Singled Out: Chambers' Ripper

"Ripper" is one of the few songs on the album where the lyrics were written AFTER the rest of the music. I usually adapt my scratch lyrics and poems to fit over the music. On "Ripper," however, I wrote the chorus lyrics while visiting some friends in upstate New York and later improvised the verses my first practice back with the band. I usually hate writing lyrics "on the spot" and feel it usually compromises my creativity in lyricism, but it worked in this instance. "Ripper" is a term I picked up back in New Brunswick from some of the older dudes around town. In a nutshell, it's a person who parties hard, lives passionately, and doesn't let the bastards grind them down.

The lyrics are about how I'm hated as much as I'm loved. I have a pretty strong personality and it's not for everyone. I've stepped on a lot of toes getting to where I needed to go. The song is also about how I simply can't be bothered with people that don't "get" me. I sometimes feel like I don't truly belong anywhere, but I'm fine with it because I like who I am. This is referenced in the chorus lyric, "It goes to show I come from a place nobody really knows and I don't care if I have to always call my home nowhere."

Furthermore, it's about not accommodating others when it compromises one being oneself and thereby coming off as abrasive and arrogant. The lyric, "I'm piss poor at consideration and expert at ego masturbation," is a tongue-in-cheek play on that concept as if I myself am intentionally being inconsiderate by being myself in order to stroke my ego!

I guess the ultimate point of the song is to be an anthem for those who have been ostracized for being different but shrug it off and usually have more fun than their critics.