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Small Warrior

from Bad Happy B​-​Sides by Bubblegum Octopus

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about

This song, I actually still love. I wrote this song in my parents' basement on the first night we had off in New Jersey on the Take Control tour.

The song is about overcoming immense adversity, presented through the story of a sympathetic character, very small in stature, and how she overcomes a huge army all on her own. They're attacking her village and have dragons and giants, but she remains strong throughout and defends who she cares about.

Self-defense has a very, very dark connotation to me in the modern age. I feel it basically makes its appearances in the form of xenophobic vitriol and intolerance that leads to injuries and murders. I think there's a very big difference between shooting someone you think is attacking you and slaying a dragon that's breathing fire on your neighbor's roof though.

One of Bad Happy's major themes was recognizing my history of using violent imagery as an emotional barrier to distance myself from difficult things, and dismantling that. I feel that my presentations of this never hit their mark for most of the audience. I'm a pacifist, so why would I be writing violent music? For that reason, a song discussing combat was something that had to be framed a very particular way, but I never quite got it right.

The composition remains my favorite of the things I cut from the album.

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from Bad Happy B​-​Sides, released March 18, 2016

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Bubblegum Octopus New Jersey

REJECT IRONY,
EMBRACE DISCOMFORT!

LOVING BLISS & CHAOS AT LIGHTSPEED!!~

SPAZZPOP
(2005 - FOREVER)

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