“Family Line” by Conan Gray

There’s no way to quantify just how many of us have suffered through traumatic childhoods, because most victims of such trauma don’t tend to talk about it in public. In the grand scheme of things, it probably isn’t good to keep all of that hurt in, and professional musicians like Conan Gray are in a unique position to really have their voices heard. 

Many of them, when dropping songs like “Family Line”, explain the process of doing so as being cathartic. And some of such cases, as in this track, read as if they are intimately personal, even though the vocalist doesn’t really get into exquisite detail as to what he went through as a child.

Lyrics of “Family Line”

The nature of “Family Line” is twofold. On one hand, yes, Conan is using the opportunity as detailed above to tell his story. Later in the song, the singer acknowledges having made a conscientious attempt, also as many other victims of childhood trauma do, to forget about the past. However, said attempts have failed, so now he has to be content with the acknowledgment that he is not the same as his former abuser, who is implied to be his father.

But beyond that, Gray also seems to recognize that in the grand scheme of it all, things are not that cut-and-dried. So, as you likely already know, a phrase like “family line” is generally used to point to the concept of lineage. And the chorus of this song finds the vocalist noting certain traits that he inherited, such as the ability to effectively lie, which ‘came from his mother’s side’. 

But interestingly as for his dad, the only thing he actually notes directly picking up from him in the chorus is his “eyes”. And that simple observation would imply, as buttressed by certain parts of the lyrics, that the only similarities Conan feels he shares with his father are physical ones.

And that probably isn’t true since we, as also implied in these very lyrics, tend to pick up internal characteristics from our parents also. But such can ultimately be gleaned as the thesis sentiment of this piece, i.e. the vocalist being totally unable to relate to his pops due to the way he treated their family.

Credits

“Family Line” was produced and co-written by Dan Nigro, with Conan Gray being the song’s other author. It should be stated that Nigro and Conan have a very long working relationship. For example, Nigro co-produced Gray’s 2020 song titled “Heather“, which is Gray’s most successful single to date.

Release Date of “Family Line”

You can find this track on Gray’s “Superache” album, which Republic Records put out on 24 June 2022. “Superache” was preceded by five singles. “Family Line” wasn’t one of these singles (which are listed below).

• “Jigsaw“
• “Memories”
• “Yours”
• “Astronomy”
• “People Watching”

Interesting to Note:

This song isn’t the first time Conan is touching on his less-than-ideal upbringing in the past. In fact his first LP, 2020’s “Kid Krow”, was based on such a theme.