There is a particular authority that comes from writing about addiction only after actually surviving it, and Addict carries exactly that hard-earned credibility throughout its runtime. Cody Carlyle and Travis Jordan, the two men behind Until They Burn Me, built this track from more than thirty-five years of shared history together, a partnership that predates recovery entirely and traces back through genuinely difficult years spent homeless, addicted, and playing music together in their former band The Dry Season, surviving in sheds, on the streets, and out in the wilderness before either man found their way toward the recovery they now both live within.
That considerable shared history gives Addict a weight few songs about substance dependency can genuinely claim. This is not observation from a safe outside distance, but rather direct testimony from two people who lived inside exactly the paradox the song actually examines, the strange and genuinely painful experience of simultaneously loving and hating the very thing slowly destroying you. Carlyle and Jordan have described writing without any particular outside artist or song serving as direct influence, choosing instead to let genuinely heartfelt lyrics regarding addiction of all types guide the track’s actual construction from the ground up.
Musically, the song deliberately reaches back toward garage and skate rock from the late eighties and early nineties, carrying what the duo describes as a subtle nod toward early Faith No More specifically. That particular sonic choice matters considerably for how Addict actually functions as listening experience, since building genuinely difficult, painful subject matter around nostalgic, familiar musical territory creates real tension between comfort and content. Listeners drawn toward that specific era’s sound, particularly those who grew up during the eighties and nineties themselves, get pulled into genuinely familiar sonic territory before the lyrics gradually reveal considerably heavier emotional weight than that nostalgic musical framing might initially suggest.
The song’s central lyric captures that particular paradox with real precision, describing sleeping in flames while feeling incapable of doing anything wrong, burning twice as bright but only half as long. That image, drawn directly from Carlyle and Jordan’s own personal recovery journeys, articulates something genuinely difficult toward express about active addiction specifically, the seductive, dangerous sensation of feeling invincible precisely while actively destroying yourself. That kind of psychological complexity requires genuine lived understanding toward render convincingly, and the specificity of that particular lyric suggests real personal excavation rather than more generic, secondhand observation regarding addiction’s actual emotional texture.
What distinguishes Until They Burn Me within considerable contemporary music addressing addiction and recovery specifically is their explicit choice toward avoiding easy moralizing or simplified cautionary framing. Rather than presenting addiction purely as something to be condemned or overcome through simple willpower, Addict apparently sits directly inside that genuine contradiction, acknowledging love alongside hatred, seduction alongside destruction, without collapsing that complexity into more comfortable, easily digestible narrative.
The duo’s actual working process reflects genuine dedication extending well beyond typical collaborative songwriting circumstances. Operating from separate home studios specifically in Ferndale, Washington, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Carlyle and Jordan can only physically reunite a couple times annually, meaning the considerable majority of their actual collaborative work happens across genuine geographic distance. They have described this process directly as long, slow, and often painful, yet apparently necessary given their current life circumstances. That considerable logistical difficulty, choosing to continue creating together despite genuine distance and limited physical collaboration time, speaks toward real commitment extending from their original shared history through their current creative partnership.
There is something worth noting in how directly this considerable distance mirrors something about recovery itself, sustained commitment maintained despite genuine difficulty, continued effort toward connection even when circumstances make that connection considerably harder than it might otherwise be. Two men who survived homelessness and addiction together, now separated by considerable geographic distance yet still choosing toward create honest, difficult music together across that distance, reflects genuine parallel toward the broader themes their music actually explores.
Until They Burn Me operates exclusively as recording project specifically, choosing not toward pursue live performance given the genuine logistical challenges their geographic separation presents. That decision reflects practical realism regarding their actual circumstances rather than any lack of genuine musical ambition, focusing their considerable creative energy specifically toward crafting authentic, carefully constructed recorded material rather than attempting toward maintain a touring or live performance schedule their current life circumstances would make genuinely difficult toward sustain.
What ultimately gives Addict its genuine power is understanding how thoroughly the song’s actual creation process mirrors its own difficult subject matter. Just as addiction and recovery both require sustained effort across considerable time and genuine difficulty, Carlyle and Jordan’s actual songwriting process demands similar patience and commitment, working slowly and carefully across genuine distance toward create something honest rather than settling for something easier or more immediately convenient.
By channeling more than three decades of shared history, including genuinely difficult years of shared addiction and homelessness, into music built around nostalgic garage rock familiarity wrapped around considerably painful lyrical honesty, Until They Burn Me has created something that succeeds specifically through its hard-won authenticity. Addict does not offer easy resolution or simple recovery narrative. Instead, it sits honestly inside addiction’s genuine contradiction, trusting listeners who have faced similar darkness toward recognize something true within that difficult, carefully articulated paradox, and trusting that recognition itself might offer something closer toward genuine comfort than any tidier, more simplified alternative ever could.
