Young Veins (Die Tonight)

Album: Take a Vacation! (2010)
Play Video

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."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root

Michael Glabicki of Rusted RootSongwriter Interviews

Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.

Bob Daisley

Bob DaisleySongwriter Interviews

Bob was the bass player and lyricist for the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums. Here's how he wrote songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" with Ozzy and Randy Rhoads.

"Private Eyes" - The Story Behind the Song

"Private Eyes" - The Story Behind the SongSong Writing

How a goofy detective movie, a disenchanted director and an unlikely songwriter led to one of the biggest hits in pop history.

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee JonesSongwriter Interviews

Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.