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?