We're All Gonna Die

Album: released as a single (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • AJ Smith takes on mortality in this track, which he wrote with Jason Lane and his drummer, Dru Marshall. Smith explained: "A global pandemic, world war, recession, sentient AI around the corner, and so much more later, the existential dread and mental health struggles are at an all-time high. In one of my recent therapy sessions, my therapist brought up the latin phrase, 'memento mori' - remember that you die - and he challenged me to consider that the inevitability of death can create a sense of freedom rather than dread. My drummer and I started writing this song in the car, just tapping on the dashboard. And we conquered the phrase 'We're All Gonna Die' so that it's not sad, but rather triumphant. Just like the phrase memento mori, the song is simultaneously full of dread and hope, but in the end, it's a rather optimistic view, greeting the inevitability with open arms and saying, 'we're all gonna die, we just don't know when, let's make the most of the time that we got left.'"
  • The music video was shot at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, with Evan Deng directing. Seemingly role playing in different alternate realities, it becomes clear AJ is trapped, forced to continue experiencing climactic events that he eventually attempts to escape.

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