Behind the lyrics of the single: ‘The One’
Blog by Fred, August 2024
Sometimes you might spend time looking at a picture of someone you love.
At the time you might think ‘I really want to be with this person, I love them’, yet you might still have thoughts like ‘can I commit to this for the rest of my life?’
The idea of meeting ‘the one’ is such a romantic, cheesy, Disney-like concept, but it’s also quite sweet at the same time.
Then there’s those natural anxieties about where the relationship will take you…
It’s great if you’re lucky enough to find someone who you can tell all your secrets to, share your problems with, and get answers from. I think the song explores the dynamic between the amazing thing that can be finding the one (or someone close to it at the time) and the anxiety around commitment and plotting your life’s course.
When you’re with someone there can be times when it’s all exciting, when you really love each other and things can be really good, and then you get your trials and tribulations. In some cases you might think: ‘There’s enough going on with this person to make this work, past that effervescent honeymoon phase spent finding out about each other.’ Even when things are going well, there’s still that natural doubt – or reflection – about whether this is for you.
I think doubts are often represented as negative, when really, questioning yourself, your present, and future, and the society you live in, are all healthy parts of reflecting and growing. While too much pontification can also create its own kind of stuck-ness, sparing time for reflection has a place.
There’s sometimes a moral panic around online dating and digital life, and I think the opening line of the song, among other things, is a nod to that. It’s interesting how we kind of turn to technology…we trust in it and put so much into hoping that this can be the answer to problems we have, answer queries, or be a substitute friend, but it also opens up a lot of questions.
‘The One’ is about those pauses that come up at different points in life, in relationships and friendships, where you wonder what’ll happen. Maybe there’s history, maybe it’s new…
If I had to sum up ‘The One’ in a phrase, I’d say ‘Where are we now, and where are we going?’