This song means a lot to me.

Character flaw: I don’t listen to a ton of music.  I have a few favorite bands and listen to them over and over again.  Luckily my wife is way into music and introduces me to new stuff a lot… and controls our mix during parties :)  But Against Me! has been my favorite band for the last 4 years.  Recently, thanks to Lance, our warehouse manager at Threadless, I got to see them play a set of 6 songs in a room of like 50 people at JBTV (F*cking incredible place).  I was standing right there up front, can’t wait to share the video when it comes out!

Anyway, before the show I got to listen to an interview with Tom Gabel, the lead singer.  He said that he wrote the album that “Joy” is on (“Searching for a former clarity”) while in a state of mind where he was convinced that he was going to die within a year.  So all of the songs were written about various things and how you would look at them if you knew you were going to die soon.  Great concept for an album.

Whenever I listen to Against Me!, for some reason I get lost in my own thoughts and the lyrics to the songs just keep egging me on, and I get just snowballs of thought processes going on.  It’s pretty great.  Why would I want to listen to anything else? ;)  I was listening to this album while driving from Chicago to Boulder last weekend with both the kids and my wife asleep in the back, and now knowing the thoughts behind the lyrics.  It was awesome.  And “Joy” is an incredible song.

I think the reason this song speaks to me so much is because I love the idea of not being in complete control, giving others chances for control and loving the outcomes.  I think that’s pretty obvious with Threadless since we give so much control to our community.  But also within the Threadless staff; I love giving people the freedom to run with the ideas that they are passionate about.  As a manager, even if you would do things differently here or there, sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut or at least make clear that your opinion is just your opinion, not the way things have to be.  Keep the idea their idea so it’s their work, not a service to you. There’s a joy in every possibility.

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Don’t lose touch.