Matt Maeson released “The Mask” on December 12, 2018, after teasing the single’s cover art ten days before. He also released a live acoustic performance that had been recorded in a supposedly haunted bunker under Brooklyn.
[Verse 1]
Well, I felt the burn
Since the day you departed and talked from the tomb
I'm still healing those wounds
And it holds me down
But made me a man that says
"Fuck all those rules, I will be who I choose"
It's a lonely road
With one grip on several psalms and one grip on the gun
And it holds the rope
That spins me in circles and dizzies my head
Then says, "Sleep when you're dead"
[Verse 2]
Were you ever here?
Or just lost on the surface that at the first touch just evades in the dust
And it pulled me down
And showed me my demons lined up in a sequence, forming a crowd
It was so long
With a piece of happy home that they stripped from the bone
I did not react
I settled my grievance by crafting a mask
And I never looked back
[Bridge]
Tell me what you know
I'm in deeper than I've ever been
I will never grow
While this anchor is chained to my feet
Tell me what you know
I'm in deeper than I've ever been
I will never grow
While this anchor is chained to my feet
[Outro]
Tell me what you know
I settled my grievance by crafting a mask
And I never looked...
I will never grow
I settled my grievance by crafting a mask
And I never looked...
Tell me what you know
I settled my grievance by crafting a mask
And I never looked...
I will never grow
I settled my grievance by crafting a mask
And I never looked back
The Mask was written by James Flannigan & Matt Maeson.
The Mask was produced by James Flannigan.
Matt Maeson released The Mask on Wed Dec 12 2018.
Via an Atlantic Records Press Release:
“The Mask” is about how everybody has a mask they wear and how that always roots back to something—some point in your life where you started pretending, and then eventually started believing that’s who you really are.