Discover the story of the song > 1989 – The Rakes

The protagonist spent the night in a neighborhood called Friedrichshain where he saw punks hanging out and someone playing electric guitar. He drank homemade wine and leaned on a cemetery gate, imagining dead Russian soldiers marching. The next day, he felt the sea like it was bloodshed and saw girls putting money in their bras. He spent the rest of the night in bars with punks, waiting for a band to start. The song talks about this experience in the year 1989 and how it's okay if things go wrong in this unfamiliar city where no one knows where you're from.