"cardigan (voice memo)" Lyrics

So over the years
A lot of people have asked me to
Sort of describe my song writing process
From beginning to end
How long does it take, where do you write
What are the circumstances, do you start with music
Do you start with lyrics?
Uhm, and, you know my answer is always
That it happens differently every time
And that's why I'm still so in love with song writing
So what I've done here is shown you three different examples
Of, uhm, the beginning stages of these songs and how they each started, different ways
So I'll explain them to you
And maybe that will help you understand kind of how I put songs together

I sent this voice memo to Ryan Tedder
Because I'd always wanted to work with him
And finally we scheduled some studio time
So I always wanna be prepared
I wanted to send him the idea that I was working on
Before we went into the studio just in case he wrote back
And said "I can't stand that, I wanna work on something else
Think of something else"
So I just sat down with the piano
Put my phone on top of the piano
And just kind of explained to him
Where I wanted to go with the song
How I saw the melody sitting in
And we ended up recording the song the next day
And it ended up being on the record called "I Know Places"
So this was the voice memo that I sent to him
The night before we ended up finishing the song

"Okay so this is kind of this rough idea thing

Uh-uh-uh-oh, oh-oh-oh-i
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-i
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-i-i-i

Na na na na waiting at the back door
They're around and the vultures come around
And you know then they want, they want us
Say what they want 'bout, say what they want 'bout us
And you come and sing and listen
I would not think about it but I'm not done
Every know that a thing or two about it
Thing or two about it, I

'Cause they got the cages, they got the boxes
And guns
They are the hunters, we are the foxes
And we run

Baby, I know some places we won't be found
And they'll be chasing their tails trying to track us down
'Cause I, I know places we can hide
I know places, I know places

Uh-uh-uh-i, uh-uh-uh-i, oh-oh-i, uh-uh-uh-i, know places

Or whatever I don't know
But that's basically just like a dark, really dark, like
Uhm, lyric like bridge thing
And it's about like everyone is like trying to get into
And like ruin a love or whatever
And it's like you just, whatever, you know
Uhm, and the chorus would just go to that major
And just be like 'ooh chorus
Uhm, so I hope you like it, it wouldn't be a piano thing
It'd be like 'uhm, tsk, uhm, tsk uhm like very like beat
Now, I'm just making weird sounds
Hope you like it