burning soul:
just revisiting this song for some odd reason and i find it very appealing that this song has the most interpretations for the album and yet, it has no lyrics! ever since i first heard this song i wished for an entire album full of instrumentals. and wouldn't you know it, about 13 years later, my dream comes true and lives up to what i had hoped! i think it just goes to show you can speak your mind through music without even having to say a word.
added on: february 23, 2009
ruined:
I think this is about the moment Trent wants to choose to kill himself. From my psychology classes and numerous reading on depressed and suicidal people, the moment that they decide to kill themselves (meaning: I'm going to kill myself tomorrow, etc.), they feel at peace with themselves, knowing soon that their pain will go away. And the words at the beginning of song might be the final words, to let the person who he felt "the best thing about life is knowing you put it together", was the one happy point of his life. Also, after this song, the rest of the CD Trent talks about killing himself, going away, and dying.
added on: october 6, 2006
with teeth:
wow! a lot of interpretations here!
anyways, this song is about peace, and having a breakdown.
added on: march 23, 2006
Shaedow:
I feel this song is the most valuble of all NIN songs. It represents the peace and tranquilty that can be had even admist chaos (prior song=Big Man with a Gun, song after=Eraser). I had this song played at my father's and grandmother's funeral, and plan to have it in mine.
added on: march 5, 2006
burning soul:
alright, what you hear in the background is trent saying "the best part about life is knowing you put it together". i have filtered this clip numerous times in cool edit pro so you can only hear the voice and that is the quote agreed upon by many others as well!
added on: november 24, 2004
ebenok:
A Warm Place I think is the womb. As a Fetus, or as Meathead would say "Developedly Callenged", your happy place is your only place. The feeling of utter unknown stupidity is a happy place, cause If you don't know you're stupid, then life will never get you down and there will be no struggle to be Intelligent. After BMWAG, which I imagine as "Rough, Hard, Bleeding sex Without condoms", There comes the baby. "The Best Part About Life... Is Knowing That You Put It Together," Trent Wispers. AWP Really has no happiness for Trent, or whoever TDS is about, but more of for the baby. The baby has a low I.Q., and doesn't know of pain, only of happiness. As the song gets sadder, I can only imagine abortion, for Trent has no kids. Writing this has made me think, and I have written from the depths of my mind, and while writing I have found meaning and zen. In a way this song does represent happiness, but only to those already living in their own "Warm Place". Everyone feels pain, and only the pampered and beautiful see hapiness, for they have not known true sadness. A very sad song, and never listen to it on a rainy day. At least not on a perspective like mine. Trent if you are reading this, and see a fan is truly moved, thank you. I hope this flattered you.
added on: november 23, 2004
silverfucked:
I think A Warm Place is the musical embodiement of Heroin, or perhaps some other manifestation of a feeling of comforting disassociation.
added on: november 23, 2004
no one:
I feel this song is a representation of Trent's happiness in finding something that makes him feel good, maybe the bad girl he is tainted by in Reptile. All reptiles come from a warm place because they are cold-blooded. The song has a sort of overwhelming feeling of peace in the and a feeling of hope evoked by the piano line played in the last segement except for the very last ten or fifteen seconds when the track sounds like it's skipping showing he is being interrupted while in this happy place.
added on: november 23, 2004
maff:
I agree that this song is at least partially a break in the album. The rest of them are universal in their bleak lyrics. A Warm Place has no lyrics. It would me more definite as a break if it were right in the middle of the album. Since it has no obvious connection with any of the other songs, Reznor could have put it anywhere; I think that its placement after BMWAG and Eraser was very deliberate. That's track ten of the fourteen in the album.
I think it makes most sense to consider its place in relation to the album as it comes before.
