wash it away t-shirt contest!
jan 10 - feb 10

You might first want to get familiar with (or brush up on) the song...

We (the band) have been doing lots of interviews lately, and the most common question has been "What is 'Wash It Away' about?". Well, we were running out of answers and needed your help, so we put together this contest where you could listen to a clip of the song, check out the lyrics, and send us your suggestions.

We'd like to apologize to everyone who entered the contest for taking so goddamned long to get back to you. Between our computer going down, all of our equipment and instruments getting stolen, and the grueling pace of our tour, we've been frantic and exhausted. But also, we were truly overwhelmed by the responses we received, how many of you wrote in, the depth and highly personal nature of what you wrote. Picking "winners" seemed daunting and even somewhat random. We've gone and done it, though, rifling through the immense stack of entries and coming up with ten t-shirt-receiving people.

Thanks for writing, all of you; thanks for coming to the shows and for all your support. We are going to try to stay in better contact in the future, now that our old Mac is back up and running

Take care,
Paul, Michael, Geoff & Bryan

...and the winners are ...

Jennifer M.

I'm not one to listen to lyrics before I memorize the music...but if I were to sum up Wash It Away, I'd give it a religious tone and say it were about Jesus. You know... being the first born son to wash away our sins who is introduced to us through an angel. So many people wait all their lives for his "next coming" and it almost seems like a waste of years but in the long run He'll still wash it away (like He's so quick to wash feet). Ouch, I hate religious freaks. Maybe it's just about a doomed blind date to the prom. The girl is wearing a white gown and you spill punch all over it, washing away her innocence while "10 Million Years" plays in the background...and suddenly somebody breaks out the Doritos and she's not so bad after all.

Brent H.

I believe that the song is about wasting your life away (although you guys have probably heard a lot of that. Wash it away, washing your life away. You need to get out and go do something with your life. "Soak it in bleach. . ." sitting around doing nothing (drugs maybe, bleach drugs) ". . . till it's white on white." now you have nothing to make you stand out, nothing different, just white on white. If you don't do anything to make you different from everyone else, you just blend in. You / Paul / anyone has realized that after all these wasted years, you / he / she wants to have a child. Although having a child is not necessarily something different, it does make a difference. Then maybe you could teach your child not to just wash life away. There are many different ways to wash your life away, and if you do not do what you truly want to do or do not do what makes you happy, your life will just be a waste. Having a child seemes to be what the person singing this song wants, and has now realized that his life, and her life have been washed away.

Mark G.

A man and a woman have a house on the beach. At the side of the house is a laundry line, on which the woman hangs her clothes to dry in the blowing salt air. The man stands behind her, watching her, the sea beyond, trying to deal with the horrible emotional blow that the woman, his woman, just had a miscarriage. She has absorbed herself in necessary chores, to struggle through. He watches her, wondering how she will handle it, and how he can handle it. And the hardest part for him is that after 40 years of no clear purpose in life, he had made his unborn son his purpose. And now he's gone. And the 40 years now seems like wasted time. He wants to wash away the blood, the time, and the emotion he placed in something no longer here.

Randal L.

The song brings to mind a man who has lost a newborn child. "IT", can be a literal translation for the body of the child, perhaps lost in childbirth or accident. "IT", could also be hopes, dreams, fears, and other feelings a father may have for or because of a new child.

The father is looking for a means to forget "IT" (wash it away) be it water, fire, or wind (or chlorine?).

The Parents grow tired of people telling them the obligatory "There there" or "You'll get over it" or "You can try again". The Father replies (on the mothers behalf as well) "how can i just turn and wash it away. if i can then i will wash it away. if she can then she will wash it away."; but they know they cannot simply do that or they would have already.

The father then starts to blame himself for making excuses for not having children before perhaps fear... He then "prays" or wishes that a ghost of himself may return to remind him of the reasons as to why he did not want children before but like the water fire and wind it fails.

The Father then remembers the Mother (girlfriend or wife) the only other person who understands his hurt and turns to her to help wash "IT" away.

Dallas D.

Wash It Away is describing death resulting from disease. The song is describing how if we could we would just "wash it away". We try to cover up the disease by making it unobvious, by hiding it but we can't. The wasted lives are representative of those who die in the struggle to overcome the disease. The song talks about a man who would just wash it away yet it also talks about a woman who would just wash it away. The two of them only wanted to wash the disease away, to get rid of what one of them gave the other. They are in together, no way to get out of it. They only wanted to love each other but now they have began to slowly kill each other. Why in a world full of remorse and dying must they die? Why can't they just "Wash it Away"?

Nathan M.

