“Mature” is the 4th song on our first full-length Bear Hair, and it’s one of the last ones on the album we learned as a band. This is because it doesn’t really lend itself to be played live, ESPECIALLY when you’re first starting out and don’t have the type of audience that would stay at attention for an entire mostly-acoustic song. However, the few times we’ve played it live have worked out pretty well, and I’m proud of the way it sounds on here. It features Danny and Julia on some really great backing vocals throughout (along with Julia’s stupendous fingerpicking), and if you listen carefully, you can hear some really really deep vocals near the end done by our friend Tim McPherrin.

It deals with a subject that I have to deal with a lot: immaturity, or lack thereof. I’ve been around people older than me for most of my life due to the fact that I skipped from 2nd to 4th grade, and a year can do a lot to some people, I suppose. Also, even for my age, I tend to veer towards the crude rather than the articulate in my sense of humor, which can REALLY put some people off. On one hand, I wish I was more mature, but there’s another side to maturity that I deal with in this song: people who act way more mature than they actually are.

Mature, mature, mature
with controlled adult allure
Do I age like warm Coke?
Do I age like cheap jokes?
I’m not sure I’m mature

This stanza speaks for itself. Warm Coke, by the way, is the absolute worst, and I feel like a scumbag when I drink it. I say “controlled” in this because I self-control is a huge part of maturity…and I often lack it.

I’m scared of fame
We spread filth on available names
But the grown men I’ve seen
are content with their being
They’re secure, they’re mature

I often look at hyper-famous people, and pity them in a weird way; they’re obviously not devoid of problems, and are in fact presented with an entirely different group of problems, including having to deal with all the shit that gets thrown at your name when you’re in the public eye. I often wonder how I’d handle that if IOMT broke in a big way. But then again, I look at the most mature, well-aged men and women I know (this line was actually weirdly inspired by our former bassist Spiros’s dad), and I realize how little they care what people have to say, and I wonder if I’m petty for even caring.

I’m told “Be yourself,
just don’t weird out anyone else”
What if sections of me
don’t make others happy?
Failure, immature

That “quote” was “quoted” in our RedEye review of this album, and I’m glad, because this stanza reflects exactly how I was raised, and how most of my time in school was (including most of high school). I can’t stand the duality in how a lot of kids are brought up. It’s not frank enough, and we’re constantly torn between individuality and concealing the very things that make us different. So, naturally, I get worried about the parts of me that people won’t like.

You know you’ve been there too
Two choices presented to you
Filter your breaths,
or make love to your left of center;
what was yours?
If your choice was the first,
you’ll be assigned a social nurse
Whether you’re talking thick books,
or being strange to get looks,
don’t be sure you’re mature

The last half of this stanza applies to a guy I know and I never see anymore (with good reason) who I’m not going to name. He was the epitome of pretending to be someone that he wasn’t; the thing he was pretending to be was a pseudo-Oxfordian intellectual ladies’ man, and…I’m not going to say what he actually was. Point is, I can’t get down with people who can’t get down with who they actually are. But, then again, I’M like that in a way, hence…

If your choice was the last,
your soul’s developed fast
You’ve grown into it well,
and I’m jealous as Hell
I’m admiring, and I’m trying

I’m jealous, and I’m trying.

We are so many people each day
We play so many people each day
Baby, we change
You are so many people each day
You play so many people each day
Baby, you’ve changed