The tenth track is a very turbulent time for the main character of the album (There's a comment down there that says Reznor had said it was about one person; I had thought that that was true for years now, just like Pink Floyd's "The Wall"). The main theme for the early part of the album is "nothing can stop me now / cause I don't care anymore." However, abruptly, he ends with "nothing can... stop." this means he was indeed stopped, he didn't get his way. He goes through an up and down through heresy, march of the pigs, and closer, taking comfort in whatever escapes he can find: condemnation of religion, hurting others ("i want to break it up i want to smash it up i want to fuck it up"), and sex ("help me the only thing that works for me. help me get away from myself"). Ruiner is a low because he finds himself questioning where everything went, and how the ruiner - whoever that is - has gotten so much power to fuck with him. He tries to shake it off at the end, though: "you didn't hurt me nothing can stop me now."
Ruiner marks the end of his attempted resistance, of his holding on to himself. In The Becoming, he's cracked and is giving up. "i'm stuck in this dream it's changing me i am becoming." Notice that at the end he still is trying to shake it off: "it won't give up it wants me dead / god damn this voice inside my head." If the voice still has to constantly harass him, there must be something left.
I do not want this marks even further decay. He is still alive, but he's fast falling. At the end, he says "I want to fuck everyone in the world." That of course is the major theme in BMWAG, where the gun and his penis are interchangeable parts. Each represents the power to destroy, as well as sex, which were his previous deviances he took pleasure in. Almost a guilty pleasure. There is no guilt in BMWAG, however, so I think it marks the very end of his decay that began outright in "the becoming."
Then comes a warm place, totally out of character with everything that has gone on before just by the looks of it. It has no lyrics, and is very ambient. The rest seem to claw for your attention, A Warm Place requires that you focus to keep in sync with it.
It is a bridge, then, but between what? If you notice, all of the songs that come before involve him trying to get away from his pain, or resist it, fight it somehow. He doesn't care, he's not hurt, he's tough. He can get away with sex. Somehow he can get free of this. But suddenly here is big man with a gun and he has no fight. Nothing at all. Then comes eraser. He hates himself entirely in eraser. He still wants to take part in his earlier "sins," as shown by the lyrics: "taste you / fuck you / use you / scar you." But at the end he realizes the folly of his life: "lose me / hate me / smash me / erase me / kill me (repeated to blur)."
The same applies to the rest of the songs. He is not trying to fight off his sadness anymore, and is actively working towards his own destruction.
In Reptile he knows the relationship with this girl is poisonous, but he does it anyway. He "now knows that the depths I reach are limitless."
The downward spiral is about suicide - but it's NOT the last song. That's confusing. I don't really know what to make of that.
In hurt, he reflects on his life and hates himself fully.
So, in effect, A Warm Place acts as the bridge immediately after he has finished "the becoming" in "big man with a gun" and his hating himself in the following songs. In the other songs, he still has a great deal of self-hate, but afterwards he revels in his sadness. He's not trying to avoid pain. He causes it for himself deliberately "Just to see if I still feel."
Also it's a break in the middle of this very bleak album to kind of collect your emotions without necessarily paying too much attention - keeping in mind that if you don't pay attention to AWP, you are missing out on a very valuable part of the album, though.
Anyhoo, this has gone on long enough.
added on: november 23, 2004
raymond l'the heureux:
Human Thought.. Derives From Experiance (If Anyone Else Had Created "A Warm Place" Would It Harbor A Similar Psychological Mannerism ?
added on: november 23, 2004
burnt beyond recognition:
A Warm Place describes what one feels when they shut themself out from everything. They remain secluded, adrift in this private place, where no harm can befall them. This place of peace and warmth, however, cannot last forever, and is destined to collapse, which I think is seen in how short the song is. It signifies how brief these periods are as the cold harsh reality of life sinks in, which leads into Eraser.
added on: november 23, 2004
stelaluna:
this song is very powerful even without lyrics. i can't say that it makes you feel good about yourself but for some reson it gives some sort of comfort at 2 am in the morning when you feel like you just want to roll up into a ball and not come out to face the world.it also inspieres me to write poetry....not the happy and most uplifting but none the less it gets me wrting.
