Remember when “Call Me Maybe” was released in 2012? It was one of the earliest memories when I moved to Canada at the age of six. Not only did I notice the growth of a trending song for the first time, but my sister and I discovered our first Youtube channel because of a parody of “Call Me Maybe” by Wassabi Productions, which is what I would call peak content back in 2012. 

I only learned in August that Josh Ramsay co-wrote the song and produced it. It was actually intended to be a folk song when Carly and Tavish Crowe first wrote it, until Josh Ramsay saw it and gave it the pop feel we recognize.

I didn’t realize Josh Ramsay was also the same singer in the Vancouver band, Marianas Trench, and “Here’s To The Zeros” was one of the first tracks that got me into them. I don’t often look up the meaning behind lyrics, but it makes much more sense to me now.

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Turns out the drive behind the song was after the massive success of “Call Me Maybe”, but with such a success comes a pressure to keep up, according to Josh. Even the name of the song is meant to be ironic because “Here’s to The Zeros” only has 16 million listens, which is nowhere near his most successful work.

This song is actually pretty deep, despite the bright and catchy tunes. It points out that labels only want musicians with a clean background with none of their issues behind the scenes revealed to the public. In the first verse, Josh references his heroin addiction that got him involved with the cops and kicked from high school. He makes it clear that many labels wouldn’t want to be near anyone with such a terrible background. It might be hard to draw the line on someone’s past mistakes, even for a reasonable person in 2025. We see the downfall of many figures either failing to uphold their morals and never grow or just unapologetically devolving. That hurts the image of those who actually grew out of their mistakes and just want to deliver good music and celebrate their journey.

His intent with this song was to celebrate the imperfections in him and his fans, and no one can actually have the spotless pop image that labels want. Even the clean stars feel this pressure, and many turn to non-clean substances in the back.