ABC/Randy HolmesOn AWOLNATION‘s new single “Handyman,” frontman Aaron Bruno sings “I’ll be your handyman”…but he doesn’t mean that literally.
“It’s funny, ’cause people who know me are like, ‘The last thing you are is a handyman,'” Bruno tells ABC Radio.
The musician admits that “can’t fix your engine if it blows up on the side of the road,” but he does feel he’s been a “good handyman emotionally for people.”
“I can help in those sort of ways,” he says. “Maybe with music, or just being someone who can listen, I guess.”
While “handyman” isn’t the first term Bruno would use to describe himself, he says that the music and lyrics for the song came to him very easily.
“Some songs take a minute to write, right?” Bruno explains. “You hit a wall or a speed bump and you have navigate through what’s gonna be cool, what’s gonna suck, and so forth and so on, [but] ‘Handyman’ just kinda came out of me.”
Beyond the metaphor of the title, “Handyman” is also song about wishing you could go back in time and fix any mistakes you’ve made in the past. The idea was partially inspired by Bruno’s favorite movie, Back to the Future.
“What would you do, who would you go to?” Bruno says of the song’s message. “Who’s that person you love so much that you wanna go help? Or could it be you? Would you go try to warn yourself of certain mistakes and how to fix things?”
“Handyman” appears on AWOLNATION’s new album Here Come the Runts, out now.
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