Lyrics and meanings

Sam Sparro's original representation when writing this song was that he was questioning whether God exists or not. However, when we come to shooting our video we will probably stick with a perception that's more current and popular within our target audience, for example all the questioning within the song "And now I'm looking for a reason why", could be Sparro questioning his relationship with a love interest. I have analysed the song lyrics to how I feel Sparro would have wanted them to be perceived:

If the fish swam out of the ocean

And grew legs and they started walking
And the apes climbed down from the trees
And grew tall and they started talking

And the stars fell out of the sky
And my tears rolled into the ocean
And now I'm looking for a reason why?

Here Sparro's talking about evoloution. After the world came together he questions, just like a lot of other people, why?

You even set my world into motion

'Cause if you're not really here!

The direct pronoun "you" is Sparro addressing God directly. He's talking to God even though he's questioning his existence, perhaps looking for an answer. 

Then the stars don't even matter
Now I'm filled to the top with fear
That it's all just a bunch of matter

Sparro wants God to be real and for Him to be the answer to evoloution, because he doesn't know any other resoloution and is scared that the world is just a scientific cause when he refers to the "bunch of matter". 

'Cause if you're not really here
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to you

He's created a relationship with God and can't imagine life without the concept of Him. He wants to feel close to God and needs to be physically close to him to prove his existence.

Black and gold, black and gold, black and gold

I look up into the night sky
And see a thousand eyes staring back

Black and gold is what he sees when he looks up to the sky, here he's referring to the 'stars' and he personifies them. He's looking for God but instead all he sees is stars.

And all around these golden beacons
I see nothing but black

I feel a way of something beyond them
I don't see what I can feel

This is the route of his questioning, he can sense that something's there yet he hasn't had any evidence of God's existence. Throughout the song he emphasises the fact that he can feel God's presence, yet he can't see him, which ultimately is the problem with proving that something else is out there.

If vision is the only validation
Then most of my life isn't real
If the only form of proof is something concrete or something that we can see and experience, then the religious side of Sparro doesn't mean anything as he hasn't proved God's existence.