in a past life i was a musician. i performed 100s of times. this year i’m revisiting my passion as i travel.
in Chiang Mai i recorded Juvenile. in Dubai i wrote 90’s Kid. and last month i produced 2 more songs in Madeira Island, Portugal.
today, my new EP Me Me Me debuts.
warning: the music isn’t very good. but i’ll walk through each song to pitch another kind of appreciation.
90’s Kid
this was a fun track. my friend CJ murdered the bridge and made it 10x better.
i never appreciated “nostalgia” until Don Draper articulated it so well. it’s a Greek mash up of ‘homecoming’ and ‘pain,’ thus the pain of old, secure memories.
after wrapping my head around the feeling of nostalgia, i felt comfortable unleashing it in a song.
in pre-writing i jotted down the following:
- MMMBop
- early curfew / digital stopwatch
- Pokemon
- Carson Daly / TRL
- slow internet, no Wikipedia
using these reference points, the song sort of wrote itself.
since i’m traveling with a ukulele, i used beach-y sounding chords and improvised the bass, drums, and keys while in the studio.
for more 90’s Kid lyrical analysis, go here.
Insomniac
in 2018 i bought two, 10-lesson packages from a local piano instructor and missed 1 of my appointments.
after 19 lessons i began tinkering with a few riffs. one is pop, the other is this thing, whose ending is reminiscent of Something Corporate.
what i’m trying to communicate in this song is not that i’m depressed (i’m not), but simply that i’m wired differently from most people.
Insomniac is a “take it or leave it” overview of my decision tree framework. it actually echoes this essay, highlighting the downsides (vs the perks) of sociopathic tendencies.
for more Insomniac lyrical analysis, go here.
Mediocre Man
this song isn’t the first time i’ve shared my life story in verse format.
anyone who’s listened to my albums over the years knows a few things:
- i began learning guitar at age 13
- i practiced for hours, mostly while home alone
- i tried to get famous
of course, none of this worked out and i’m not alone. most guys who know guitar, started as a teen and hoped to get famous.
so what i put together in this track was not so much a unique story, but an insight i’ve drawn from my otherwise average upbringing: i’m mediocre.
sounds country, right? gross. i hate country.
the point this song is trying to make is: if i can do it, anyone can. where “it” is make more money than i need, marry up, get ripped, and travel.
i also attempt to highlight man’s “God-shaped hole.” religion aside, we’re all subject to this phenomenon, and it’s worth examining how you fill yours. typical side effects include workaholism, lust, alcoholism, and prestige.
on a lighter note, the ending of this song attempts to pay homage to an old Matchbox Twenty single.
for more Mediocre Man lyrical analysis, go here.
Me Me Me
enlightened listeners will spot a pattern… this album is about me. aesthetically i use language “I’m …” in every song to make the theme as painful as possible.
Me Me Me is introspection, self deprecation, and self-aggrandizement wrapped up in 1 orange clickable square on iTunes, Spotify, etc.
it’s also true. for better or worse, every limerick in Me Me Me is real.
most great songwriters, write fiction. i haven’t figured out how to do that yet. but i’m hoping Me Me Me is the final chapter in my volume of overly personal, mediocre music.
my next studio session is this October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. maybe i’ll do a better job. maybe i’ll call the next album Other People.
to listen to all my music, go here.