At the time the song was written, Keane was struggling to gain musical success in London and felt like "fish out of water". Rice-Oxley has described the song as a message to the band members to keep going and a reminder that, despite their failures, they still had each other and their shared history.

The "pathway" mentioned in the lyrics is the actual trail between Tim Rice-Oxley's parents' house and the local pub. Video Themes and "The Simple Things"

Watch Tim Rice-Oxley discuss the real-life locations in Battle that inspired the song's most famous lyrics: