ve made new friends, they only look like they hurt for a moment~
~But, for me it lasts, when I deserved to stay, around, around…~
This verse tells the story of myself in a much later point of my life. To this day the changes I endured shaped me to be who I am. So I invite us all back to have a good old tantrum in our next chorus followed by the bridge -
~ I told you I didn’t wanna go, and threw myself around, you told me that it’d turn out good, did you fucking look around, this shabby little house that I called home but now I live in uncertainty, did you fucking look around, did you look around?~
The word “around” sure makes its debut in my song. As much as this again, comes out as a giant flaming middle finger to my parents. It is. But! My parents weren’t perfect, they were young and dumb trying to survive their 20’s. All while I was trying to survive the change, and my dad told me recently one of the BEST pieces of advice. In regards to the upcoming changes in my daughter’s life and mine. He said “Tell her that you’re learning with her, but that you’ll be there for her” with a heaping side of reminding me that I couldn’t possibly know everything.
This song asides from its meaning and purpose to me became so much more when I showed them that phone recording while I was in Georgia that vacation. Upon returning back to our lair to pump some more tunes, we jammed this song perfectly front to back in very quick succession. Placing this song in a written in under 30 mins category. It is an absolute gem of a song that ends off each one of our live sets while inspiring us to become closer and understand each other as a “band-family-unit!”
I love these guys very much and I cannot wait to share my thoughts on our next songs. Thanks for checking out our website and tune in soon for my next “Ronin Post”
-Chris R
