"Real"
..is about knowing your core self and remaining true to it despite the vast changes or pressures we might feel in the world around us. The song begins as a rubato ballad, which shifts into a latin groove and continues to throw in sonic surprises the whole song! The groove and feel shifts are meant to mirror the daily chaos we feel, while the lyrics encourage strength and resolve as the guiding force from beginning to end.
The song weaves a ballad into a samba inspired groove into a *quite not half time* tempo and groove change into the synth happy Soul/R&B vibe. The latin groove was partially inspired by our (Adam and I) mutual love for Chick Corea's "Spain" and "Armandos Rhumba". The tempo change was kind of a happy accident in some ways, Adam made this really crunchy, Dilla-esque drum groove and the vocals really just slid over it into this funky tempo. I was listening to a lot of Anderson Paak at the time, so one can imagine the impulse. Another special note about this production is the muted trumpet parts I recorded cup, harmon, glass ash tray (it's a cooler plunger and was sitting around the studio) and flugels. The harmon in particular has this moment after the big synth transition drum hit section where Adam melded the decaying synth into the start of the harmon (time and space section). The pitch, tone and everything was shaped to make it seem as if there was no beginning harmon sound or ending synth sound.
Lyric wise, I remember writing this when I was extremely frustrated with a few guys being indecisive about how they felt as well as being constantly pressured by the general LA vibe of being all puffed in the chest for very shallow and vain reasons. I have always been a person of substance and desiring those around to also care about being themselves and not these clones of capitalistic expectations. We are heavily marketed to and expected to follow trends in fashion, stock, media, art, etc... I prefer to just live a life I am proud of regardless of any trends or correlation to marketing schemes (like companies marketing "green" values and "Black lives matter" values to customers because it's seen as a good way to gain customer trust, but not actually caring about the issues. All this to say that I know no one is perfect, but it's about intention, education and constantly evolving as a human.
ART
My friend Patricia Lewis aka Melo Gía created this from a selfie I took while in Adam's studio during one of the many quarantine studio weekends. She used procreate along with her amazing art skills and made with many layers and detail. She is a singer, percussionist, recording engineer in training, producer, writer, activist and all around a very accomplished friend and colleague =)
At Moon Ranch there are stars, hot tubs and a strange stillness. I am from rural, middle of nowhere land and it still becomes easy to forget what things are like outside the massive human conglomerate that is Los Angeles. Anyways, we rested, cooked dinner, had wine, sang songs, took pictures and kept up the appearance of freewheeling Millenials discovering nature in a luxurious alternate reality. Regardless of appearance, the respite was much needed and I am very grateful for such great friends like Tina and Z.
Joshua Tree reminded me faintly of Burning Man and the beauty of adventuring far and wide. I am about to release a song that I wrote after coming home from my 2nd year at Burning Man. I tried many things for the first time because I am one who must learn through doing, but I also found a feeling of trust, love and hope that I had not experienced since my terrible breakup a year prior. For anyone heartbreak is absolutely wrenching, sometimes a complete ripping of the soul. Heartbreak meets writer/creator, and kills the ideals of love, trust and vision. How strange and joyous is that feeling of hope, the spring of our rebirth and the rebirth into spring. Through this experience, I was able to rediscover a part of myself I had written off as the hopeless romantic. The watching of too many noir films meshed with the reality that I had felt solely as a warm body harboring a cold, empty soul to the destiny of love. All along learning that with love and the rediscovery of finding self-love in all the conventional and unconventional ways candles to begin to light the way.