A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son

As I entered high school in 201, at the peak of my scene phase, I had just discovered a band called Sleeping With Sirens. At the time, if you listened to this band you were considered one of the “cool” kids but, to me it was so much more than that. What drew me to this band was one song called “A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son”.

This song resonated with me due because the lead singer talks about his struggles coping with the fact that his father had abandoned his family at a young age. Trying to understand why his father wasn’t around he also thinks he is to blame for his father’s departure. I felt as though I related to him being that I grew up being raised by a single mother, and have very few vague memories of my father. It was tough for me trying to understand why all of my friends and cousins fathers were around for events except for mine. The fact that I was also an only child wasn’t all that much helpful in my case. The song begins with a cry out to the father asking where he’s been. Every time I hear this line, I get a knot in my stomach and more often than not I cry.
At a 2013 warped tour, lead singer, Kellin Quinn begins a speech before performing the song saying, “ a lot of people come up to me and say ‘[kellin] i don’t know what to do with my life because my DAD,he doesn’t believe in me’ f*ck that dude… do something in this world.”

Music has changed a lot of my perspectives on life. Suffering from depression since a young age, I constantly felt alone and could never quite find the right words to describe what I was feeling or what I was going through but, music helped me do that. This song, more specifically, reopened wounds and helped me cope with it better as opposed to pretending everything was alright and dismissing it.
Quinn, is now also a stepfather to two children whose father is also absent from their lives. He says,”When you have to watch someone else – especially a child – go through the same disappointments you went through, it’s tough.”
Recently, I had the pleasure of being in the studio with the band as they recorded for Spotify Session and needless to say I was in tears when they began to record “A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son”.