Songfacts®:

• This is the first single from Curve, the eighth studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace. The record was recorded from 2010 through 2012 at vocalist Raine Maida's home recording studio. This song was released on December 20, 2011.
  
  The disc debuted at #9 on the Canadian Albums Chart and this song eventually reached #1 on the Canadian Active Rock Chart.
  
  This song (and the whole Curve album) was inspired by the retired Canadian boxer George Chuvalo. Chuvalo fought between 1956 and 1979 and was only knocked down twice in 93 career fights. He fought boxing legend Muhummad Ali twice, once in 1966 and then again in 1972. Ali was unable to knock Chuvalo out and called him "one of the toughest guys I ever fought." Our Lady Peace liked Chuvalo's spirit both inside the ring and out and decided to write songs that embodied that same spirit. An old picture of Chuvalo throwing a punch serves as the cover of Curve.
• Maida told AOL Music that this song was inspired by the struggle that both the boxer and the artist endure. He explained: "Over the years I have come to realize that musicians and boxers have a lot in common. There are strong emotional and physical similarities between the two. The boxer skillfully relies on rhythm and improvisation to control a fight. An artist relies on rhythm and improvisation to help guide the listener. The Boxer uses footwork, punching combinations and tempo to attack and escape his opponent. The artist uses chord progressions, melody and tempo to help the listener escape. Either in the ring or onstage, both the fighter and artist put a piece of their soul on display in a fascinating struggle of determination and acceptance. It's a struggle for affirmation that their work and life force are worthwhile. This war is an age-old battle between ego and the sacred self. One designed to fight the other to heal."
• The intro and verses of this tune are centered on a heavy, distorted guitar riff that OLP guitarist Steve Mazur realized was "different" when he first wrote it. Mazur told us in 2012: "I brought it to Raine and showed it to him and it wasn't quite there yet. He said, 'No, I think we're on to something here. Go try to make it cooler.' So I went back and put some other notes in there and when I sent it to him, we kind of felt like we had something there."
• Although this was the first single from Curve released to radio, Steve Mazur says the band wasn't thinking about radio or writing hits when they came up with this song. When we talked to the axeman in 2012, he mentioned this as one of his favorites on the album. Said Mazur: "That song has got a lot of depth to it and it's a pretty dark song. But then there's also this chorus that's very uplifting and you can sing along to. We're pretty proud of that tune."