Category: Behind the Song

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Thoughts on Production

Yesterday as I was driving willy-nilly across Southern Indiana, somewhat lost and going in the wrong direction, Fancy Car came up on the playlist and I was so tickled with it I played it twice. This was followed directly by one of the songs from Celestial Tryst, Stargazing, and I played that twice too.

I laughed with delight. All of that hard work became this. If you could see me, I’m gesturing. My imperfect works out in the world holding what value they will to the listeners who hear them and play them more than once. Working with Rosalie on both Celestial Tryst and Patchwork Blue has been extraordinary. She pushes me past my perfectionist tendencies where I would maybe get bogged down by doubt and self-consciousness.

Even as I’m busy producing – audio, video, artwork, CDs, social media content, it was good to be lost driving and going the wrong direction because it brought me to the realization of accomplishment, a moment to enjoy something I created.

I found the way to my destination eventually.

If you haven’t taken a moment to listen to Celestial Tryst, I hope you press play and listen to all three tracks. We worked thematically on these songs. I hope you enjoy them.

Thank you for your support and encouragement.

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Christmas Carol ( A Christmas Carol)

Some of you may remember the piano piece: Christmas Carol Draft Project and the lyrics which were from 12/13/2020

Well, I’ve gone and done it – here’s a version of the lyrics with the original piano (some editing and arranging)

May your holidays be peaceful, your friends and family kind and loving, and may your slide into the New Year be easy and relaxing.

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Mixtures Poetica Addition: At The Water Met

January 23, 2021, I wrote the poem: At the Water Met

The poem is a story about awakening, and the longing to rest easy in a disconnect from the world and the events in it. It is a cry for peace, as well as an answering to the call that is life and responsibility. There are dragons and aliens – symbols of power and otherness indicating a universal connection to energies we don’t fully understand which support humanity’s growth (we hope!).

For a while now, I have been playing with this -trying to get the music just right, and testing this kind of vocals or that kind of vocals, and I just couldn’t get it the way it needed to be until recently.

Here’s the spoken word with soundscape version of At The Water Met which will be on the someday forthcoming collection of pieces called Mixtures Poetica which is the follow up to the EP Poetic Mixtures, available on streaming platforms globally.

Here be dragons!
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Previews of Upcoming Music Releases

I’ve been working in the studio this week, and brought a couple of tracks to completion.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I’m grateful to have such fulfilling work.

Fancy Car is a song about keeping at it (the music) even with self-doubt, and with some discouragement. What’s also true is that I’ve had a great deal of encouragement and it’s good to remember the sources.

I’ve played out and had good responses and bad responses. I practice more.

I love the encouragement. When someone tells me my song has touched them, there’s no feeling better.

If I don’t know you, I may not let your opinion derail me.

Streaming release December 2, 2022

Updated vocals, edited, and mastered A Truth And A Lie for distribution. It really took me a while to figure out what needed to change, and how to change it, but I’m pretty happy with where it is now.

I tend to write love songs, and break-up songs, but A Truth And A Lie is about political disillusionment with our entrenched systems. I’m tired of people taking office and becoming politicians who don’t follow through with the ideals that get them elected. I wanted to express my sadness, and anger, and the hopelessness I sometimes feel with the process. I believe the only way we can address the things that are wrong with us – our society, our culture, our world – is to try to see what is happening as truly as possible. And in a world of spin, it is increasingly more difficult to wade through information which is usually presented through the filter of someone else’s agenda.

Also, wait until you see the full cover! 🙂

Tentative release date: December 21, 2022
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Behind the Song: All My Efforts In Vain

This song is a culmination and tribute to the many years I tried to play and study music
that continually got lost in life’s struggles. In the past five years, I have steadily and concertedly
stuck to playing piano, singing and studying music. And although it seems like all my efforts
have been in vain, this ending song on the album spells a small measure of
happiness. From my heart to head, the lyrics and music flowed.

Rosalie Robison
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Behind the Song: Bottle of the Blues

I wrote this song thinking of the line from Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know that goes “You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness,” and how even so, we seek out love and connection with others.

“Like resignation to the end, always the end”

Gotye’s song is, of course, beautiful and sad, and poignant, about endings and final words to lovers beyond our reach.

As Rosalie once said of Bottle of the Blues, “This is a kind of mood.”

Perhaps the addiction is to a darker shade of sadness, one with brittle cracks, and jagged edges.

It’s about beginnings, and connection even in the midst of pain and suffering.

This is a kind of mood, and not everyone will understand.

For those who do, I’m sorry.

Lyrics here

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Behind the Songs: Mixtures Poetica Preview Tracks

Previews of the tracks for the upcoming album Mixtures Poetica album are now posted on SoundCloud with more to come in the following weeks.

Mixtures Poetica is the follow up album to the previously released EP Poetic Mixtures which was an exploration of audio techniques combining poetic elements with soundscapes for mood and setting, and can be found on many platforms.

One of the things I love about Puddle of Words (written first on this very blog here) is that it really captures the essence for me of how books can pull you right into them, and the invitation to read together. Those favorite books are the ones we want our people to read and share in the story, the experience, the characters!

With Eternal Constellation, I really struggled to capture the feel and texture and delivery that I wanted for it. I woke up one morning with the idea for a stronger speaking element, and the resulting track has an irony about it that emphasizes how a step towards self-centeredness (being true to self and one’s intuition) combats people pleasing conformity, but there has to be balance so that becoming self-centered (in the selfish sense) is avoided.

I had a lot of fun making these, and enjoy listening to them. I hope you enjoy them too!

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Behind the Song: 10 Cent Angel

Patchwork Blue Album

You don’t look back. You fly.

Leaving
Being Uncomfortable
Meeting Angels
Turning it around

10 Cent Angel is about leaving – not the nostalgic adventure, but the one where staying would mean the death of spirit, destruction. This is the song for those who walked, or ran away, and who maybe looked back once or twice and kept going.

This is for those who want to go, who need to go, or who have considered it. If you understood the fuel behind the leaving, you might understand how it wouldn’t be as true if it had been done differently.

This song is also for those met along the path, who shared a part of the journey. Good company. Angels taking care of angels. Shelters in the storm. Those kind words, and unexpected generosity. Thank you.

And this is for the gossips left behind – the petty speculation  and mean-spirited focus are part of the whole problem with humanity. Turn your mind to helping yourself and others.

And lastly this song for those who take advantage  of others’ youth, innocence, and naivete – you never win, nor will you ever win.

Wendy Kheiry