You found me, you found me
Burning, burning in despair
You said then, "I know, dear
It has been a brutal year"
Take my shattered dreams
Wash them away, out with the tide
Take these shattered dreams
These shattered dreams of mine
Wash them away with the tide
Metal, water, wood
"Be like water"
You tell me, "Be like water"
Pull that horizon down
Pull that, pull that horizon down
Line that horizon up
Like the captain does with his instruments
Tell me, "Be like water"
Metal, water, wood
I feel like an imposter should
As you shape-shift through the Earth
You knew me as Fire
You have always been
Metal, water, wood
"Be like water"
You tell me, "Be like water"
Pull that horizon down
Pull that, pull that horizon down
Line that horizon up
Like the captain does with his instruments
Tell me, "Be like water"
Metal, water, wood
Take my shattered dreams
Wash them away, out with the tide
These unwanted pieces
Wash them away, out with the tide
Take these shattered dreams
These shattered dreams of mine
Wash them away with the tide
Metal, water, wood
Metal, water, wood
How to be like water?
Show me how to be like water
Metal, water, wood
Tori Quotes
"Metal Water Wood" is the first song I wrote for the record. Once that song came, it seemed like, "OK, this is the palette we're going to be working with and I have to be willing to be open." It was like the song was teaching me because a lyric from the song says: "He knew me as fire." And I've worked a lot with fire during my life - whether it's [the line] "just say yes, you little arsonist" from [my 1998 album] From the Choirgirl Hotel. I'm always burning something and I do think there's a side to me that's a secret arsonist. When I say that, I'm talking emotionally, not about destroying anything physically. [NME - September 20, 2021]
I think "Metal Water Wood" came first, and it acknowledged where I was with being fire and useless as a fire creature. It was just not working for me. The message from the muses was: Be like Bruce Lee, be like water. You need to then not do things like you've always done them, in that what you thought might work for you, what energy you thought would bring you to a place of a different frequency. I didn't like where my energy was. I was like "I don't want to be in that place of negativity and anger and destructiveness or victimhood."
That was the beginning, and nature called me outside. Even though it was winter and cold, but once I got out there and started watching how nature was just, I don't know, going through her cycles and paying attention and listening to it, I started to feel different things, and it started to shift my energy. The song started to say, "You have a choice to make, T. What energy feel do you want to be in? You need to sonically create it and step into it, and we will help you do it, but you have to make that choice." [Spin - October 25, 2021]
I knew I had to fight that despondent monster that can sit on our shoulder. I knew I had to fight it, but I didn't have the energy to fight it, and I didn't know how to fight it. I started looking up great fighters. I was drawn to Bruce Lee. He started talking about being like water. The advice from him was completely different than what I thought I would get from a master fighter. A side of your brain opens up that hasn't been opened before because I hadn't thought a fighter would think like that. The fluidity of what water can do and how it can be so calm and completely split rocks if it wants to and make an opening in a cave. That started to get me outside and into nature even though it was cold, and it was winter. I started to go out there. I realized that Mother Earth was not locked down. She was busy. She was transforming herself from winter into spring. I said, "Learn from her, Tori. That's what you need to do." [Scene - May 5, 2022]
