Mobile Orchestra

VERGE

"When I wrote Verge I wanted to capture that moment everyone experiences, that one event in life that signifies the end of an era followed by a new beginning."

I FOUND LOVE

"I Found Love is heavy, it's sort of deceivingly heavy, because the song itself, the melodies and instrumentations sound uplifting and optimistic. But it's pretty much about death and imagining the emotions that you go through knowing that your minutes are numbered. Being on your deathbed and having to say goodbye to your friends and your family, your wife and your kids and just trying to imagine what that would be like. I felt like I had to put that down into a song. Part of that is like, 'I'm so sad to say goodbye to everybody and I'm so sad that my life has been a blur and here I am at the end of it. But I'm so excited for what's coming next.' So in that way, it plays into my faith a lot. So it was a fun way to be vulnerable in a way that I don't think I've quite been on earlier records."

MY EVERYTHING

"My Everything is my attempt at summing up how important my faith is to me, and certainly how much it influences, not just the decisions I make creatively as an artist, but every area of my life across the whole board. My hope with this song is that it serves as an encouragement to people who might be feeling spiritually weary or tired. I always forget that there are places in everybody's lives where there's this deep, dark place that nobody knows about, and my hope is that this song touches that and hopefully provides some kind of encouragement to somebody who needs it. I feel like, at the end of the day, if somebody's mood is lightened for 30 seconds or a minute while driving to work because of this song, I feel like my job is done."

BACK HOME

"I've been a big fan of Jake's for a couple of years. I listened to a lot of his records, and he was a gateway into the country world. We married this pop sensibilities with his voice and told a story about how it feels to come home - especially after a long trip or, in our case, tour."

UNBELIEVABLE

"Myself and those three (Hanson) guys are kind of the same age. We connected with so many different things that we remember as kids, things that we thought were so mind-blowing as far as technology and kind of that latest, greatest thing at the time. In a lot of cases, depending on the product, it isn't really around anymore. We had a blast just being like, 'I forgot all about this. You guys remember this thing and this thing?' Just trying to find all these ways to work nostalgia into song. So, that track is kind of a trip down memory lane a little bit."

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU

"Can't Live Without You is sort of 'Tidal Wave part 2' if you're familiar with an earlier record of mine called 'Ocean Eyes.' The last song on that album is sort of about my inadequacies and flaws as a human, and how I can only find true fulfillment in God. What that means for me is such a big part of my life. I wanted to capture some of that same sensibility in Can't Live Without You. I also think there's something really special when you marry this EDM dance club kind of track instrumentally against lyrics that are really opposite of that same feeling. Like in this case, these lyrics are very honest and vulnerable in a way that is so different than what is so usually part of a dance song, and it's got nothing to do with dancing or the night life, party life sensibility. But these two ideas that are kind of at odds with each other I always have found really interesting."

THUNDERSTRUCK

"The message is this idea that... the feeling that you get when you first fall in love, you feel like you're floating. Everything's beautiful and nothing hurts. The twist is, the main character has fallen in love with a ghost. So that perfect romance is doomed from the start. And it's a little morbid, but I think that it's really beautiful, in an Edgar Allen Poe kind of way."

BIRD WITH A BROKEN WING

"I wanted to experiment with something a little more aggressive and raw than what I've done before on Owl City records. I was in punk bands and hard core bands and stuff all throughout high school, so experimenting with this kind of music isn't really new for me per se, but it does feel like uncharted waters for somebody who's probably known to most people as a guy who makes pop music. I tried to capture the feelings when I watch The Walking Dead, or playing The Last of Us, and Book of Eli. If a future civilization arrived, they would be seeing the aftermath of such an Apocalyptic world, and would find a diary of the last man alive, with the last entries in his diary."

YOU'RE NOT ALONE

"You're Not Alone is a song that taps into a sentiment and emotionality that everyone can relate to: feeling alone. In your darkest moments, sometimes Jesus chooses to draw on nearest to you. The reminder that He is there with you, that He has your back, is an amazing, life-transforming thing. The song is simply a reminder that God is there for those who call upon Him."

THIS ISN'T THE END

"This Isn't the End, I think, is my favorite of any song I've ever written before, because it's loosely based on my mother's story. Her father left her when she was very young and some of the damage it did to her, I feel like it took her a lot of years to get over that, but she's finally healed from that, and I remembered as a kid myself her talking about what it was like, and she didn't talk about it very much, but when she did, it really stuck with me, and I've always been a big believer in dealing with life by writing music. So my hope is that this subject matter and this song, difficult though it may be, is something that somebody out there needs to hear, because I feel like it's this idea that a lot of people can connect with, losing a parent or growing up without a parent, I feel like is very common. So my hope is that this song is an encouragement to somebody out there who needs this hope for healing."