"If I Am" is a single by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band,

Nine Days Nine Days (stylized as ''ninedays'') is an American rock band from Long Island, New York. It was formed in 1994 by John Hampson and Brian Desveaux, and released three independent albums in the 1990s before their mainstream debut album, ''The Mad ...

. The song was the second single from Nine Days' 2000 album, ''

The Madding Crowd ''The Madding Crowd'' is the debut major-label album by the American rock band Nine Days, released on May 16, 2000, by Epic Records. It spawned the major hit "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" and another single, "If I Am". It peaked at number 67 on ...

''. "If I Am" was a follow-up to their first single, "

Absolutely (Story of a Girl) "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" is a song by American rock band Nine Days for the group's fourth studio album, ''The Madding Crowd'' (2000). The song was released as the lead single from ''The Madding Crowd'' in March 2000 through 550 Music and ...

". The song was written by the band's vocalist, John Hampson.

Song meaning

In September 2000, Nine Days guitarist explained the meaning of "If I Am" in an interview with MTV Radio:

"
he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
is about having patience...It's about two people in a relationship and one person wants all these things, like marriage, commitment, the whole nine yards. And the other person is kind of saying, 'Just have some patience. It will all come, but I can't do this right now. Just wait for me,' you know....Basically it's
bout Bout can mean: People *Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer *Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland *Marcel Bout Musical instruments * The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed instrumen ...
two different people in two different places n the relationship..and the one person is saying, 'Just wait for me. I will be there and we will have all of this, but just have the patience."

Music video

The single's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, which was directed by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

director Ulf Buddensieck, was filmed in September 2000.

Chart performance

References

{{authority control 2000 singles Nine Days songs Epic Records singles 2000 songs