SMOKE
I wake up, and it’s still dark. Oh, I find that it’s easier on my heart.
When the world is asleep and I can just be anything I need to be
But you do what you have to do
When the fire starts to burn
And you can’t see in front of you
And it all goes up in smoke
Yeah everything goes up in smoke
We used to look at the same stars. It was a way to keep you close
When we were so very far apart, Oh I’ll never forget those stars
But you do what you have to do
When the fire starts to burn
And you can’t see in front of you
And it all goes up in smoke
Yeah everything goes up in smoke
This song was inspired by a vocal pedal I got. I turned the delay all the way up, and just started “oohing” into it while I played some jazzy chords. The oohs started making these cool chords, because none of the notes were ever stopping. I mumbled something that kinda had the same melody as the chorus, and when I listened back to the recording, I knew it was special. Not only did my wife’s father pass away this year, but my good friend’s son died super early into his life. I just saw a lot of sadness this year, but I also watched both of them work hard through their pain, and they both brought joy to a lot of people. I was thinking about how I would react to the passing of a loved one that was that close to me, and the only thing I could think is that “You do what you have to do.” There isn't a way to grieve that works for everybody. I took out the vocal delay thing that originally inspired the song, but I still wanted it to have a unique feel to it. There are tons of other vocal effects and weird things going on. One interesting thing is that there is a vocoder on the drums, my friend (who I mentioned above) suggested I try adding Vocoder to drums sometime, and it just so happened that I did it on the song inspired by him.