Well, I left you hanging around song 16. I finished up FAWM with 22 songs this year. As I mentioned, I was determined to do 14 songs entirely on my own, and I met my goal. I praise God for this. Because in all honesty, most of these last few songs have just dropped completely into my head. Much of the process, by the end of February, has become so internalized that I don't consciously think about the way I want to express it, I just do it. OR it gets dropped into my head. A couple of lyric sets I had envisioned completely different music for. Then, the way they came out was completely not what I had originally wanted, but it fit so much better than how I would have done it.
SONGS:
#17: Vultures. I will not link you to the demo because I didn't want it available for download. It's one of the most negative things I've written in a long time, though it does redeem itself at the end, and I feel it's a true representation of something deeply lodged. It's not bad to write stuff like that. But if my heart is for my brothers and sisters on the earth, I want to take time to think about what I'm going to feed into their spirits. This is most important. Yes.
Vultures was written over a period of a few days. I had meditated on the words and the meaning for awhile. In spirit, I was carrying something painful and I really wanted nothing to do with it, so I was crying out for the burden to be severed from me. I woke up one day and felt quite definitively that the vultures said no. Keep going. And while this could seem depressing, I was... relieved. Honestly. Because it was not a condemning sort of "keep on sloggin'," it was more of a "you're not as dead as you think you are - you're alive and you'll carry this just fine."
#18: Game Over. (mp3) An electronic thing. This was a verybadday. I was intentionally not eating because I had been marginally ill for a week and wasn't digesting and had a disappointing weekend at the beach and lungphlegm and the painful thing was still painful.
#19: Murre Song. (mp3) I wanted to write another Alaska song. It has taken 2.5 years for them to start trickling out. I am hoping for more soon. Anyway, this is from the liner notes: Murres!! I had a chance to study Murres in Alaska in 2008. I have always been somewhat awed by the way they come into the world. They nest on these rock cliffs (see below for photos/videos) and after being alive for 3 weeks, they "fledge" by jumping off the edge of these cliffs into the ocean IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. You've probably seen the Planet Earth ducklings jumping out of a tree. They've got NOTHING on murres.
I told Matt Halley that this was in the style of Matt Halley, and he agreed. He has been a good influence on me because he has taught me by simple example that slow and contemplative songs are powerful and worthy of my effort. I did write them before, but now I have more peace about writing them.
The next three were written between 5 pm and midnight yesterday. I am somewhat amused of the variance in genre between the three songs. Who the crap am I that I can do that? So crazy.
#20: Come June / Swallowtail. (mp3) Essentially, I've still got these three black swallowtail butterfly pupa, in their chrysalises, sitting beside the kitchen sink, overwintering. I had no idea when they'll emerge. Or even if they'll emerge at all. But I can NOT bring myself to get rid of them.
This is one that I did not expect it at ALL to sound as it does. I had this idea that this song was gonna be sad and slow and it ended up being... multifaced. Charged up at times, meditative at others, emphatic even a bit. I'm very proud of it. It's a stab at something a little new and different.
#21: Your Star. (mp3) I basically had wanted to write something with just the bass, and I also wanted to put a ton of filters on something. Again, NO IDEA. The music came out of nowhere. I was mostly just playing, I mean, for an hour I was about 8 years old writing and singing. I didn't try to write excellent lyrics, I didn't try to think about it very much at all. And I kinda... like it. :)
#22: Sea Song. (mp3) A celtic-y hymn-like thing. Pennywhistle x2 and dulcimer. This one actually came out how I thought it would.
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