added on: november 23, 2004
holly:
this is the song i listen to at the times where i feel the worst. it gives me a very odd feeling brings me to tears allot of the time. i think this song is just the lonlyness one can feel when there sad and deppresed, because when i listen to the song it almost makes me feel happy because i feel like there is a actul place in me that is happy, but then i rember there isint anything like that and it makes me feel worse. the song makes one relize how life is fickle and alone but there is sometimes a glimps of peace with ones self.
added on: november 23, 2004
sweetnothings:
i'd just like to say to tim that you have some nerve telling these ppl they need lives. EVERY piece of work that any artist (music or art) does has a meaning behind it. and any fellow artist would know that. just like a painting...the sweat, the heart, the workmanship, the hardwork that is put into what you may think is a simple painting, what put there to show the meaning or message that this person is trying to say. a message where words just aren't good enough...seeing it with your own eyes instead of hearing the words w. your ears makes you understand it that much more. this song has no words in most of it bc the listener is suppose to use it to find THEIR own meaning...not what trent meant. to relate back to their own warm place...and when they put life together. maybe tim...you just haven't put life together yet, but these other ppl who are speaking from their hearts, mite know what it feels to put every last piece of the puzzle together, where everything fits and know what a great feeling that is. and maybe that feeling for trent was so extreme, that words couldn't even explain what he was feeling. so in addition to that...my interpretation of this song for me, is that there are no words to explain the feeling of true happiness, when everything in life is put together and everything fits the way it's suppose to. the point when you know...you've found lifes meaning. music means more than words. words can't always say what you want to say...but music...can say so many things to different ppl, it has no ONE meaning...it has many. it's not always about what the song means to the artist...it's about what it means to you. this coming from a true artist who puts her hardwork and MEANING in EVERYTHING that she makes and who lets ppl create their own meaning.
added on: november 23, 2004
glenn:
A warm place refers to the womb. The great thing about The Downward Spiral is you can interpret the songs in many diffrent ways, truly a work of art. Listen to the previous song Big Man With a Gun, a song about rape. Then you have A Warm Place, does this song refer to a pregnancy that came about beacuse of a rape? In Big Man With a Gun you have an evil act done through rape. Then in A Warm Place the victim carries an unwanted child. Now listen to the song that follows A Warm Place-Eraser, the song starts out with the sound of some kind of suction, and the lyrics to that song are about destroying something, an abortion? Here you have a victim the one who was raped, turning around and making a victim out of a innocet child. A hopeless moral situation and a theme that runs through the entire album about victims. Listen to all the songs, you could view the subject as a victim or a victimiser. More than that you can view the themes of rape as personel, or with constant sound of machines and industrial sounds you can see an analogy to the rape of nature. Industrialism destroying the enviorment. An more than that is to look at nature and life as rapist. Nature creates then destroys what it created to make room for more. Death and destruction are seeds of life. If all life is related then all sex is incest, and all eating is cannibalism. An underlying evil none of us can escape. A nihilstic album devoid of any spiritual thoughts and hope.
added on: november 23, 2004
hydra:
there is a place that feels like bliss but there is something hiding inside it the whole idea of it falls apart and you feel the same insects crawl on your skin and you start to remember.....
added on: november 23, 2004
justin rucks:
I would have to ultimately say that "A warm place" is a temporary moment of peace. Trent Reznor has explained that the album 'The downward spiral', is about a central character, who is constantly looking for all kinds of means of escape, most of them improper. When I first heard 'A warm place', I was astounded; this was the brief, but seemingly peaceful period in the characters' world, followed by 'Eraser', 'Reptile', and then his final collapse in 'The downward spiral', and his reflection of what he had gone through in 'Hurt'.
added on: november 23, 2004
mike:
ok,heres a thought.Big man with a gun could just possibly be messing about,f**king around.the cause of Trent's guilt could occur here,in this brief moment of sanity and peace.just a thought but maybe big man... is not meant to be taken seriously
added on: november 23, 2004
love in vein:
ok this is all just a theory but i think big man... could just be messing about:meaningless.maybe it is in this song that he does the thing that causes so much pan in eraser.a warm place suggests sex.....i dunno,i think too much
added on: november 23, 2004
persistence lost:
I just have to say that i agree totally with the maker of this site http://www.rexer.com/nin/awp.html In the very beginning, like right when A War Place starts if you turn the volume up all the way up you can hear Trent whispering "the best thing about life is knowing you put it together" a few times, don't believe me, listen 2 it yourself.
