What does Fireflies mean?

Owl City: Fireflies Meaning

Album cover for Fireflies album cover

Song Released: 2009


Fireflies Lyrics

You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
Cause they fill the open air,
And leave teardrops everywhere,you'd think me rude but I would just stand, and stare

I'd like to make myself...

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 4th 2015 !⃝

    You could interpret the speaker as a mature one, for mature people have usually done guilty things. Theft, lies, hate, children wouldn't know any of this. Basically, the speaker wishes he could go back to a time where he can believe that "planet earth turns lowly" but he knows that's not true. He wants to go to a time where, "everything is never as it seems."
    Its likely he could be reffering to both childhood innocence and something similar to astroprojection.
    All in all, thnk if the speaker of a stressed out loner who wants time to go slower so he can do silly things like dance with fireflies, or at least let him enjoy such in his dreams

  2. anonymous
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    Dec 1st 2014 !⃝

    Astral projection. Nothing else.

  3. anonymous
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    Nov 22nd 2014 !⃝

    I absolutely agree that this is based on Astral Projection. "Its hard to say that I'd rather stay, awake when I'm asleep. Because everything is never as it seems." That sentence right there is evidence of it. Astral Projection is having full conciousness while sleeping and traveling across different realms and experiencing the wonders of the world. Your welcome :)

  4. anonymous
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    Nov 16th 2014 !⃝

    I think personaly that the song is about his dreams, and his wish to escape reality. TO forget about thing else and just to dream. and it feels like time is moving too fast for him to understand any of it. that all these moments are gone, after you blink.

  5. anonymous
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    Oct 26th 2014 !⃝

    I feel like this song is about his fans.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
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    Aug 23rd 2014 !⃝

    I couldn't agree more with the astral projection theory... it was the very first thing that occurred to me when I looked into the lyrics and to add value to my opinion I knew of the song but not well enough to know the lyrics completely .. recently I have been practicing dream recall in order to help in been able to practice lucid dream/astral projection... just last week when I awoke from my sleep woke with this song on my mind and had been hearing/singing it during a dream!!... it was for that reason I looked into the lyrics as I could only remember a line or two from the song.... for me that's evidence enough that it is all about the astral plane... the songs content made that even more applicable. Had I not dreamt of singing this particular song I would still be of the same opinion... it is more than obvious this is about the Astral realm...

  7. anonymous
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    Aug 6th 2014 !⃝

    This song is about an out of body experience, or so called "astral projection", astral projection is when you are asleep but your mind is awake and it forms an energy that allows you to leave your body and do what ever you want so to speak. The first part of astral projection is leaving the body and entering the room you are sleeping in, the room is lit up and everything is sparkling, hence "fire flys" the lyrics "I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep" comes into concept with the mind being awake and the body being asleep, the lyrics " id like to make my self believe that planet earth turns" is stating the second phase of astral projection, doing what ever you want. In this case he wanted to visit outer space. Research my facts if you want to ;)

  8. anonymous
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    May 13th 2014 !⃝

    I've tried to rack my brain about what this song means and I've gone through a bottle headache medicine doing it. I listened to it once just for fun not really caring anymore, I just stopped thinking about it and it hit me. I just had to let it be what it is, and I think that's the meaning of the song. You just gotta let things be what they are because the closer you look at it the less of it you see. Like in the movie "Now You See Me" the closer into the show you look the less you see, only when you sit back and watch it from a distance well you see the truth. The truth well crawl to you in it's own time half the time, the other half you have to chase it.

  9. anonymous
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    Feb 21st 2014 !⃝

    It's about the night and insomnia. Because, insomniacs (like me) are usually up past midnight, no matter if its because they are not tired or they can't go to sleep. So you usually have to think of something fun to do, and this is him talking about just always being awake for 15+ hours a day usually, and to give all you got when you have to make your own fun at night.

  10. anonymous
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    Jan 15th 2014 !⃝

    Clearly insomnia makes the most sense, given the context of the writer's circumstance (meaning in songs, Christian background, professed insomnia) astral projection seems unlikely. It's also worth noting that it would be very difficult to astroproject if you can't sleep. Astroprojection usually involves serenity and an almost meditative state, hardly something a restless insomniac could achieve. However if one is using LSD or even other psychedelic substances that would account for the projection and possibly the insomnia as well.

  11. anonymous
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    Dec 2nd 2013 !⃝

    I believe this song is about the artist trying to hold on to his innocence and how he wishes he could still do childlike things like catch fireflies.

  12. anonymous
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    Nov 3rd 2013 !⃝

    Not wanting to wake from dreams.

  13. anonymous
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    Aug 23rd 2013 !⃝

    it make a lot of sense for it to be about lucid dream.

  14. anonymous
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    May 30th 2013 !⃝

    Stupid.. This all isn't about his Child Innocence and Insomnia and stuff.
    It's about his experience during his Astral Projection. All he said was about astral projection. Most of his songs were based on his experience in Astral Projection or Lucid Dreaming. You guys should know Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming first. It's not his insomnia. He's not crazy. He just have a high imagination which makes him go to a higher realm in the Astral Plane that's why his songs are all extraordinary and is about dreams. And yes, I've experienced it too. You guys should try to understand your inner self first and your mind. It's so obvious that this is about astral projection. Most of his songs are about his experiences on astral projections.

  15. anonymous
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    Apr 18th 2013 !⃝

    I agree with those who say that this song is about child like innocence. On other sites I have seen interpretations that have to do with astral projection and other things that have roots in East Asian religion, but this is not true because Adam Young(The one who founded the band and writes These songs) is a Christian so he wouldn't be writing about stuff like that. But Christianity does have lots of things about children being precious to God, so the child like innocence makes much more sense.




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