Waiting [Week 2] / Big Sur Thanksgiving

Here’s the newest update on Waiting:

For this week I switched out the chorus to a chorus I’d written earlier this year with my associate (and brother) Chimpy Chimperson. We’d been bumming around at home for the past few months. This was around May or so during the height of the pandemic where it didn’t make much sense to leave the house that often. I came to him with the piano instrumental playing in the background and asked if he wanted to write a song with me. He came up with the following lyrics for the chorus:

Dog won’t shut up
Nothing in my cup
I done drunk it up
While I was waiting

Tick in my tock
There’s piss in my crocs
Oh shit I forgot
What I was waiting for

We cracked up a bit about how sad the speaker is but it hits home in some ways (besides the piss in my crocs bit…).

I spent the bulk of this week wrapping up the first verse and starting on the second verse. My process for writing lyrics these days consist of rotating the following methods:

  • Lock myself in with the piano, my journal and my pen. Keep playing out the instrumental to test out different flows/words

  • When I hit a wall with the first method I recite my lyrics as if poetry (or a monologue) and try to wring out the direction of the next few unwritten lines

  • When I hit a wall with the second method I play the full instrumental (the existing working version I have set up so far) and vibe out to the instrumental until the space of the song fleshes out more

I think it’s a juggling act between

  • Writing lyrics that make sense

  • Writing melody/rhythms that are pleasing to listen to/sing

  • Writing melody/rhythms/lyrics that fit the emotional score of the song at that current moment in time

In terms of the overall song’s progress—I plan to finish writing lyrics and arranging the song structure by the end of next week. From there I’ll spruce up the production and move into mixing.

Production wise I’m debating whether to keep it very simple and straightforward—almost ballad like—with just a piano and maybe some light drums OR to let myself get kinda carried away with foley, different vocal effects (like the one I have set up on the “wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait a minute” part), bass, etc. I’m leaning towards the second mainly because I think it’ll be more interesting and I want to fully flesh out where the singer of the song is located/singing from.

On the other hand I’ve been listening to Michael Jackson’s Love Never Felt So Good (Original Version) and it sounds incredible. If I force myself to make songs sound great without throwing so many bells and whistles—relying mostly on the emotional score of the vocals—that would be a good skill to learn… It truly blows me away how good this version of Love Never Felt So Good is. The version with Justin Timberlake is amazing as well but it relies so much on the instrumental to bring up the energy. On a side note it’s incredible that there’s three (third one) separate released versions of this song. All similar enough but different enough to show what a difference the production can make.

If I had to choose a favorite I’d pick the original version. Such a simple arrangement (just piano, vocals and snaps!) that works because the underlying song and lyrics and emotions are on point. Another point about this song—the mixing sounds super cohesive. You can imagine yourself in the room with the singer and the piano and the finger snaps.

That’s it for the music updates. In terms of life updates—it’s been a fire week. The full family set (me, Mom, Dad and Chimpy Chimperson) was present to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. I was outvoted by the family and we decided to go camping in Big Sur this year.

I—as most of my friends may know—am a reluctant outdoors person. Years of growing up with adventurous parents have led to forced excursions on hiking trips, skiing trips, and camping trips. Every time I protest Mom tells me to get off my lazy ass and prods me into going. I usually end up enjoying it when I’m actually there.

This trip was no exception.

First we stopped by to see the Elephant seals.

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Beautiful majestic creatures! Wonderful kings and queens of the sea that humble us with their presence and remind us that perhaps we are not the alpha predator in every single setting after all, right?

WRONG! Here’s what surprised me the most:

  • The size: Possibly the size of a Mini Cooper. If one of them lay on top of my I have no doubt I’d die from suffocation

  • The smell: Imagine rotten fish sitting in a compost bin in the middle of a very sunny summer and you’re at a fraction of how bad they actually smelled. First time in a long time I considered throwing up on a smell alone.

  • The laziness: maybe it was the time of day or year but they just lay in the sand very occasionally making a sound or throwing sand up onto their bodies

Seals aside the rest of the trip went more or less as expected. Big Sur was incredibly beautiful:

Then we came back on Sunday and cooked a late Thanksgiving meal. I cooked mac n cheese, Chimpy cooked stuffing and mashed potatoes, Mom cooked broccoli salad and corn and we finished with some pecan pie.

We wrapped up the night listening to this wonderful Thanksgiving song made by what appears to be an up and coming new artist.