added on: november 23, 2004
ophelia:
This song describes a place so beautiful and comforting that it cannot even be described by words. Its the place you think of to get away, to escape.
added on: november 23, 2004
laumanh8:
being as it follows big man with a gun (or dead souls on the import version), and the whispering of " the best part of life is knowing you put it together", i think this is meant to be a brief moment of sanity and calm in the life of the character TDS is written around. there has to be a brief breaking point, and in this song, although instrumental, the character finds it, he realizes what hes become, he breaks down, feels the hollow, accepts it and makes it his own warmth because he cant find it elsewhere. definately the most emotionally moving song on the cd (other than hurt). it encompasses a feeling of isolation and synthetic emotion.
added on: november 23, 2004
tatum:
This is the most beautiful song I have ever heard. The true way to interpret a song is through the melody, not the lyrics. Melody interprets emotions. That is why scales in music are so beautiful. It is the ups and downs of life. I heard this song for the first time when I was coming down off of coke and my (ex)boyfriend of 1 1/2 years had just broken up with me. The emotions that this song made me feel were so powerful and so intense. It is rare that a song can move you to the level that I was moved. It made me stop and think. It made me put everything into perspective... It really helped me... Thank you NIN…
added on: november 23, 2004
nate:
a warm place is simply about a feeling that cannot be described in mere words, which is why there are no lyrics. Its about being so dissillusioned and feeling so terrible towards everything that you just crawl into your own little warm place inside for just a little while. that no one can touch but you. TDS really does not work as a full experience without a warm place. And if you dont know what I mean, wait till your girlfriend (or boyfriend) of 9 months breaks up with you, then drive down a desolate gravel road by yourself at 2 AM with nothing more than a beer and a pack of cigs, and play a warm place very very loud with the car heater turned on slightly, youll get it then.
added on: november 23, 2004
rick:
This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard, especially when you consider the chaos that is TDS. Calm, serene, touching, heartwarming, a moment of rest from the rest of the album's darkness and cold. It would be a great song to make love to as well.
added on: november 23, 2004
tim:
funny that some people will try to find meaning in a song that has no words in it. and closest thing to words are samples... you people need lives... jesus. i love nin and i love music, but something things are just pretty bits of music and have no deep social meanings. bugger
added on: november 23, 2004
crucified_rabbit:
first, in responce to vinny i listened to 10-17 second realy closely and it sounded like trent was panting or saying 'help' really quietly with slight background noise from the studio or on purpose, im don't know.
now for the interpretation, the entire album seems to build up untill this point where at the end of 'big man with a gun'(the loud ending to 'big man...')it suddenly becomes very quiet and calm almost serene but with a pinch of sadness to it. this song seems to be a time of repention for past sins aginst others and society, a realization of the pain caused to others, and all the emotions that were vlocked out flodding back at once to overwhelming him. this is a turning point in the album, from going out of control in the world, to going out of control within his own mind, eventually leading to suicide(or in my humble opinion, mental suicide similer to the changes in the album from 'mr. self destruct' where he is under total and absolute control, to 'big man...' under absolutely no inhibitions at all, but rebuilding back up to the original 'mr. self destruct' mind set) in 'the downward spiral'.
added on: november 23, 2004
kwik:
Only hearing the song singularly out of the context of an album I find it captivating from the first listening experience. I picture "BladeRunner" in my mind as I listen to it. I psee images of that film in sort of movie preview sort of way. I agree with another person that reminded me of "Soilent Green" when the old man was watching beautiful images prior to dying, A Warm Place could have been used there also. This piece is a tribute to the complex artistry that Trent Reznor has. NIN captures a bit of our shared human theme with this song, it is truly a master piece that resonates with in our soul…
added on: november 23, 2004
vinny:
if you listen very closely, you can hear people talking in the background of the song. (from 10 seconds to 17 seconds of the begining) it sounds like a man talking. was this a mistake that was accedently recorded or was it on purpose. is this another one of trents little tricks to try and fool us? listen for youself! if you know what this is all about, please e-mai me. i have been wonder what that was for years.
