“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
-Seneca
“Goodbye for Now” was the lead single off P.O.D.’s underrated gem of an album, Testify. Released in late 2005, it received some decent airplay, and was the band’s most successful single since “Youth of the Nation.”
One view of the band’s previous album was that it was a turning point in their career. I tend to think of it as a complete factory reset. They’d recruited a new guitarist, Jason Truby, and opted for a more considered alternative rock sound that did away with their previous nu-metal leanings. “Goodbye for Now” was probably chosen as the lead single to further showcase the more melodic, radio-friendly side of the band.
It also features Katy Perry before she was famous. This was years before she broke out as the pop star she is now, when her self-titled debut had only sold in the hundreds. Imagine that.
“[Katy]’s lovely,” Sonny Sandoval said in a 2018 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune. “She did a video with us, she recorded on our record — we were recording a record with Glen Ballard at the time, and she was kind of his protege. We were saying ‘Man, this song would really sound nice with some beautiful female vocals over the top,’ and he said ‘I have the girl’.”
“Goodbye for Now” has a laid back pop/hip-hop sound to it, with frontman Sonny Sandoval rapping during the verses over some mellow instrumentation from Traa Daniels (bass), Wuv Bernardo (drums), and Truby (guitar). Compared to previous singles like “Alive,” “Youth of the Nation,” or “Sleeping Awake,” it has a slower, contemplative feel, and builds up to a chorus that manages to be clean and anthemic. Perry makes her appearance in the final chorus, as the song comes to a close.
“It’s more of a laid-back track, it’s more of a vibe track, it’s definitely not the heavy side of P.O.D., but lyrically it’s a hopeful song,” Sandoval explained in an interview with MTV News. “We know with just dealing with the people around us and just coming across so many people that there are a lot of people struggling out there. And being that positive influence that we like to have in our music, we are just trying to encourage people. No matter how bad today is, tomorrow has a bright promise and a bright future. There’s a lyric that says, ‘If joy really comes in the morning time/ Then I’m going to sit back and wait until the next sunrise.’ And in our faith, we believe that joy does come in the morning time, so just hold on and hang out and tomorrow is a whole different day.”
I mostly relate. Not so much the faith, which I don’t share, but I understand how it feels to wait for that sunrise, that new day. Perseverance and hope are what I take from the song, and the repetition of “goodbye for now” during the chorus emphasises the ability to endure, that the trials and separation Sandoval talks about are not permanent. It’s not preachy, but it does have a spiritual edge to it, something that can draw in non-believers such as myself. I can appreciate these themes of redemption and reunion, and I think people of all backgrounds can too.
“When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself,” Marcus Aurelius said. “And don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep on going back to it.”
The Stoics often talked about what is in our control and what isn’t. Letting good habits fall by the wayside is yesterday’s problem, not in our control. What we can do today is entirely within our control. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Roman emperor or an ordinary person. That lesson on your teaching placement might have been a complete shitshow. It sucks, but it’s one day. Maybe you got lazy and didn’t go to the gym for a week or two. You can always start again. One bad day on guitar is no reason to let your instrument sit around gathering dust for the rest of the year. I know I can always practice more often. One day, I might actually find my way past the fifth fret. I live in hope.
This is how Sandoval’s lyrics in “Goodbye for Now” figure to me. Sing a new song, wait until the next sunrise.
The video was directed by Mark Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) crystallises the song’s themes perfectly. The band are seen performing in a loft, with footage of urban skylines and young people looking out into the world. It leans towards hope and reflection, rather than nu-metal angst and heavy, aggressive rhythms.
For whatever reason, the band have not performed “Goodbye for Now” since 2007. Maybe it didn’t gel with the band’s setlist. Although, it did appear on their best-of compilation, Greatest Hits: The Atlantic Years. So that’s something. I do appreciate the band’s effort to evolve musically, and it did give listeners a glimpse at Katy Perry before her rise to stardom. Better yet, her fame could have helped some people discover the track, and maybe earn the band some new fans. That’s cool to think about it.
“Goodbye for Now” represented a bold attempt to move beyond P.O.D.’s signature style, highlighting a side of the band we really hadn’t seen before — something melodic and inspirational. It’s also one of the rare instances where the world got to see Katy Perry before her meteoric rise to superstar status. It stands out in all of its aspects, in the best possible ways.
Lawrence Deveney 