About Our Lyrics…

OK, I feel like I need to start this post with a little disclaimer. It might sound as though I’m taking our BODY of ARTISTIC WORK very, very seriously. That isn’t the case. What we’ve written isn’t Shakespeare, and it doesn’t require a study guide to be enjoyed. Having said that, I love (love!!!) to play with words. And when I’m listening to new music, I delight in digging around in the lyrics, looking for connections and shades of meaning and moments of artistry. I’m writing this post because I’m betting I can’t be the only one. Joe is also a valuer of words (and a writer and general smart guy), so we worked hard on crafting our lyrics into something worth playing with, and I’m hoping that they will find their way into the hands of people who will enjoy them. Therefore, please hear the following information less in the voice of a pretentious professor and more in the voice of an excited artist who can’t help but share some of the background of the project she’s enjoyed so much. Deal? All right, then…here are a few hints for those who are interested in pulling apart what we’ve written.

1. These are not our own stories.

I mean, they’re ours in that we created them, but they’re not generally based on our own lives. Sometimes we’ll use our own experiences as a jumping off point, but by the time we finish, very little of our work is autobiographical. So if you’re looking to dig into the relationships and conflicts we tell about, you’ll have to look in the songs themselves for details–our life stories probably won’t help you.

I was surprised, incidentally, at how freeing it is to write this way. It not only makes the songwriting process a little safer (for example, my husband doesn’t ever have to fear that our own less-glorious moments are going to find their way in front of an audience in some dramatic ballad), but it also removes all storytelling limitations. We can explore any relationship, any event, any intriguing set of circumstances that catches our attention, not only those we’ve walked through ourselves.

2. Look for a specific or unusual angle.

You don’t have to go far to find a song that basically says “I want you,” or “I love you,” or “I lost you.” And far be it from us to say that those aren’t worthwhile stories to tell. But we’ve really enjoyed digging beneath the surface of those most-common storylines to find a scenario or perspective that we haven’t heard before. We often come back to the question “what if” as we write. Yes, he’s lost her, but what if he doesn’t understand her even when she’s not lost? Yes, she wants him, but what if there’s been an unspoken understanding between them for years and they’ve never acted on it? Yes, she loves him, but what if she tends to profoundly overthink everything? As a result, we’ve ended up with some complex characters of whom we’ve grown genuinely fond. Keying in to the peculiarities of their stories will help to shed light on why we like them so much.

3. Watch out for unreliable narrators.

Our characters, like real people, cannot always be believed. They are sometimes self-deceived, or deceitful, or manipulative, or simply wrong. Don’t take everything they say at face value.

4. We like layers.

In writing the songs on this album, we always got excited when we landed on lyrics that had multiple layers of meaning. OK, I got excited. I’m the excitable one. But even Joe would grin. One example that comes to mind is in the middle of verse two of “Never Went Back To The Moon:” “But who should be sorry? I cannot speak for you.” On one level, the narrator is expressing his inability to understand the woman’s perspective–he doesn’t want to impose his interpretation of their history on her. On another level, though, even asking the question implies that he might think no one is to blame. And on still another level, it’s pretty ironic, as he very much IS speaking for her. This is not a duet, and while the song paints a picture of a conversation happening over coffee, we never hear her thoughts directly. All we get is his monologue. Layers!! These make us happy.

There’s more to say–there is always more to say–but I’ll leave it there. Our hope is that if you are a words person (and if you are, we like you already), there will be enough lyrical substance in our songs to create some satisfying moments of exploration and discovery for you. And if you find a few words or lines that become your favorites for any reason at all, we would love to read about them in the comments below!