“And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman” by Dance Gavin Dance
Some analysts have put forth that “And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman” is about an unreciprocated love, with the addressee being the vocalist’s romantic interest.
Such appears to be the only explanation of this track readily available on the internet and understandably so, because the lyrics absolutely do not make any type of overtly-cohesive sense.
But there are discernible moments here and there. For example, it is reasonable to conclude that the addressee is a romance interest because, even if only briefly, Jonny does refer to her as “girl” throughout the third verse.
And the fifth verse, which is the longest, does feature the vocalist forthrightly stating that he will “die for” this girl. This does sound something a person would say to another they’re completely in love with, since the lyrics don’t come off as if this is a familial relationship per se. Though at the same time, the wording is so ambiguous that for all we know, it could be.
Is this song really about unreciprocated love?
Concerning the theory that this is a case of unreciprocated love, to reiterate the lyrics are too symbolic – or however you want to put it – to come to such a solid conclusion.
What is ascertainable is that this relationship does have some issues, especially as far as the addressee is concerned, since the vocalist uses certain metaphors more or less related to death in describing her.
But at the beginning of this song, he also describes himself as being “cold”. And then, the whole piece closes out with him chiming in on ‘the soul of his brother’ and speaking to karma, or something like that. Meanwhile, said “brother” is not seemingly mentioned or openly referred to anywhere else in the lyrics.
Takeaway
So what may be the case is this song being based on a real-life experience that one or more members of Dance Gavin Dance actually went through.
Songs that are directly inspired by a singer/songwriter’s personal history tend to generally be more complex than those in which the vocalist is taking on a character. But as for the intricacies of what may have transpired, that’s basically up to the listener’s imagination to piece together.
For instance, it’s anyone’s guess as to why this song is titled the way it is. (Though perhaps it should be noted that Times New Roman is the name of a popular font derived from newspaper print, and there are mention of ‘file cabinets’ in this song, maybe implying that the addressee works for such a publication?)
But what does seem to be going down, most simply put, is the singer trying to rectify his troubled relationship with a woman he loves.
Release Date of “And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman”
This track is from “Downtown Battle Mountain”, the first album that Dance Gavin Dance, a band from Sacramento, put out. And that was done so, courtesy of Rise Records, on the date of 15 May 2007.
Credits for “And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman”
At the time this song came out the Dance Gavin Dance crew was pretty deep. It was held down by the following:
- Jonny Craig (vocalist)
- Jon Mess (vocalist)
- Sean O’Sullivan (guitarist)
- Will Swan (guitarist)
- Eric Lodge (bassist)
- Matt Mingus (drummer)
And it is Mingus, Mess, Craig and Swan who wrote this track, with its producer being Kris Crummett.