Wash it away is about a frequent donut shop customer. You (not really you but whoever the song is about) go into the shop and of course it reeks of coffee, cigarettes, and lard. After you finish gorging on delicious grease laden donuts you come out and smell just like the inside of the shop. So, you go down to the sea to wash it away, you let it soak all night because the smell has penetrated deeply, it is even on your skin! You are ashamed because you know you are a donut shop loser. You try soaking yourself in bleach until you bleed. Hoping that your blood from the inside will come thru your skin and push out the smell on the outside. After eating so many donuts you have incredible gas and the beach is as good a place as any to let it rip and let the high wind blow your fumes away. What you'd give for a firstborn son? A son who you could be proud of, a son you could play catch with and go to ballgames with. Instead of wasting 40 years in a grungy donut shop. But you know it can never be, no son for you. You are on your knees with your arms lifted to the sky and you cry out: "Send me an angel!" (which is your slang for, "gimme some angel cream donuts" ). In your moment of utter sadness you plead: "Send me the ghost!"(which is your slang for, "how 'bout some donut holes), hoping that the ghost (donut hole) will fill the void in your bitter- jimmy covered donut existence.

"Ophelia"

Before I proceed to donate my input into the deeper meaning, or the answer to this song, I'd just like to say that each answer is many times merely a reflection of an individual's personal agenda and the manner in which they can relate their personal baggage rendering a solace of sorts. I'm not claiming my objective interpretation to be correct, because correctness has no dominion within the lines of a song. So, without further ado, I appreciate the time you hopefully will invest into reading what I have to say

"wash it in the sea..." The sea, or water in general is an unchanging symbol of purging and cleansing. In this case the sea, saltwater (tears?) are purging the remnants of a memory, or of a significant episode in one's life that has truly affected this person, and like blood stains a garment, the vivid memory is difficult to erase. I can only help but think of Shakespeare's Macbeth, in which Macbeth says that the hand that killed Duncan will never wash clean but "will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." Time is definitely of the essence here...the more time given to cleansing, the mind, or metaphysical spirit, of this hindering foreboding memory and distraught state, the more expedient the mind will ideally forget. Wind often personifies the feelings of an individual...the song is urging the wind to blow "it" away...as if wind will catalyze the rate in which the troubles will disappear. "I have waited wasted years for the child that's come and gone today..." This child in question is symbolic, or even metaphorically linked to innocence, which is so closely related to the image of a child. The author has waited, and anticipated a return to, or discovery of innocence. It came, but just like the succint, deceiving wind, it was gone leaving behind fear...a tragic outcome, or downfall of innocence. Although fear remained, it was never reconciled with ("wasted"). A part of the author ( or whomever is narrating the song, or singing the song about) is lost to this "wasted fear" and therefore wishes just to forget the disillusionment created. "I have waited long enough I'd say..." Desperation is evoked within the following lines...the narrator senses that time will heal what couldn't be reconciled...but when it is realized that time is more of burden, as hard as that may be to admit...the simple act of "washing it away" is hard to digest, and come to terms with ("how can I just wash it away.") But in order to keep in touch with the mind, and spirit, it would be essential to purge these feelings manifested by waiting over time...losing the name of action if you will. If the narrator is ready to come to these terms, stand up on his rock, as Sisyphus did (from "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus) or on the opposite parallel, if the narrator just wants to submit to denial by "washing it away" then that will occur. The angel ("send me an angel...") is like a voice of reconciliation, redemption and understanding. The ghost signifies the familiar ways (of the narrator) which the narrator remembers and seeks comfort from. Inevitably, the narra tor decides to wash away the enveloping disillusionment...the memories which are too much to bear, and perhaps still leave behind lingering pretences, which are a part of human nature dealing with reality and its vices.

"O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown..." My discussion of this song is pretty much complete at this time...keep in mind that this interpretation may be completely divergent from the intentions of the lyricist...but that adds to the beauty of songs and the impact of music in people's lives.

Sheila S.

To me the song is about losing your virginity, after waiting and waiting for the right person. then you give yourself to someone who ends up hurting you. Then you have to make yourself numb from the hurt, try to wash it away

Scott M.

I think wash it away is about a guy's past that he cant let die. the lines "i have waited wasted years for the child that's come and gone today." and "forty years of life just slipping away." could mean that he had a child and didn't know about it and when he met his child the person didn't want to be bothered with an old man that had deserted them. Then " if she can then she will wash it away." could mean that the mother didn't want the illegitimate child to begin with. and when the lines. "send me an angel. send me the ghost that i was. that i am." come in you sense a revelation in the mans sense of parenthood, and fatherhood, he wants the angel (his child), and "what he was" his freedom/separation from people in the past, and "that i am" means he will be gone soon and he will be dead.

Christopher L.

Your song, "Wash It Away", makes me think of the miscarriages that my ex-wife and I had... with the references to the children, the blood, and trying to wash it away...I love the song, but it does make me quite depressed :)

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