Story Behind The Song

I wrote this thinking about how many people are working flat out and still feel like they're losing ground. The driver in the song does everything you're supposed to do and still can't get ahead, which felt like a story worth telling. I picked a gig driver on purpose. It's a job where you literally get paid by the mile, with no benefits and no safety net, so every shift is just trading distance for money. The line about "huntin' tips and stars" is about that strange pressure of needing the tips to pay the bills and the ratings to keep the job at all. The family is what holds the whole thing together. Each chorus the household gets a little bigger and the pressure gets a little worse, from two mouths to feed, to a lost job, to a baby coming in six weeks. The bridge is where he finally says out loud what he's been thinking, that maybe life is just surviving now. But the song doesn't end on giving up. It ends on him starting the car again, because someone needs him to. Mostly it's meant as a tip of the hat to people who keep showing up for their families even when it never quite works out on paper, the ones still driving while everyone around them looks settled.

Song Description

"Drivin' to Get By" follows a young father who spends his nights behind the wheel. The rent on his one-bedroom is too high, the coffee's instant, the bagel's stale, and the bills keep coming whether the money's there or not. He's not in trouble because he's careless. He's in trouble because the numbers just don't add up, no matter how many hours he puts in.Things get harder when his partner loses her job after only two weeks off, and suddenly everything rests on him and what he can earn at ten cents a mile. By the end of the song there's a third kid on the way, and the same paycheck that was already stretched thin has to cover one more person.The thing the song keeps circling back to is that he's always moving but never really getting anywhere. There are posters of mountains on his wall he knows he'll never see. He tells himself his future is coming later, but part of him isn't sure it ever will. He keeps going anyway, mostly because there's no other choice when people depend on you.

Lyrics

Verse 1
Radiator clicks and hums - it keeps tryin' to wake me up
In this one-bedroom downtown where rent's too high.
Coffee's ready in an instant, last week's bagel's gettin' stale
But the bills won't pay themselves - we're barely scrapin' by.

Chorus
Huntin' tips and stars under city lights,
Every day a little further behind.
Two mouths are fed, but there's no slack in the line,
So I grab the wheel and drive.
Everyone is settling down, while I'm just drivin' to get by.

Verse 2
Her car ain't moved since April -- just a run to the store.
Two weeks was all they gave her - before showin' her the door.
So it's all gonna be on me now, at ten cents for every mile.
Livin' this close to the edge, you don't sleep much at night.

Chorus
Huntin' tips and stars under city lights,
Every day a little further behind.
Two mouths are fed, but there's no slack in the line,
So I grab the wheel and drive.
Everyone is settling down, while I'm just drivin' to get by.

Bridge
Posters on the wall have mountains I will never see.
My future waits for later, but it hasn't come for me.
Late at night I wonder if life is just surviving.
But there's one more mouth in six weeks, so I keep on driving.

Final Chorus
Huntin' tips and stars under city lights,
Every day a little further behind.
Three mouths to feed now, with no slack in the line,
So I grab the wheel and drive.
Everyone else is settling down, I'm just drivin' to get by.