Welcome To The Border Lyrics
Pressing up against your lovely lines
We are underwater breathing
We are walking through your fire
Pressure building, running
Pressing up against your lovely home
We are so close…we are so close
You call this a wall?
These people have crossed history
And empires we don’ watched ‘em fall
And all in all we’ve gotten stronger
We are the soil underneath every city you’ve conquered
We are the monsters abused by the conquerors
The conscripts in your army fraggin’ officers
We are the flood waters from the origin
And ain’t no brick in existence thick enough to hold us in
We are passing you by
You want to stop progress with an imaginary line?
Well a shanty is a fine home for a leader
You can even see it in the children’s faces
This, is displacement, mixed with desperation
A Molotov cocktail of impatience
We want you to taste it, unlit is just as well
Feel the rumble in your stomachs when you get to hell
C’mon
Pressing up against your lovely lines
We are underwater breathing
We are walking through your fire
Pressure building, running
Pressing up against your lovely home
We are so close…we are so close
You call this a headshot?
I can still smell you, and I can still tell you have no heart
Your blood just sloshes from left to right when you walk and
My fingertips are sharp
And I don’t need catharsis, I don’t need closure
I just need to be a little closer
For the screamin’ of the ghosts of everyone who never had shit
To erupt from my lips: it’s over
And we will not discuss this like gentlemen
This is genocide, we are desensitized
We are the set aside setting our sights on the enterprise
We were never meant to find
This is America: one big happy prison
But we wrote our names on the walls
You thought it was graffiti, but it was a sign
To everyone looking, from those already inside
We are…
We are squeezing through your keyholes
We are leaking through the cracks in your foundation
We the people are…
About
I had no idea how this song was going to turn out, but it might be my favorite track on the album. The beat was originally labeled “crazy circus town” and it’s totally epic, my favorite kind of beat to write to. Chastity Brown is my favorite local singer, and she took the weird, rappy hook I wrote and made it pretty; the harmonies really make the song. And my favorite part of the entire project is the bridge, when our voices are overlapping. While the album as a whole isn’t as much about displacement and the movement of people as I had originally intended, this song is a holdover from that original thrust. It’s about how struggle can’t be contained; it can be delayed, but when people want something, or want to be somewhere they’re not, they’re going to get there. It’s only a matter of time and energy.
- Guante
Just like the last beat, this is one from my first record that was reworked for this project. Drums were redone, I replaced a filtered bass line by playing it and a couple elements were added; I was a little skeptical of this song when we were pulling together the tracklist for the album, but once I heard Chastity’s part, I was completely sold. It’s now one of my favorite tracks, with the ending being one of my favorite parts of the album.
- Big Cats
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 6.No Capes
- 7.Welcome To The Border
- 10.Red States
- 11.Dragons