added on: november 23, 2004
rogue7845:
I thought this song was not so much a break in the album but a continuation of it. To me A Warm Place could be a high. Its peaceful and no worries realy show thru, but no one can stay high forever and as the high faded so does the peace and the realization that there is no escape sends him slamming back into relity with full force in Eraser. I could be wrong but as i recall, t. reznor did have a drug problem, this song could be about that. TDS seems to be about changing yourself and getting away from the problems in society so this interpretation seems to fit the album quite well.
added on: november 23, 2004
ryan:
This song is so beautiful that it actually has brought me to tears. It is a haven for a hectic world. It is an interlude in the album and a turning point. To me it represents a place inside one's head where few people find, where they can truely be at perfect peace. It is like a turning point. The character is on his way down very fast, then slows up here, and finds peace, but soon this bliss is over, and he finds his descent into madness goes even quicker. It is his last rest stop before total doom. Absolutely stunning, probably one of my top favorite NIN songs of all time.
added on: november 23, 2004
broken_bruised_forgotten_sore:
Being an instrumental, this song can be interpreted in many ways. In my opinion , it serves several purposes. First, it provides a break in the chaos of the album, "The Downward Spiral", giving the listener a breather. After all, TDS is a bleak album, and very difficult to listen to in one sitting(unless you have nerves of steel or a very hard heart). Second, following the "concept" of this album, it seems to indicate a searching, a wish to find a warm place, a womb where one can
be protected from the world, and from oneself, from what one has become. Finally, to me, it indicates a person who wants to start again, to take back and undo every single one of the things he has done in his life. As a Christian, this means a lot to me. It makes "A Warm Place" one of my favorite songs.
added on: november 23, 2004
bugman:
this song is (IMO) a very happy song. despite the tragic feel i think that maybe the tragic element is the 'death' of the person and the rebirth of their soul within a better area. they however return to the angered world in eraser (right after it, i know you all know that, just as a reference for not as devoted fans)
added on: november 23, 2004
rayd'nmalach:
a member of the opposite sex. someone to build your life around. peace, happiness, bliss. a warm place in which to hide from the cruelty of the outside world.
added on: november 23, 2004
empty1:
the song taken for its self and not the album in whole means to me a whole life time summed up in a few minutes. the song seems to build and build until half way through the song it dips down. to me this is like life where you get better, stronger and ect... all through life until you peak and then you begin to go down hill physically and mentally. all of this happens until that coarse hiss of death comes creaping in at the end of your life
added on: november 23, 2004
ubermutant:
If you want to hear Henry Rollins interpretation of this song, you can down load it on napster, titled Nine Inch Nails with Henry Rollins - I Know You. Im pretty sure its unrealesed in any format except and mp3 on the internet
so its not ripping off any artist's money. Anyway, listen to it and tell me thats not what the song "A Warm Place" is about. Simply put, a warm place. But
Rollins takes it further with the music in the song describing the only true warm place for some people. To find out what that is, DOWNLOAD IT!
added on: november 23, 2004
fleshburn:
i think that this is a really beautiful son but given the nature of the album it's basically the way for the main charachter in tds to hide from the hectic and somrtimes dangerous life he leads the album starts from right before the title track with trent laying out the storyline then plunges into piggy which attacks an ex lover with whom he obviously based his life around (Maybe god) because heresy is such a blasphemous angry song as is march of the pigs(referring again to god) in closer he decides to take his revenge out on this person by going out and having sex with another person or people. Ruiner is another attempt at a guilt trip aimed toward (god) before forgetting his god altogether in the becoming in which he becomes this "machine" who is hellbent on destoying his god. I do not want this sees his former self and his new self in an argument aboutwho is going to be the dominant one. The new self wins as big man with a gun comes into play. A warm place is the last time we see his former self until "Hurt" it is his former self hiding from the eraser (his new self). Reptilian is about the new self and his whores until his new self finally snaps and kills himself in the downward spiral.
