Investigating How Anxiety Undermines Our Plans For the Future in Briston Maroney's New Single “Skydiver”
Photo by Tyler Krippaehne
RED ALERT–fresh Briston Maroney, hot off the presses! Or soundboard? Mixing board?
However you want to say it, you are in for an emotional ride that is quintessentially Briston Maroney. “Skydiver” is Maroney’s latest track, and lucky for us, it was released with an accompanying music video that already has us crying.
The track opens to sweet synths and repeating guitar chords, but quickly merges with the strong but comforting vocals of Maroney.
The opening lines, “like I always knew it would, the days just pass me by, like a bird without a song, skydiver with no sky,” introduce both the song title and what Maroney is grappling with– feeling sort of lost in the passing of time. Maybe not only feeling lost but also feeling unprepared for the future, like you aren’t quite who you’re supposed to be yet.
That feeling is echoed in the next lines, “Ever since I was a boy, so anxious and misused, never thought I'd see the sun, from quite this point of view,” but with a little more background. Going through life with a shadow of anxiety, especially from a young age, shapes who we are as people. Maroney acknowledges that here, coupled with the idea that the future is always different than what we anticipate, for good or bad.
Coming from one anxious girl, combining that emotion with this feeling of lostness is what brought me to tears. Anxiety can be incredibly hard to acknowledge by itself.
Sometimes I feel like I fight my battles with anxiety alone, so hearing Maroney face similar struggles is incredibly cathartic.
Recognizing that these feelings of anxiety really do begin in childhood was an important one to me. Those of us who struggle with anxiety know that we’ve been feeling it for a long time.
A repeating phrase that stuck out to me the most goes:
“All that I can be is what I’ve not quite been yet,
Wasn’t I to do without a perfect hue,
Reeling in the fear like I wasn't human.
Am I supposed to breathe first or pull the shoot?”
Society expects us to do so many things at once and with such perfection, how are we all expected to succeed?
These central themes of anxiety and introspection are integral to Maroney’s work. For example, in “Sunshine” from the 2023 album Ultrapure, Maroney sings in the chorus, “I just keep telling myself, someday the sun will come shining again If I can loosen my grip on the wings of the bird that tells me where to begin.”
Similar to “Sunshine", we see the idea of being in a dark place and not knowing what lies ahead, but in “Skydiver”, we are greeted with a kind of resolve–knowing it will all be okay.
“Skydiver” heralds the eagerly awaited second leg of Maroney’s sold-out Ultrapure Tour, getting underway September 22 at Orlando, FL’s The Beacham Theater and then traveling into late October. Support includes Why Not (September 22-October 6) and Annie DiRusso (October 8-24).
Catch him in a city near you – you won’t want to miss it!
