Mixed Signals

A song about confusing attention for care, and learning that being wanted is not the same as being understood.

Mixed Signals came from experiences where someone’s attention felt exciting at first, but slowly started to feel hollow.

There’s a kind of attraction that can make you feel powerful for a minute. Someone notices you, compliments you, seems fascinated by you. But then you realise they’re not actually interested in the full person. They like the idea of you. They like your look, your difference, your energy, your body, your mystery, your confidence — but only as long as it doesn’t ask anything of them.

That can be a really confusing place to stand, especially when you’re young. You can mistake being desired for being seen. You can mistake intensity for intimacy. You can spend too long trying to decode someone who is keeping things unclear because unclear works better for them.

This song is about that uncomfortable middle ground.

I wanted Mixed Signals to have attitude because the song needed some armour. But the real feeling underneath it is disappointment. It’s the moment you realise chemistry is not the same thing as respect, and flirtation is not the same thing as care.

The song helped me say something I needed to learn: if someone only wants the parts of me they can romanticise, they don’t really get to have me.