Thursday, November 30, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which I will discuss between songs.
A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…
Re: Perspectives
I don’t anymore clearly recall what brought these words out of me. … And so, as a result, I occupy very different spaces in these songs depending on the mood I’m in when I’m performing them.
A Few Bars of Goodbye
I act vocally as the narrator, but that is not always where I am standing as I am performing that song. Sometimes I feel as though I am one of the characters, and it’s not always that I am the guy with his guitar. … sometimes I’m the woman. Sometimes I feel like I’m some inanimate aspect of the situation, like I’m his guitar, or I’m her ring, or any number of things in the room that you don’t see through the lyrics but I see very clearly when I perform it.
Bridge
It’s the oldest song of mine that I’ve played all this month, and it’s name is very indicative of the role it has served in my life – it’s bridged a lot of musical transitions for me, and it’s bridged a lot of gaps in relationships. … I’m not singing it to the same person it was originally written for.
You can download this Trio, or listen to a previous Trio:
Monday, November 27, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which I will discuss between songs.
A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…
Standing
It’s about both a negative and a positive aspect of friendship … leaning. This mutual leaning society that you have with your friends. Which is a good thing – that’s what friends are for. But it’s about the event where one person stands more freely than the other. You have one leaner – one Tower of Pisa in the relationship, and one Eiffel Tower – and the back and forth that creates.
Martyr
Sometimes when you are a third party really looking at a problem that your friend is having and you’re not involved in that problem it’s hard to gauge how much of a problem it really is. You have no way of knowing. They’re your filter. You don’t have any other reality other than their reality. … We all climb on a cross every so often, and this song is about telling one of your friends to get the fuck down. … It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s that I don’t believe in your problems.
Until You Awake
I had become friends with somebody through Rabi, and that person had an unfortunate incident with her health, and they actually were into a coma. … Things were not looking good for her. … I have really been blessed in my life by not only my own good health, but the good health of everyone around me, and I didn’t know how to react to this young, vibrant person who maybe would never get to hear one of my songs. So I sat down one night and wrote “Until You Awake”
I remember that I sent it to her boyfriend and he played it for her in the hospital and shortly thereafter she woke up. … I still play it because it represents the power that ever-tenuous-connection across the internet can have over you, and over your songs.
You can download this Trio, or listen to a previous Trio:
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – typically features original songs, but for the third in a special trio of trios I am covering some of the songs that have influenced me and my songwriting. The first two influences Trios featured childhood and teenage influences.
You can download the entire Trio, or start from a past suite of original songs:
See the rest of this post for chords to all three songs. Continue reading ›
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – typically features original songs, but for the second in a special trio of trios I am covering some of the songs that have influenced me and my songwriting. The first influences trio featured songs of my childhood.
You can download the entire Trio, or start from a past suite of original songs:
See the rest of this post for chords to all three songs. Continue reading ›
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – typically features original songs, but for the first in a special trio of trios I am covering some of the songs that have influenced me and my songwriting.
You can download the entire Trio, or start from a past suite of original songs:
See the rest of this post for chords to all three songs. Continue reading ›
Friday, November 17, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which I will discuss between songs.
A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…
Re: Things Left Unsaid
The point is that they were all written about feelings I was having (romantic (or otherwise (in some cases))) about somebody that I didn’t feel comfortable expressing to them face-to-face. I guess in that way songwriting is an ultimate form of passive-aggressiveness.
Not So Bad
At the same time that it’s a little bit scathing to somebody else, it’s a little bit of a pep talk to myself. I used to think things were so bad … and now, not so much. Although, I still get very drunk on the sound of my own voice.
Regrets
It’s another one of those wonderful examples where I named a song something that isn’t in the lyrics at all. But, I think you’ll understand why it’s called “Regrets.”
I’ve actually written a number of songs about that same person … but ["Regrets"] truly exercised her. She’s not in my head anymore.
Under My Skin
If you’ve listened to me at all through my collegiate career then you’ve definitely heard this song. … It’s so dumb simple. It’s so dumb, and so simple. … But, what it is is a very honest portrayal of an emotion. I think that’s why maybe people liked it. I don’t know – maybe they just heard me play it a lot.
You can download the entire Trio , download the single of “Under My Skin,” or start from a past suite:
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which will often correspond to a recent post.
A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…
Re: Hindsight
The topic was actually going to be a specific person who I have a lot of hindsight on. … She’s somebody who occupies a lot of negative space in my life, and I couldn’t justify giving her a whole trio. … Even though I’m always going to have these songs about vortex of negative energy girl, I don’t need to group them together and celebrate how negative that time was.
Other Plans
A couple months ago I ran into the person that it’s about … and I came home and I was – of course – singing “Other Plans.” And I was thinking, wouldn’t it be funny if there was actually a tango when I talk about a tango?
This Long (Angry Song)
It’s all about looking back into a relationship and maybe recasting some of the things that happened in the light of – now – the new you that’s remembering.
You can download the entire Trio , or download the single of “This Long (Angry Song).” Or, start from Suite #1: Identity or Suite #2: Elise!
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which will often correspond to a recent post.
A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…
Little Love
There’s a point of some dispute because one line in the song is about somebody else, and the whole rest of the song is about Elise. … The whole conceit of it (if I can say that about one of my songs) is that it’s about the purest form of butterflies in stomach. It’s about having a crush on somebody just like third grade … more than anything you just want to be near them, and share time with them, and share your experiences with them.
Wilted
Being in a very successful relationship … you have to be careful how you pull from it because that song is going to continue to exist, and so is your relationship. And you have to be careful what you’re disclosing to the other person – and what you’re disclosing to the listener – because it might not be any of their business.
A Little Bit
Elise was having a laugh at my expense earlier, because I kept saying all of these songs were the quintessential Elise song, and I finally arrived at this one and she was surprised … What this song came out of is that I was in the last two weeks of college, I was under the gun for everything, and I was up all night … packing to move out of my college apartment and into my first apartment with Elise. I was so frazzled, and everything was difficult, and I had all this school work to do, and I just couldn’t handle it.
So – in the middle of all the craziness – I just stopped and I wrote a song, because that’s how things happen in my life. It’s fun.
You can download the entire Trio , or download the single of “A Little Bit..” Or, start from Suite #1.
Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which will often correspond to a recent post.
A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…
Re: Trio
It started out with me in my bedroom with a shitty guitar and this tiny little pinprick of a microphone on the top of my computer monitor. … It’s still very do-it-yourself … it’s no science. The sounds that come out are the sounds that come out.
Hyperbole
What you can’t know from just hearing it is that song was written with and always performed with my often-times co-writer Gina Martinelli. It’s a song that holds a lot of meaning for me, and for a while I had given up doing it by myself. … I discovered in the same way that I can cover a song by The Supremes, I can do a song that’s a me-and-gina song and just own it, and fill in those spaces (or not fill in those spaces) with something that’s uniquely me.
Apart
It illustrates … that sometimes I just can’t help but let in the opinions of other people, and for a long time I didn’t really know what to do about that.
Seams
It’s very different from my other songs, and I feel like it really actually says something about me.
You can download the entire Trio , or download the single of “Seams.”
