From the "Trepidation!" EPK:

“This is kind of our version of a frantic, three minute ‘pop-miracle,’” states Barberis. “I hear so many influences, from 1980s synth-pop to Motown, but it just feels like a rocket ship taking off from the get-go. It was the first demo instrumental written for the album but one of the last ones to be finished. The idea was about the unimpeachable power of unabashed love and it feels like Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” or Madonna’s “Express Yourself.”

Jordan is singing about himself learning to stop fearing love and learning to let himself fall in love and be vulnerable, but I can hear so many different interpretations for the lyrics. It’s unbridled emotion that could be taken in a macro Pride-type, pure love way, or in a way of any person begging for the object of their affection to break down the dam that’s holding back their love and just letting it flow. It’s so emotional. Everyone has felt the excruciating anguish of unrequited love. It makes you fear it. It also is set against the backdrop of how treacherous the human heart is and how we humans always talk about ‘following our hearts’… but the heart is dangerous. It has no brakes and can steer you over cliffs. It’s like being given an incredible sports car but then realizing after you’re speeding that it has no braking system and has its own steering and speed will. So, it’s just a frantic observation to how crazy and perilous life is when we make our hearts the king.”

Stephano goes on to admit, “When Jordan sent me the vocals for the instrumental, I was listening on my iPhone, standing, frozen in my kitchen with tears of joy and goosebumps. There was this powerful melodic element that I felt we achieved and at times in the song he reminded me of Aretha Franklin as he belted this song out with all of his heart. I feel that The Radiant Believers album is a colossus - a synth-pop monument from start to finish with a motif that runs throughout about the victory of light over darkness, even when things appear hopeless. It’s a despair-destroyer. At least that was my goal.”

Jordan delves deeper into the emotional aspect of the song: “Trepidation is about breaking out of a fear mindset. Being hurt in relationships, or being the one that hurts someone in a relationship only diminishes the next one’s potential. You enter with higher walls and bigger boundaries than you ever had before. “Pressure me to tangle our hearts” is a line that rings very true to me personally. I have probably gone through more life lessons than most people my age. I use to use that experience/loss/retribution/battle as fuel to ensure that everyone knew that I was stronger, more wise, more able than they were.  

But, that person inside me died a couple years ago. I let go and just was “me”. I let a lot of people down that I really should have never been holding up in the first place. I needed to learn to love again. Live again. Trepidation has always been a word that has circles around in my head since grade school. One day we all turn into dust. So dust yourself off and live, love and laugh. And stumble through life, it’s hard. We all get it.” 

The single comes backed with an equally uplifting bonus track called “Show The World,” which was written and completed in one weekend (and almost made it onto the album).