He told The Guardian newspaper: “Someone was talking about me not sharing enough of my personal life, and I was feeling as if I wanted to jump out of the window.
“This line came to me: ‘I just want to live inside sometimes.’ “
The lyrics and track as a whole then became a “free association [of] all the things that make [him] feel anxious”.
He also acknowledged the way some of the words about asylum seekers can resonate with recent news.
He sings: “No, I won’t be your apparatchik, and be the kind who’s blind to all its magic. So here comes your European exit, with asylum seekers in your attic.”
Reflecting on the powerful verse, he explained: “We have a duty to show compassion, to people who are in the greatest kind of need.
“But there are no simple answers, and I hope this song isn’t heavy-handedly saying there are.
“Songs are uniquely positioned to hold the opposites perhaps more than some other mediums can.”
Meanwhile, Jamie has also recently revealed the song also refers to texts he received from the late Amy Winehouse, who passed away in 2011, and he’s described it as a track he “really believed in”.
He said: “I’d been going through my studio and found some old phones and I did find a bunch of texts.
“Amy and I were good friends and my first tour was with her. She was my support act, if you can believe it.”
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