The overall message is one of leaning into discomfort. The lyrics are about embracing pain because it helps you grow as a person and serves to make you stronger.
A Tribute to Pain
“You made me a, you made me a believer, believer / (Pain, pain) / You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer”
The words to this song are highly personal to Dan Reynolds, singer-songwriter and lead vocalist of Imagine Dragons. He’s said that they reflected the state of mind he was in when he wrote the lyrics.
“A lot of my greatest strengths are due to my greatest weaknesses or flaws or physical ailments. It brought me discipline, gratitude and compassion. The song is about how pain made me a believer”
In an interview with People Magazine, Reynolds said, “It’s made me a believer in myself, it’s made me a believer in my art and work. I wouldn’t have my art if it wasn’t for pain. It takes somewhat of a healthy place to appreciate it because when you’re in the midst of it you don’t appreciate it. You’re just upset.”
He also said in a YouTube video, “It’s a song of self-struggle and kind of feeling like you’ve beat yourself up a lot, but it also has brought you to your greatest successes in life. And so then it was like, okay, maybe it’s going to be an older version of myself that’s kind of beating a younger version of himself up and kind of that wrestle that happens within the conscious. And then we were like, well, this record Feel, has a lot of 80s themes, and it felt like we always, like, cult sticky kind of stuff.”
Confessional
“First things first / I’ma say all the words inside my head / I’m fired up and tired of / The way that things have been, oh-ooh”
In the first verse, he points out that everything to follow is a confession. There’s more truth beneath the superficial meaning of these lyrics, and this opening puts the rest into a different context. By starting things off in this way, Reynolds adds layers to the meaning to how you could interpret everything that comes after. He also notes how the feeling has been building up in him for some time now. It’s not a new issue, and he’s finally ready to speak his piece.
“Second things second / Don’t you tell me what you think that I could be / I’m the one at the sail / I’m the master of my sea, oh-ooh”
The analogy of seafaring represents the process of mastering yourself as you deal with tribulations. More specifically, Reynolds alludes here to “Invictus,” a Victorian poem written in 1888 by William Ernest Henley. The original poem goes, “I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.”
Mourning the Plight of the Youth
“I was broken from a young age / Taking my sulkin’ to the masses / Writing my poems for the few / That look at me, took to me, shook at me, feelin’ me”
In this pre-chorus, he goes into, how poorly young people are prepared to deal with painful experiences. The tendency is to hide it as best you can, while artists like Reynolds put their feelings into words and share them with a small circle of people who understand them.
Lyrics
First things first
I’ma say all the words inside my head
I’m fired up and tired of the way that things have been, oh-ooh
The way that things have been, oh-ooh
Second thing second
Don’t you tell me what you think that I could be
I’m the one at the sail, I’m the master of my sea, oh-ooh
The master of my sea, oh-ooh
I was broken from a young age
Taking my sulking to the masses
Writing my poems for the few
That look at me, took to me, shook to me, feeling me
Singing from heartache from the pain
Taking my message from the veins
Speaking my lesson from the brain
Seeing the beauty through the…
Pain!
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Pain!
You break me down and build me up, believer, believer
Pain!
Oh, let the bullets fly, oh, let them rain
My life, my love, my drive, it came from…
Pain!
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
First things first
Can you imagine what’s about to happen?
It’s Weezy the Dragon, I link with the Dragons
And we gon’ get ratchet, no need for imaginin’
This is what’s happenin’
Second thing second, I reckon immaculate
Sound about accurate
I know that strength, it don’t come, don’t come without strategy
I know the sweet, it don’t come without cavities
I know the passages come with some traffic
I start with from the basement, end up in the attic
And third thing third
Whoever call me out, they simply can’t count
Let’s get mathematic, I’m up in this, huh
Is you a believer?
I get a unicorn out of a zebra
I wear my uniform like a tuxedo
This dragon don’t hold his breath, don’t need no breather
Love you Ms. Cita, the son of a leader
I know the bloomin’ don’t come without rain
I know the losin’ don’t come without shame
I know the beauty don’t come without hurt
Hol’ up, hol’ up, last thing last
I know that Tunechi don’t come without Wayne
I know that losin’ don’t come without game
I know that glory don’t come without…
Don’t come without…
Pain!
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Pain!
You break me down and build me up, believer, believer
Pain
Oh, let the bullets fly, oh, let them rain
My life, my love, my drive, it came from…
Pain!
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Last things last
By the grace of fire and flames
You’re the face of the future, the blood in my veins, oh-ooh
The blood in my veins, oh-ooh
But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing
Inhibited, limited ’til it broke open and rained down
It rained down, like…
Pain!
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Pain!
You break me down and build me up, believer, believer
Pain
Oh, let the bullets fly, oh, let them rain
My life, my love, my drive, it came from…
Pain!
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Benjamin Arthur Mckee / Daniel Coulter Reynolds / Daniel Wayne Sermon / Mattias Per Larsson / Robin Lennart Fredriksson / Daniel James Platzman / Justin Drew Tranter
Believer lyrics © Ma-jay Publishing, Imagine Dragons Publishing, Songs For Kidinakorner, Wolf Cousins, Songs Of Universal Inc.
