Chris DeLine

Approach Influenza as a series which serves to help give insight as to where music is born; these are the thoughts, influences and the inspirations directly from the mind of the artists. Here, Ian Anderson of Minneapolis’ One For The Team dissects the spiral of thoughts which formed the theme to one of the group’s most recent singles from their latest release, Build It Up.

On “Best Supporting Actor”:

I wrote “Best Supporting Actor” after one of my buddies drunkenly slapped me on the back and said, “Ya know dude, you’re a really good boyfriend.” I always thought it was a funny thing to say to someone, because, after all, how would he know? I mean, sure, he may have formed that opinion based on the stellar boyfriend-ish things I’ve done for my lady, but he wouldn’t really know the intimate details. However, there was more to it. He continued to explain that I was almost such a good boyfriend, that it was a fault. That I ended up neglecting my needs and own well-being in order to put the relationship first. This shocked me and we began to dissect my role in my bf-gf relationship at the time. I came to realize that, in fact, I moved my life around quite a bit to accommodate the relationship.

Granted, all relationships require a certain level of sacrifice and compromise, but as I started to tally up the major events of the relationship, I started to feel less like a great boyfriend, and more like a big pushover. This song is a bit about self-deprecation, but it’s also about learning to be honest with myself within the context of a relationship. [Ian Anderson]

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]