Singled Out: Breakup Shoes' Universal

10-10-2025

Arizona indie rockers Breakup Shoes just released their brand new album "Standing Still", and to celebrate we asked guitarist/vocalist Nick Zawisa to tell us about the song "Universal". Here is the story:

"Universal" was one of those songs that was written really quickly. I was watching a basketball game and had the uniquely American pleasure of watching about 1,000 pharmaceutical commercials in between gameplay.

There's a theme to these ads: brightly colored, slow-motion shots of people smiling while doing various activities thanks to whatever pharma-giant's miracle drug.

This particular ad was for an allergy medication and depicted a person finally being able to smell flowers while looking truly euphoric, so much so that I remember thinking that I would love to someday be that happy.

So, I started with the lyric "so I'll stop and smell the flowers, drive around for a couple hours, sing along to the radio like I'm in a commercial"; and the song flowed from there.

It's about the ways in which we all conform to avoid feeling alone, to feel like we belong to something. The whole song and arrangement were written by the end of halftime and I went back to the couch to watch the second half of yet another Phoenix Suns loss.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here