Fresh Out of the Oven

 New song:

Thanks for listening. 

Flower Moon

Today is the flower full moon. Spring is in bloom.

 

Perhaps that has something to do with my exceptionally productive day. I read, graded and commented upon over two hundred pages worth of student research papers and essays. After that, I worked on a new song for a while. I had come up with a working chorus for it a couple of days ago, built upon a chord progression and vocal melody that I've been playing around with for a few weeks now. It's really fun to play, and catchy. It's been stuck in my head ever since I started working on it. I usually consider that to be a good sign.

 

The chorus that I landed on the other day seems to have stuck, so I worked on lyrics for three verses that logically lead to the repetition of those lines. After several hours, I have what resembles the first draft of another song. I'll post updates as I continue to work on it.

Speaking of which, Dust Jacket, which I recently posted, is now on its nineteenth version and counting. I keep re-recording the vocals, then re-posting the song. I'm still not completely happy with it, but it is gradually getting better. Once I have a full album worth of new material, I plan to go back and re-record all of these songs anyway, so it might be close enough for now. 

 

I also spent a couple of hours today looking up and practicing a bunch of kids' songs. I'll explain that some other time. 

 

Unabridged

Here is a very early version of the song that I've been working on most recently:

 

As of now, it's still almost six and a half minutes long. I may yet trim it down as I re-record the various tracks. This song is very much a work-in-progress.

 

 

Lyrics:

 

A silver bell above the door
The sense memories of a second-hand bookstore
The smell of paper, mold and dust
Curiosity and wanderlust

See the world through others’ eyes
Imagine how it feels to empathize
Between these covers we are bound
Where the truth in our fiction is found

    My love’s an open book
    It’s the kind of storyline
    You might be inclined to overlook
    The dust jacket
    Is worn and tattered
    Does it matter? Have a look
    My love’s an open book

Place my heart upon the shelf
Search my mind for meaning outside of myself
Trying to find the words to express
This happiness and loneliness that coexist

All that is mine is my perspective
And still I know it’s all subjective
I’ll share my heart with you
All I want to tell you is the truth

    My love’s an open book
    It’s the kind of storyline
    You might be inclined to overlook
    The dust jacket
    Is worn and tattered
    Does it matter how it looks?
    My love’s an open book

The rest of this story is yet unwritten
We don’t even know what we’ve been missing
May our lives be blessed with laughter
Maybe love finally wins forever after

I want to know who you are
To be with you beneath the stars
Make a wish, blow a kiss
Remember this moment of bliss

    My love’s an open book
    It’s the kind of storyline
    You might be inclined to overlook
    The dust jacket
    Is worn and tattered
    Doesn’t matter, take a look
    My love’s an open book
    My love’s an open book
    My love's an open book

 

© 2025 Zach Sands, PhD

 

Taking Shape

I didn't play much music on Friday, so I made up for it yesterday by dedicating most of the day to working on a song. I had a couple chord progressions that were ready to go. I spent the bulk of the afternoon writing and rewriting lyrics. 

 

Once it started to feel like a (nascent version of a) complete song, I took a break and ate dinner, after which I recorded a few basic tracks. The song was initially over seven minutes long. I am now in the process of whittling it down.

 

When I re-recorded it today, I played at a faster tempo, which got it down to about six. I also changed the key to something that fits my voice a little better. The song is tentatively called Dust Jacket. Once I have a decent version of it, I'll share it with you. Stay tuned.

Placeholders

Whenever I write a song, I always start with the music and then write lyrics that fit the meter and vibe. Sometimes these songs come together fairly quickly, but usually, they exist as instrumental tracks for months or even years before I come up with the words to accompany the riffs and chord progressions. 

 

Case-in-point: I wrote the music for Pablo Fiasco over a year before I crafted lyrics that seemed to fit. Even though it wasn't yet a finished song (and is still a work-in-progress, for that matter), I recorded early versions of it a long time ago, mostly so that I wouldn't forget it. In order to keep tabs on it as a saved file, I had to give it a name. As such, for most of its existence, Pablo Fiasco was an instrumental track known (only to me, and the guy who was playing drums with me for a little while) as The Ultimate Train Dodge. 

 

Yes, that's a nod to the movie Stand By Me, and no, that didn't end up having anything to do with the song. Sometimes these early placeholder names factor into the lyric-writing process, but more often, they do not. They are just there for my own reference. 

 

This past weekend, I recorded the first multi-track versions of a few more songs that I've been working on, none of which have much in terms of lyrics at this point. For the time being, they are called Talking Jive, It Could Have Been Worse, and Chrysalism, as those were the names that popped into my head when I was considering what kind of vibe each of these songs has, knowing that I had to save them as something. Talking Jive started as a thumping bassline, It Could Have Been Worse is built around a piano part that I wrote a while back, and Chrysalism began its journey as a chord progression on acoustic guitar. We shall see how they mutate as I continue to move forward in writing them. 

 

In addition to these, I still have a few more songs to record that I have not yet written lyrics to, either, though the vocal melodies are starting to take shape. With those, I may work them out on acoustic instruments first, which is how I usually do it, although it is kind of nice having a drum track to keep it all in line. 

 

In any case, it seems that a new album is indeed coming together, even though it's still kind of in soft-focus. The more I work on these songs, the more they will likely inform how I continue to develop the others, ideally moving them all toward some kind of stylistic and thematic cohesion that binds them together. That's the idea, anyway.

 

I'm old school, and I like to think in terms of albums, even if I'm generally only focused on one song at a time. Having recorded "sketches" of these songs, such as those that I put together over the weekend, gives me something tangible to work with, even if they don't yet have words or even permanent titles. They now exist outside of my head, which is an important step in the right direction. 

 

As someone who grew up in the days of copying albums onto cassette tapes, I always shoot for around forty-five minutes as the ideal length for an album. Each of my six existing albums is designed to fit on one side of a 90-minute tape, just in case you happen to be stuck with only 1980s technology to get your music fix. 

 

Album number seven, which is also yet to be titled, shall be approximately that length as well. I now have most of the music written; it's just a matter of writing the rest of the lyrics and then recording versions of these songs that I am happy enough with to officially release them. They are slowly coming together, one step at a time.

 

Thank you for supporting independent art. This is how it happens. Creation is a process.