Something New, Something Old

The day following the completion of an artistic product is always weird. You wrestle with yourself over which new path to chase down next, which can result in a good deal of starting and stopping.

What I ultimately landed on today was a plentiful lot of file management, to prepare for finally losing the home recording setup I’ve had ever since the end of 2006 (goin’ on FIFTEEN YEARS, woop woop), when I was between grad school and the unknown, spending late nights in my rents’ basement. A Mac Powerbook Pro with an M-Audio interface / ProTools M-Powered. It’s all still kicking, amazingly – but modernization and the accompanying flexibility is laughably overdue. Plus there’s the constant fear when I’m working on a behemoth of a track that all that implausible kicking might suddenly stop.

Interestingly, with a shiny new project just out and tons of fresh ideas percolating, I had a strange impulse today to revisit the vintage. I dug up the demo of a certain unfinished song from 2008 and was surprised how much I liked the performance. There were sour notes and hesitations where I was still figuring out what to do next, but the passion was very immediate and I knew I’d never be able to recreate it in the same way. So I decided to patch the worst parts with new piano bits and post it here, just to save it from oblivion.

Second Coming

She come back on the scene
With her wicked wrist
Her devil heels
Her royal purple, polka-dotted soul
And hair you love to comb your fingers through
She already lost so much:
Her safety roots, her innocence,
Her little sister, too
But brought her back
And so she’s brave and she ain’t scared
Of losin’ you

So I’m afraid of what I’m gonna see
Comin’ around for your heart again

My stance looks very confident in photographs
My shoulders back
I know just how to shake important hands
But the ceiling of my thoughts falls in on me

So I’m afraid of what I’m gonna see
Comin’ around for your heart again

She come back on the scene
With her clever jaw
And her “I don’t play”
All dressed up in a dazzling shade of green
And makin’ you buy her ice cream

So I’m afraid of what I’m gonna see
Comin’ around for your heart again
Said I’m afraid of what I’m gonna see
When I’m comin’ around to take your heart again