Money & Heart

I grew up always trying to put on the right face
Carried everything I knew inside of my guitar case
Hymns in the choir came with an impossible key change
I kept changing key and they kept looking at me strange
Playing for change at the checkout of a grocery
Playing for strange looks on the steps of my university
Playing for coffee like I wasn't worth anymore
I got blood on my strings, it was my devotion to the hardcore

Spillin' out unformed thoughts every night on the open mic
Spitting out deformed throbs of my heart when the time was right
Stomping flip flops on the asphalt in the middle of the summer
Making fun of those jerks driving by in their yukons and their hummers
We were earnest and naive and saviors and it was all truthful
But some of these thoughts in our head never turned out to be useful
We thought we desired the lives of the beaten down troubadour
But martyrs don't walk through their own open doors

When the headphone meets the ear
When the artist beats the fear
Is there a system to this art?
Is there money where there's heart?

Now I'm scared you might find me funny enough to like online
A thumbs up is cheaper than funneling nickels and dimes
How much do you value the commerce in the melody
Am I a scroll thru check-in tiny light in your day
Or is this gonna be a currency on the level of the New York Exchange
My stock might rise, it might fall, and I know that it might flatline
But I know that my calves might start to burn from the rate of the incline
So you have to understand - I'm going to do this
Without regards to time or cost or money or success
I'm talking yours, I'm talking mine, I'm talking nobody's gotta get undermined
But I'm gonna do this anyway and I will HATE THIS if I don't find a way
I will not be the one who waits around for the next hope
Passivity will string us all up faster than a good rope
And I want all these things to collide, like money... and art
One we work hard for, and one we think is hard

When the headphone meets the ear
When the artist beats the fear
Is there a system to this art?
Is there money where there's heart?

Now please understand I approach you with a reverence
I don't wanna preach and I would never come at you all malevolent
But now is not the time to ask when I'm gonna get a real career
Or tell your kids that I'm simply going through a phase here
Because this is the stuff that saved us from our adolescence
The groove, the hook, it hits us like an obsession
Pulls us out of the hell that happens to us every single day
I say no doctor, no lawyer, can perpetually save

But the headphone meets the ear
When the artist beats the fear
Is there a system to this art
Is there money where there's heart?

When the headphone meets the ear
When the artist beats the fear
Is there a system to this art
Is there money where there's heart?