Track Eight: Indigo
Ok, welcome to my favorite song on the album that I relate to the most – besides Treading Water, because both of these songs are probably the deepest on the albums – both in lyrics and in cuts.
The idea of depression, disassociation, and just figuring it out, man.
Lyrical Interpretation
When you’re there
A perfect night’s a nightmare too
I feel so cold, I’m hurt with you
Shades of pink and shades of blue
The introduction feels like this type of pain haunting.
I’m not sold on the fact ‘your’e’ is a person. I think it can be a metaphor for addiction, drugs, past lifestyles. The shades of pink and blue remind us of the sunset – beautiful but the dark is looming beyond the horizon.
In fact, the summary of this song when you look it up says, “MGK’s song “Indigo” is a reflective track about coping with trauma and pain, potentially honoring his friend Dingo, who may have passed away. The lyrics touch on themes of suicidal ideation, mental struggles, and finding a way to “be a beacon of hope” despite internal suffering“
Uh, this feels like the opposite of real life
On my way to Valhalla on a steel bike
Valhalla most famously refers to a great hall in Norse mythology where the souls of slain heroes go to feast and fight, ruled by the god Odin
So he is talking about disassociation, when something happens and you truly cannot believe it. It feels so fake – By mentioning Valhalla he is facing and fighting to take back his life, the people lost around him, and to reclaim – something.
Living fantasy like J.K. Rowling
I’m J.R.R. Tolkien, these spliffs I love smokin’
My hands full of stones and gold
I’m Lord of the Rings, needles sewed, new clothes
But it’s more than it seems, I seen dreams implode
[he loves this line, see below lol]
he left is old clothes behind, burned and buried, [outlaw overture]
but is in new clothes that he made for himself – a new path – going to fight through this moment in his life of past addiction and recent loss. Not knowing what is real or fake.
Seen teens turn old before they grown
Burnt out before they fade away slow
Kids who have grown up faster than they should have – finding ways to cope and dying before they actually die. Metaphorically but also physically losing themselves, and becoming a shell of who they were due to circumstances.
I used to pick you up, now I don’t
There’s some things I would rewind, but I don’t have the remote
There’s some things I manifested I wish I never wrote
And all my friends? Really family, ’cause my bloodline’s ghost (uh-uh)
He has mentioned many times that he doesnt have family any more, just friends – chosen family – so when he loses someone it hurts more than anything, because he has already lost so much. He can’t pick up people who aren’t there any more – he can’t change time, and he is wondering if he put these losses and moments into the universe by writing his worst fears.
Yeah, it’s the life we chose
Highways to Hellcats where Angel Wing goes
I know I look back, the path went rogue
I know I look back, I’m halfway home (I’m halfway home)
The dangerous life? ‘Machine Gun Kelly’s friend, professional snowboarder Luke “The Dingo” Trembath, passed away on February 28, 2025. While the cause of death was not immediately disclosed, it was later reported that he took something to fall asleep and never woke up’
The life they chose, fuckin’ with drugs – and taking lives on purpose or accident.
Im halfway home, makes me think about Miss Sunshine,
It’s a long way home (don’t know which way to go)
It’s a long way home
But he is halfway home. It’s been a journey – but he’s making it through.
So far away from where you are
Without a cause, I know I’m fucked up
But I’m not sorry
And I won’t meet you where you are (yeah)
I make my own luck
Because I don’t believe in karma
He’s making his own route, sewing his new identity, and wont go back to the way things were. He ‘wont meet you where you are’ because he wont be overdosing, he wont be ending his journey, but he knows he has to build his new beginning because luck wont just come around and help him.
I stopped countin’ my age
Because my face still look the same
So instead of years, I use pain
And if that’s the case, then I’m 500
This bar gets me – so much. When you are told you dont age, but inside you feel 98.
The pain he has endured has aged him, just like the teens that grew up before they should have.
I been in a race with my trauma, can’t outrun it
No wonder why I drive like I’m being chased
Pack up and move houses instead of renovate
This directly relates to 27 and Outlaw Overture – as he is just a rolling stone, and never used to stay in one place or settle down – but through therapy he is coming to terms with the fact he has been running his whole life – from true committment, from being there 100 percent, and it reflects in all of his actions.
Put my newborn daughter to bed at 8
Then I’m back on the interstate
Chain-smoking, looking like I’m ’bout to hyperventilate
He has so many lines in other songs and this one that reference the duality of being a dad, and trying to hold it together, while falling apart after.
Glass House is a song about losing his friends in the industry to overdose or death, and in this song he discusses putting his daughter to bed [older daughter] and attempting to kill himself in the kitchen. The push and pull of being an adult and also being extremely depressed.
Got everything to celebrate on the outside
Still none of that eliminates what is inside
And since I’ve gotta find a way to cope
I start by reversin’ some of the words I wrote
Instead of being a demon, be a beacon of hope
‘Cause one day we’re hangin’ out
The next day you’re hangin’ from a rope, uh
He knows his successes, but it doesn’t feel the void inside. Again, a common theme we see in a LOT of his work. But without the drugs he needs to find a more sustainable way to cope, make it through. Right now it’s cigerettes, coca cola, coffee and reversing some of the words he wrote – leaving the ‘bad’ life and writing words that inspire him. Because he is worried what he has wrote in the past has played out in real life – so if he writes better words, maybe it’ll be the karma he is making for himself.
So far away from where you are
Without a cause, I know I’m fucked up
But I’m not sorry
And I won’t meet you where you are (yeah)
I make my own luck
Because I don’t believe in karma
Without a cause, I know I’m fucked up
But I’m not sorry
(La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la)
I make my own luck
Because I don’t believe in karma
Yeah, this feels like the opposite of real life
Uh, yeah
This feels like the opposite of real life
Uh, yeah, mm-mm
When you’re there
A perfect night’s a nightmare too
I feel so cold, I’m hurt with you
Shades of pink and shades of blue
Ending this makes me feel like all of this is happening in his head when he is sitting, watching the sunset, knowing he wont see his friend/friends again, battling addiction and recovery. If he sees his friends in his memory, its a beautiful memory but also a nightmare of reality. Causing pain that will provide him beautiful growth – but no pain is truly worth self discovery.
Visual Representation
35mm 800 asa cinestill
So far away from where you are
Without a cause, I know I’m fucked up
But I’m not sorry
And I won’t meet you where you are (yeah)
I make my own luck
Because I don’t believe in karma
Yeah, this feels like the opposite of real life