"hurt is his former self as he floats above his body into hell or heaven or purgatory. all in all this album is about a man who got pushed to far and became something self destructive not my favorite album (PHM is) but still beautiful in its own way
added on: november 23, 2004
martin:
Whenever i hear this song it makes me feel so alone, so empty, so lost. The only warm place we have left is inside of our heads. There is no escape from this world so we make it up in our imaginations. This song is almost like the space between our imagination and reality. It shows you the warm places you created in your head but always reminds you that it isn't real, and that there really is nothing out there. This is probably my favorite nin song.
added on: november 23, 2004
avye:
the remberance of beautiful childhood moments-being an infant with your mother holding you in her arms rocking you to sleep. and then/there, the only thing there is to you is her warmth, tender touch and the rythmic beating of her heart putting you to rest and easing your soul.
added on: november 23, 2004
ronjon:
rejuvenation, relaxation, a place to go back to in peace. To go back in time when things were simpler - a haven…
added on: november 23, 2004
julie:
I'll tell you, if i could choose a song to listen to when i die, this one would be it. The song is very peaceful and calming and represents to me the very same thing. Like a release from life, just being by yourself and completely w/o stress or bullshit. It's kind of like a parting from reality and you feel....well, basicly nice.
added on: november 23, 2004
will holman:
Most people interperit this song as something positive, but it seems quite melancholy to me. The way I have interperited is that it's about looking back on the past, wishing that you would have done things differently. Maybe that girl you never got to be with. Will Holman, cinci, ohio
added on: november 23, 2004
tim:
i feel that the peice isa reflection back on happier times. for the moment, it brings back that euphoric peace of youth and security, but as it fades away into eraser, the euphoria is lost and a sober remorse creeps back in as memory gives way to reality. my absolute fav. song ever.
added on: november 23, 2004
broken machine:
this soung is about contemplation.the thought that this "warm place" is just the perfect place to you, but you know that you will have to leave,and return to the world of lies(eraser). its about escaping from all the fucking pressure that everyone feels sometime in thier life. in all utter confustion(big man with a gun) it stops and comes to a point of bliss. the warmest place her can perhaps just to smply be sinceraly in someone else's heart.
added on: november 23, 2004
you know who:
i believe that this song signifies a point of peace in a world of turmoil. as it ends big man with a big gun. for a while, i actually feel as if i am in a different place. probably my favorite nin song.
added on: november 23, 2004
heavens butcher:
this is one of my favorite nin tracks. to me it is a very peaceful moment, but as it fades away(eraser) it becomes very heart-wrenching. much like how the memory of a long, gone lover's warm embrace(that brief instance of purity and peace within all the chaos and hopelessness of life) fades with time.
added on: november 23, 2004
fairchild:
it is the and feeling people have after intamacy. but immediatly afterwords, the song "eraser" is blended into its ending, suggesting that his place in the warm is over, and the cold reality of his situation has picked up where he left off. his reality? its the truth ofseparation from his mate. the somber and drawn out notes of the song suggests it is a retreat, but he knows fully what is beyond his immediate thoughts. the warm place is a cold but intamite note to the end of true happiness.
added on: november 23, 2004
spiderbait:
this is song seems to lift you up, to begin with, but you quickly realize the somber tone that leaves you feeling empty and alone. Well thats how i feel anyway. My fav nin song too.
added on: november 23, 2004
hobbit:
this is my fav. nin song. it makes me too think of a very warm comfortable state of existance, but it also makes me feel very empty and sad.
added on: november 23, 2004
dawn mulroy:
it yo me is a song about when you die and leave earth-nice and peaceful
added on: november 23, 2004
brian:
a lot like a david bowie song off scary monsters, the name of the song escapes me at the moment... but i really like it, makes me think of a place i really like, then i realize it's not so nice and there's nothing.....makes me cry sometimes
added on: november 23, 2004