30s30d: D24
“Where Am I?”
Prompt: when am I
Submission of Member: Shane (W?)
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Hey, just a reminder before I forget… I put a (?) next to the submitter’s name because we have two members named “Shane.” Y’all have been making fun of me about this lately- requiring full names when you submit prompts- but this is why. It’s more fun when we know whose the prompt is! So, please remember to at least include your first name and last initial when you submit your prompt, please. Thank you! Okay enough housekeeping, let’s go…
OH BOY was this one a doozy 😵💫
Okay - so right out of the gate I have to admit- that after writing this, recording the piano part (multiple takes to get it close), then doing a bazillion takes of JUST THE SINGING... I sat back down at my desk to write out this text to accompany the song, and then saw, to my dismay, that the prompt was actually "WHEN am I" 😵💫😑😖 ... oh well. Sorry, Shane!
It's probably for the best since my brain keeps going toward "when am I going to... feel better/get my shit together/get over this" with the songs this month so maybe we didn't need one more of those exactly.
It really took me a while to find something to cling to... I tried a few different instruments and really tried to get a few other ideas going first, but none of them stuck until I finally sat down at my busted Wurlitzer with this little seedling of an idea that's not totally unlike "Trying to Say Forever" or even Sia's "Breathe Me" - but that got me started on the melody for the verse.
It had kind of this musical theatre vibe to it, so I decided to pursue that. Again we're back into long rhythmic tongue-twister phrases. Honestly earlier in the night they were a LOT easier for me to perform vocally, but after spending time working out all the phrasing and singing it SO MANY TIMES, when I finally I got a take where all the parts were *close enough* that I could live with sharing it with you, I was so tired the performance is even further from proficient, IMO.
Truly, working on singing this to get it "on tape" for you just exposed and reminded me of all my vocal vulnerabilities. There once was a time where I wanted to pursue musical theatre professionally (like you couldn't tell), but a series of decisions, as well as limitations, led me astray and here we are. It's been ages since I've had any direction, guidance, or feedback.
(I have this friend and I'd love for her to maybe give this one a go since she can execute just about anything. It'd be interesting to hear a true singer of this genre perform the song how I'm imagining it.)
I really wanted there to be a "Defying Gravity" long-high-note moment in it, so there *should be* an almost-screeching nearly-two-octave glissando stretching up from "where" to an elongated "am I?!" all in one breath reaching through the next line ("After all this time,") coming out of that minor-y bridge into the last chorus. On this take, I didn't really execute that.
As a side-note, I specifically wanted that high note vowel to be an "ah" or "agh" so that it would elide with "After" all on one breath... "easily." 🤣 I mentally tried out some other lines but realized a modified version of the chorus would actually fit there pretty well, so I figured: "why make it harder than it needs to be?" and went with that.
Of course, also, I haven't touched piano keys in ages, so while I wouldn't have ever called myself proficient there, I was particularly rusty today. I realized pretty early on that I wasn't going to be able to execute this "live" for demo purposes (because of my ineptitude in both "keyboarding" and singing these challenging passages), so I ended up tracking it to a metronome with just me playing on one device, and then tracking singing along with it on another. Best I could do given the situation.
Maybe the twentieth vocal take I realized a songwriting faux-pas... that in the chorus I use "After all this time" and then "do you ever wonder sometimes" 🙄 the words make sense, but I really don't like to use such similar phrasing twice in the same song, let alone two lines apart. At that point, I had already invested so much time that I decided to let it slide for now.
I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with this song. I think it's pretty. I like that it exists. Not sure what will come of it...
If you like this kind of stuff, then I hope you like it! ❤️
Thank you so much for your support!
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