I am occasionally compelled to check out mainstream music media, in a similar manner that a grocery shopper standing in line peruses the tabloids. I am always struck by how infrequently the headlines actually have to do with music. Instead I typically find myself reading about the love lives, professional feuds, and fleeting tweets of pop artists, whom--I have to imagine--would much prefer that the general public care more about the fruits of their efforts as musicians than about who they're currently dating or which previous collaborator is currently pissed at them. "Circus" is my attempt to articulate the mainstream music industry's tendency to value on- and off-stage showmanship over music itself.

The song was written in my car over several commutes to and from work in my 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier. It was the winter of 2018, and the CD player in my car had abruptly decided to cease both playing and relinquishing the discs that had been crammed into its orifice over 18 years of servitude. In lieu of spending my commutes listening to one of the thousands of mixes I'd burned for myself, I turned to two alternatives: listening to the radio (an activity I tend to avoid, as a general rule--perhaps to a fault) and writing songs in my head. The former exposed me to the music of popular artists I'd previously never given the time of day, and while I may not be entirely converted from an Indie/Psych/Art Rock guy to a Mainstream Pop Music lover, I did discover something of a newfound appreciation for the content I'd overlooked due to my overall distain for the manner of presentation and promotion. The latter inevitably became informed by the subtle stylistic influence of and my inconsequential ruminations on the former, and thus was the song "Circus" born.