Another member of the Dream SMP crosses over to the realm of music as Tobias Smith, better known by his social media tag ‘Tubbo,’ releases his debut song “Life By The Sea.” The 17-year-old British streamer/Minecraft player/YouTuber is one of the most popular members of the Dream SMP (a fictional online server dedicated to Dream and his friends). In this song, Tubbo sings about how being live in front of thousands of people every day has its own toll on him.
Not too long ago, Dream himself made his debut in music with “Roadtrip” and continued the journey with “Mask” as a follow-up. Tubbo seems to follow the steps of Dream and released his debut song “Life By The Sea” on August 27, 2021. The song and the music video have gained over 2.7 million views in just 48 hours of being released.
According to a description in the song, it has taken Tubbo six months to complete this project; “This song has been such a huge passion of mine of the last 6 months thank you everyone so much for letting me create what I love!” During this time, Tubbo did play this song on his live streams on Twitch.
Watch “Life By The Sea” Music Video by Tubbo
Buy “Life By The Sea” on Apple Music & Amazon
Tubbo “Life By The Sea” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
The entire song takes the shape of rap as Tubbo sings about his life so far, his streaming success, and the pains that come along with this success. ‘Living by the sea’ can allude to the fact that it is a dangerous life to live. The waves can engulf you any time on any day. Being online daily must feel like waiting for that one massive wave to crash and burn your whole life.
Verse 1
Tubbo starts the verse by saying that he dropped out of college to pursue his career in streaming. During a live stream, Tubbo announced that he quit secondary school as soon as streaming started working out for him. He has been very successful in streaming on Twitch, constantly being able to attract tens of thousands of a live audience. This live audience converts to monthly subscriptions, live advertising revenue, sponsored segments, and merchandise sales, which should make Tubbo very well taken care of financially. Remember, he is only 17-years-old at the time of this article.
Foraging for sounds that I can rhyme with orange (Woo!)
Look, I’m a simple gatherer among a world of hunters
Tubbo has some bars, too! He references Minecraft slang to talk about his presence in this cutthroat world of streaming. In Minecraft survival, a player can survive off of food from cultivations or from hunting. He says he is a forager in real life as opposed to a hunter who can be considered to take a more aggressive approach for survival.
You mightn’t believe it, a life full of streaming is real tough
It feels rough sometimes, but that’s the real stuff
For an outsider, it might look as if streaming games and getting paid to do so is real easy work. In a sense, it is. But to make a real paycheck out of streaming, you need to have thousands of live viewers every stream. First of all, getting to that point is real hard work. People work years to get 100+ live viewers for a stream. Maintaining this live viewership is even harder. However, next comes the hardest part. It is not always going to be fans who tune into these streams. Sometimes, fans turn into haters. Even roleplay feuds happening within Minecraft can turn into real-life harassment. The bigger you grow online, the bigger the hater base grows too. And in this day and age, one misstep online can lead you to get canceled and shamed for life online.
Chorus
In the chorus of the song, Tubbo sings that he feels like he doesn’t even have space to breathe sometimes. Even fans can get super crazy at times. Especially within the Dream SMP, the fan base has grown to be massive. Another popular member, Tommyinnit, usually attracts around 100,000 live viewers every stream. Dream, too, has similar numbers. This large fanbase can get any of these people trending on social media within minutes. It can sure feel overwhelming at times. It can sure feel as if these people are drowning in a sea of faceless voices at times.
Verse 2
Being a ‘live’ content creator makes all the pitfalls of online fame that much more real for these creators. These are kids who play games, joke, fight, talk, sing, and eat online. One wrong word can literally end their careers. Tubbo knows very well that he needs to be very careful about every word he says while he is streaming. He cannot cut and polish the video for the online masses. Once something is said live, it stays on the Internet forever.
I feel the heat beneath my collar whenever I’m joking
Tubbo has to be very careful about making any kind of joke. In this day and age, nothing and no one can be joked about without getting canceled. Even making fun of his friends on Dream SMP can have serious repercussions on Tubbo.
There have been many cases where Dream has said something edgy or not politically correct and the whole of the Internet has come at his throat.
My frazzled and distracted mind is acting like a satellite
So many transmissions, every day I’m twitching
Tubbo also touches on his dyslexia, which is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words. He calls it his mind being distracted and not being able to separate garbage from gold in the millions of data transmissions that he lives through every day. ‘Twitching’ is a nice touch on this condition as well as to say that he is streaming on Twitch.
But life by the sea has its own perks too. The view is beautiful and you are on vacation mode all day. On the flip side, you are on edge about being drowned.
Let us know what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.