This post is part of the ongoing blog breakdown series where I dive into the official lyrics, stories and thoughts that inspired the lyrics for the recently released Passing Harsher album. If you haven’t yet, give the record a spin on bandcamp and jump back to the first blog on this record by clicking this handy link.

Today we’re talking about track 8 on the record: Where I’m Going.

Listen to the album in full on bandcamp!

Stream “Where I’m Going” and then read on for the official lyrics and my blog breakdown.

Where I’m Going (Official Lyrics)

Ask me where I’m going and I’ll tell you that I don’t know
Ask me when I’m leaving and I’ll slip out the window
As me how I’m getting there I’ll tell you what you wanna hear
It was never up to me, a lost cause to interfere

Looks like it’s moving faster
To me stood on the platform
The sound of the metal as it’s losing traction

And I don’t wanna know where it’s headed
Wouldn’t wanna spoil the surprise
Besides from the look of this engine
Couldn’t keep up if I tried

The way it takes the turns so wide
We’ll be lucky if we make it alive
The man beside me turns to confide
“You know, I didn’t even say goodbye”

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In “Where I’m Going” we’ve found our footing on a pathway that we’re certain we’re meant to take.

We’re so certain in fact that any conversation that finds its way to us about it feels like an unnecessary distraction and we don’t have any time for it.

This track is sort of a continuation of the thought process behind “What I’ve Been Doing” where, if you recall, we became frustrated with those that weren’t intersted in our plans and ideas at the outset but only wanted to contribute after we’d already laid out the framework. Here in “Where I’m Going” we’re past the framework and well on our way – we’ve boarded a train and it’s moving.

The drive that we’re feeling is so strong that nothing can stop us from doing it. If you’re ever been enthralled with a hobby or goal to the point of skipping meals, pushing everything else off in favour of it, then you’ve been in this place.

Once you get that momentum going it can be really difficult to stop it and at times you can feel like you’ve lost complete control of yourself and instead have put all your energy into this other thing that seems much larger than yourself. You’re now just a passenger and it almost feels like someone else is guiding you along the way (like a train conductor!).

And while you might have a sense of where it’s headed because when you boarded the platform it said it was headed North, you know nothing is certain and this train can change course or derail at anytime, so you’ve just got to hold on and hope that the operator knows what they’re doing.

In the final verse, maybe now we’re not so sure that this was the right train for us, but we’re on it and there’s nothing we can do about it but marvel at the way it moves.

It turns out, we’re not alone in our feelings of uncertainty and fear, as a fellow passenger takes a moment to confide in us their one regret that makes us reflect on one we hadn’t considered for ourselves at the top of the track – they didn’t even say goodbye to those they left behind and depending on how this trip goes, they might never get the chance.

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Thanks very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this blog breakdown series on the Passing Harsher album. If you dug the album, it’d be great if you shared it with someone else you think might like it, too. We appreciate you listening 🙂

I have another collaborative project I worked on with KM coming out this November, so be sure to check back for that.