linoleum King - 90s Alternative Rock, College Rock

I always wanted to tell a story that mixed the glamorous appearance of an apparently perfect life with the emptiness it can hide. This song was born from the idea of a young cruise ship entertainer who travels the world, experiences different cultures, and lives intense adventures, but gradually realizes that all that partying is just a facade. He starts out hating the hierarchy and the grueling hours, but gives in to excess, fleeting romances, and drugs, until the very setting starts to suffocate him. In the end, he realizes he is selling happiness to others while losing his own, and decides he wants to feel solid ground again. The sound was designed to create that exact same contrast. I drew direct inspiration from R.E.M. during their Out of Time era, that college rock played on the radio with jangly guitars, mandolin, and a melody that sounds cheerful but carries a deep melancholy underneath. I wanted the song to sound like one of those tracks you listen to in the car on a sunny afternoon and sing along to, but when you pay attention to the lyrics, you realize it is talking about loneliness, exhaustion, and the feeling of being trapped in a beautiful place that no longer belongs to you. The title, Linoleum King, pretty much sums up this idea. Linoleum is that cheap synthetic flooring that covers the ship corridors, and the protagonist is the king of a place that is not even real. He runs a party that is not his, smiles at people who will forget his name, and lives in a floating bubble made of plastic and illusion. When he finally decides to step off the ship and walk onto the pier, it is like he is choosing reality, even if it is less shiny, just so he can feel something real again.