The youthful angst of unreciprocated love, skewed timing, and searching for opiates to ease the anxiety is all captured in Brooklyn-based punk band Citris’ new song, “Driving Me Crazy.” Like much of Citris’ repertoire, it’s an upfront confrontation of the complexities of communication and treatment within relationships. “Driving Me Crazy” is the musical equivalent of frustratingly kicking a wall and screaming into a pillow, albeit singer and guitarist Angelina Torreano was a lot more chill when she wrote in: In her living room at 2 AM, totally stoned.
The first verse begins with a melodious acoustic guitar over which Torreano meticulously explores her own feelings, with musings like, “You were my favorite lover / You kept the city fun / Now I get real high / I guess I’m sort of bummed,” and “Now I’m cold and sober.”
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Almost haphazardly, the chorus lurches into a new tempo, with a steadily-strummed blistering electric guitar and Torreano wailing, “You’re driving me crazy.” It’s a righteous sentiment on her part, as the inspiration behind the song is based on an utterly perplexing relationship with a guy that went to one of her shows and wrote her love poems. In Torreano’s description accompanying the song, she said:
“Driving Me Crazy” is about the attack on your ego and self-esteem after experiencing rejection from a partner. It’s also about having a definitive ending, but still feeling unresolved. It’s a very classic theme of the death of romance and how unsettling it can be and how there are so many questions left unanswered.
I had an experience with a dude who hit on me during a show upstate and he wrote me this really sweet “love” poem after seeing our show. We eventually dated, for a month or so and I kept receiving love poems from him that, at first, really freaked me out. I eventually grew to really like him, but then of course once I started liking him, he freaked out.
Long story short, things ended because of how emotionally overwhelming everything was becoming. But when you’re constantly writing poetry to your “lover,” aren’t you kind of begging for that kind of intensity in reciprocity?
So in an effort to release hurt feelings, I smoked some weed and wrote “Driving Me Crazy.” Marijuana is a really great asset to breakups as well.
I think it’s important to me because the whole experience was really upsetting. Even though it was short, it reminded me of how, even though a lot of the time I feel I have this hard exterior, I am actually quite vulnerable. And, ultimately, it’s a relief. So yeah, like I said, I was hurt and stoned and in my living room at 1 or 2 a.m. messing around with some major 7 chords and DMC was born. I remember my roommate imitating the chorus line back to me from his room. I felt like that was a good sign.
