American Oxygen

The song means so much, and it's kind of hard to pinpoint one specific thing. A lot of the time it's just a subconscious thing that you're exposed to that comes out in the lyrics. There's a lot of turmoil going on in this country right now, and I don't think of myself as a political person or politically savvy, or someone who can speak as eloquently about social injustice as other people that I know can, who are very well-versed in it. But I think we all have something to say about it, and if you just kind of let it happen and work hard enough at it on a song, something will eventually come out.

People living in this country, or who don't even live in this country, they all feel something different. ... I looked at songs like "Born In The U.S.A." and that record. I listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen when I was writing this, and he really gets it. He gets that there's pride to living here in this country. This country is great and has the potential to be something really, really incredible, but there are a lot of problems that we don't acknowledge and it's important to shed light on both those things. And if you can do that in a song, that's the best.

Sam Harris