Pumped Up Kicks Lyrics

"Pumped Up Kicks"

Robert's got a quick hand.
He'll look around the room, he won't
tell you his plan.
He's got a rolled cigarette, hanging out his mouth, he's a cowboy kid.
Yeah, he found a six shooter gun.
In his dad's closet hidden with a box of fun things, and I don't even know what.
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you.


[Chorus: x2]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

Daddy works a long day.
He'll be coming home late, he's coming home late.
And he's bringing me a surprise.
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice.
I've waited for a long time.
Yeah the sleight of my hand is now a quick-pull trigger,
I reason with my cigarette,
And say, "Your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah."

[Chorus: x2]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

[Whistling]

[Chorus: x4]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

Although the song itself is quite upbeat and dancey, the lyrics actually add a really dark meaning to the song. It is basically about a psychotic teenager who wants to kill everyone and many have speculated that it is actually about the Robert Hawkings shootings. Mark Foster himself has said, "'Pumped Up Kicks' is about a kid that basically is losing his mind and is plotting revenge. He's an outcast. I feel like the youth in our culture are becoming more and more isolated. It's kind of an epidemic. Instead of writing about victims and some tragedy, I wanted to get into the killer's mind, like Truman Capote did in In Cold Blood. I love to write about characters. That's my style. I really like to get inside the heads of other people and try to walk in their shoes."

The phrase, 'Pumped Up Kicks' actually refers to the Reebok trainers that were popular in America in the 80's/90's which had a pump at the back which added extra air into the shoe for "an extra lift," the lyrics are saying that those who can afford 'pumped up kicks' should run from the psycho killer. Its an indirect threat.

So that our music video actually relates to the title of the song, we are creating a character for our music video that is slightly psychotic and as well as this we are planning to create a montage of different 'kicks,' our music video is going to be a mix of shots that are relavant to the story line behind the title/song, and some shots of the band touring and generally being laddish.

To create the look of the band touring, we are planning to take some shots of the boys in the car, we want it to look similar to the shots that are used in the Arctic Monkeys video to 'R U Mine'

We like the handheld effect of this video because it makes the band seem more independent and the simplicity of the band holding the camera and miming whilst still making the video entertaining to watch inspired us to want to use similar shots.