After Midnight Lyrics

[Instrumental Intro]

[Verse 1: Tom DeLonge]
I can't get my feet up off the edge
I kinda like the little rush you get
When you're standing close to death
Like when you're driving me crazy
Hold on as we crash into the earth
A bit of pain will help you suffer
When you're hurt, for real
'Cause you were driving me crazy

[Pre-Chorus: Tom DeLonge]
Bite your lips, your words a robbery
Do you grin inside? You're killing me
All along we talked of forever
I kinda think that we won't get better
It's the longest start, but the end's not too far away
Did you know? I'm here to stay

[Chorus: Mark Hoppus]
We'll stagger home after midnight
Sleep arm in arm in the stairwell
We'll fall apart on the weekend
These nights go on and on and on
[Verse 2: Tom DeLonge]
I can't keep your voice out of my head
All I hear are the many echoes of
The darkest words you said
And it's driving me crazy
I can't find the best in all of this
But I'm always looking out for you
Cause you're the one I miss
And it's driving me crazy


[Pre-Chorus: Tom DeLonge]
Bite your lips, your words a robbery
Do you grin inside? You're killing me
All along we talked of forever
I kinda think that we won't get better
It's the longest start, but the end's not too far away
Did you know? I'm here to stay

[Chorus: Mark Hoppus]
We'll stagger home after midnight
Sleep arm in arm in the stairwell
We'll fall apart on the weekend
These nights go on and on and on
We'll stagger home after midnight
Sleep arm in arm in the stairwell
We'll fall apart on the weekend
These nights go on and on and on
[Instrumental Bridge]

[Chorus: Mark Hoppus]
We'll stagger home after midnight
Sleep arm in arm in the stairwell
We'll fall apart on the weekend
These nights go on and on and on
We'll stagger home after midnight
Sleep arm in arm in the stairwell
We'll fall apart on the weekend
These nights go on and on and on

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About

Genius Annotation

The second official single from the album Neighborhoods narrates the story of a troubled couple looking for an escape. The song is about complex and damaged people falling in love.

“After Midnight” is the final Blink-182 single to feature band co-founder and vocalist/guitarist Tom DeLonge, before his role would be refilled by Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio for blink 182’s 2016 album California.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did ​​blink-182 say about "After Midnight"?
Genius Answer

The song originated from an idea by drummer Travis Barker, and the song was initially titled “Travis Beat”. When the trio first listened to the beat, DeLonge and Hoppus both had ideas immediately. They stated in an Alternative Press Issue that:

It was one of those moments on the album where everybody just had a bunch of ideas all at once, and it came together pretty quickly; two or three hours and the song’s structure was near completion.

Mark and Tom split lyrical duties and worked separately, and both wrote about romance. DeLonge recalled Barker mentioning that Neighborhoods should contain a song in a similar vein to “I Miss You”, the band’s 2004 single. With this in mind, DeLonge included references to “I Miss You”, “Always” and “All of This”, all tracks from the band’s previous effort:

“I can’t find the best in all of this / but I’m always looking out for you / ‘Cause you’re the one I miss.”

DeLonge viewed the song’s speedy creation as just one of many similarities to their back catalog:

What’s cool about this song and ‘I Miss You,’ when Mark and I both write lyrics in different places, they come together and they’re both about the same thing, usually me and him kissing and making love to each other. We end up writing super romantic songs. And I think it worked out really good on this one.

What has the band said about the music video?
Genius Answer

Mark Hoppus told MTV News:

We went through probably 30 different treatments for this video, and a lot of them were great, and a lot of them weren’t so great but Isaac’s stuck out as a really cool idea. We wanted it to be something different than just a bunch of people having fun and having a party; we wanted it to be a little darker, a little more troubled, and Isaac’s treatment did that.

The song itself is about troubled love, it’s about damaged people who fall in love, and the video takes place in a psychiatric ward, and this guy and this girl escape from their rooms and have a night of romance and passion and fun and wild existence.

The video features blink-182 performing in a hangar that is the world’s largest freestanding wooden structure. It was built in the 1940s to construct blimps. Mark Hoppus told Spinner:

It was just this really cool setting – the way that they lit it, the way that they shot it. It just had this really industrial yet organic feel to it. It was a good combination of the two because it is obviously a giant superstructure but because it’s wooden and because the way that they shot it with water on the ground, everything looked really organic as well.

Credits
Produced By
Additional Vocals
Bass Guitar
Lead Vocals
Assistant Recording Engineers
Recording Engineer
Engineer
Recorded At
Neverpants Ranch (San Diego, CA)
Release Date
September 6, 2011
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