Young Veins (Die Tonight)

Album: Take a Vacation! (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Young Veins is the first musical project by guitarists Ryan Ross and Jon Walker after their departure from Panic! at the Disco in July 2009. The rest of the band comprises bassist Andy Soukal, keyboardist Nick White, and drummer Nick Murray.
  • This two-minute power pop song is influenced by 1960s British Invasion guitar rock and California bands like the Beach Boys and the Mamas & the Papas. Lyrically, it's a good-time anthem to Ross' adopted home of Los Angeles and having a good time with friends, but he told Spin magazine there's a double meaning. The verse - "If I were to die tonight, would you cry? / My place in your life / I'm aware that you're scared" - was "written with a girl in mind."

    Ross added: "It's like, 'does this person care about me as much as I care about her?' Sometimes when you're writing a song, even if you know what you want it to be about, it ends up being about whatever is really affecting you at the time."
  • Ross explained the band's name to Spin Magazine: "At first, when we were throwing around names in the studio, we wanted to call the band the Veins," he recalled, "but there was already a band called that. So we just called it the Young Veins. We liked the 'fresh blood' connotation. But really the name is a Spinal Tap reference. There's a part where the band is talking about when they were starting out. They were going to call themselves the Originals but that name was taken, so they call themselves the New Originals instead. So we're sort of just playing off the idea of adding an adjective in front of a band name that already exists."

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