In this episode, Dustin Lovelis of Long Beach, CA’s The Fling tells the story behind their song “Devil’s Man.” The Fling’s album “When the Madhouses Appear” comes out on August 31.

I wrote the song, “Devil’s Man” shortly after my girlfriend left for Africa for a couple months.  It’s mostly about me trying to figure out how to spend my time while she was away.  I felt kind of stranded.  I wrote it in my room at like 4am.  I was feeling pretty weird and couldn’t sleep so I just got up and jotted down some lyrics.  They just came out really straight forward and honest.  I usually try to make lyrics a little more cryptic and imaginative, but I thought the first draft of the lyrics for that song really described the way I was feeling at the time.  I remember recording it the next day and showing a friend and they were like, “are you sure about this, it’s pretty heavy, and dark.”  I was skeptical about it being offensive or too much at first, but I just realized some a my favorite songs are brutally honest.  It didn’t hurt that I was listening to a lot of Townes Van Zandt at the time too.  Everyone has a dark side I guess.

Here are the lyrics to Devil’s Man:

I am a crucifix
I mix my burdens in a glass
I am a tired soul with no place else to go

I am a holocaust
Destroying everything I see
I can see in you what you cannot see in me

And I can do without, nobody else but you

I am a tourniquet
Down at the bottom of the well
Ill stop the bleeding, but Ill make it hurt like hell

I am Iscariot
Ill do my lying with my hands
Start out a saint to become the Devil’s man

And I can do without, nobody else but you