Songfacts®:

• This is the first single from American rock band Story of the Year's fourth album, The Constant.
• Frontman Dan Marsala told AntiMusic about the tune: "'I'm Alive' was actually one of the last songs written for The Constant. We thought we were pretty much done writing for the record and then one day Ryan and Josh were jamming in the rehearsal space and the whole idea for the song came together in like 45 minutes. Later that day we made a quick demo and I started working on melodies and lyrics. The chorus lyrics jumped out at me right away. I was driving around in my car listening to it and I immediately started singing 'I'm alive, but I'm barely breathing now.' After writing the chorus, the hardest part was figuring out what direction to take the song. I didn't finish the lyrics until about a month later while we were in the studio. I decided to write it about being buried by the weight of the world and wishing there was anything you could do to dig your way out of that feeling. A situation that I've been through many times. It's a very personal song, but I think anyone can relate to feeling that way. It ended up being everyone's favorite song on the record, so we're lucky that we had those last couple jam sessions before we decided we were done writing. That seems to be how it always works."
• Marsala explained in publicity materials that the album title symbolizes Story of the Year's work ethic and commitment to both themselves and their fans. "Music is the constant thing in life for us," he explained. "When I go to bed I think about music and when I wake up it's the first thing on my mind. The Constant can mean anything; hopefully our band will go on forever and we want music to remain a constant thing in our lives no matter what."