A Primitive Evolution – “I Feel It All”

 A Primitive Evolution is a band you might not have heard of before, but after you read the story of how their song “I Feel It All” came alive, there is no doubt you will immediately click on a new tab and google this song to listen to it. This three piece alternative-grunge band from Toronto, Canada may take their influences from classic rock bands, but they are creating a new influence of staying true and honoring others. Check out the behind the song story of “I Feel It All”  below, and let us know your thoughts.

Background
This song was one of those strange situations where it wasn’t really making sense to me as the lyricist til the last final moment. Generally we’ll have a theme going for a song or have some ideas floating around through the demoing phase and from our jams as a group.

For this track Stu and I had locked down a song structure, the main melodic theme and guitar riff ideas but I couldn’t quite glue it together in my mind. What was this song going to about? I had almost abandoned it as a potential track for the album but Stu urged me to complete the lyrics for it. His passion inspired me to turn off the rest of the world and I sat down for two hours and it just happened like that. As soon as I wrote the first line the rest of the song fell into place with almost no effort, it was like my brain just barfed on the page. The mind is a strange place, there’s so much stuff in there… who are these little people in my mind writing this? Where did it all come from?

My main inspiration for this song came from a fan of ours who had been struggling with leukemia for years and years. Melissa was her name and she had passed her date that the doctors gave her, she fought and fought and would never give up. She came to our shows and we grew quite fond of having her around. As much as she battled, it was inevitable that the cancer would one day take her life.

This reminded me of my own mortality and how thankful I am for my existence. It reminded me of the power of the cycle of life. I began thinking of how small we all are on a universal scale and yet how powerful our present emotions and thoughts can be. So much so that we can change the world around us, how we perceive the world can determine how well or how long we live. Let’s go back to the beginning of time, that’s where the song starts. We are a part of a process, in the tide pool, single celled organisms evolving over millions and millions of years into the diverse group of organisms we are now and then one day, POOF! We are all gone.

This of course brings the question that has plagued man for thousands of years, where do we go after this? I’ve always thought that the idea of the soul and heaven is very romantic. I may not believe in one true God, but I do like to think that all of this thought and emotion does carry on to something… perhaps we just pass along a memory of ourselves to our friends and loved ones, maybe we rejoin a universal energy of some kind, but for now let’s just say, I’m ready to go home. In Melissa’s death I was reminded of every single emotion I’ve felt in my entire life. I Feel it All.

Melissa side stage at an APE show

Lyrics
I see the world different than you
Parasites and bloodlines streaming through
Millions of years will pass on I see the end of us all
It’s time for transgression and you feel it too
I know you do

Cause I feel it all, I feel it all,
Now that you’re gone I feel it all
I have seen the truth of a damaged heart
I have seen the tears of a world apart
What do we know?

So full of sorrow and regret
Why let them poison your mind like that?
The pressure has been put on to fulfill the will of God’s son
It’s time for transgression and you feel it too
I know you do

Cause I feel it all, I feel it all,
Now that you’re gone I feel it all
I have seen the truth of a damaged heart
I have seen the tears of a world apart
What do we know?

I took a chance wanted to see if I was wrong
and it was exactly as I thought
I look to the sky hoping they would see, that it’s me
I’m ready to go home