Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
Purchasable with gift card
name your price
about
Notes:
Over the weekend I went to the wedding of a friend of mine with whom I had lost touch in the ninth grade. He and I were very close friends, then life intervened and took us in different directions. Now years later I find myself looking in the window of a life I know nothing about. In some ways he seems very much the same as my childhood friend, but it is very clear to me that there has been an entire life’s story that has taken place since I truly knew him. I left my impressions of him frozen in time for more than a decade. I got to thinking that this same principle applies to so many people who have entered my life and who have subsequently gone in other directions.
When I think about the people in my life, I make certain assumptions about who they are based on what I know about them. I realize now that these assumptions are only based on what I think I know. In all likelihood, former acquaintances, best friends, girlfriends, classmates, colleagues, and even family members are different people than I assume them to be. Some of them may be radically different depending on their experiences since our paths have crossed. This is fascinating to me. This song is dedicated to everyone who I have lost track of. It is written in awe of the people that they very well might be, and with great love for them all.
Musically, this song began as an experiment. I thought it would be a good exercise to write a song in 5/4 time (as opposed to the typical 4/4 that the vast majority of western music is written in). For those of you unsure of what that means: each measure of music lasts for five beats rather than four (except for a few passages in this song that are written in 4/4). Of all the most common “alternative” time signatures, I find five to be the most daunting. Each time I have tried to write this way, the extra beat has made my brain hurt just a little bit while trying to come up with melodies, rhythms, and lyrics. It was good to step outside of my comfort zone, and it was a fun experiment. Next time, however, I would rather arrive at this time signature more naturally, out of the necessity of a melody that I have concocted, rather than by predetermination.
Here’s hoping your Monday doesn’t totally suck.
~Jesse
lyrics
Lyrics:
Are you in the world?
I’m buried in your old lives
I’m hidden from your new lives
I love you anyway
Whoever you may be
Well that’s different every day
And everyone I’ve met
Went off to live a new life
And the stories of their old lives
Were the preludes that I knew
And the histories of our new lives
Are revealed by very few
Tell me who you’ve been
And all the paths you’ve crossed
And all the love you’ve won
And everything you’ve lost
It’s everything you are
And everyone you’ll be
And everyone you’ve loved
And everything you see
And everything I thought
I knew them like my own
And I lost them and I froze them
And I lived some kind of life
And the peril in a friendship
That’s just falling out of sight
And the citizens of earth
They have stories they could tell you
And all the ones who knew you
They could benefit from yours
They could benefit from filling in the blanks
And opening the doors
All the things you might have been
And all you might have seen
My long lost friends
Tell me who you’ve been
And all the paths you’ve crossed
And all the love you’ve won
And everything you’ve lost
It’s everything you are
And everyone you’ll be
And everyone you’ve loved
And everything you see
Thin Lear's sophisticated rock music is tempered with soaring chamber pop accents and an undeniable gift for melody. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 30, 2020
Beautiful and mysterious folk-adjacent songs from this UK outfit that wreathe delicate acoustic guitar in mist-like synths. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 10, 2021
Released in 2001, “The Convincer” is a gentle gem in the Nick Lowe catalog; an anniversary edition provides opportunity for rediscovery. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 20, 2021
The Ohio songwriter navigates gender, queerness, class, and privilege through a powerful mix of country rock, folk ballads, and bluegrass. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 14, 2021
Rich and rococo indie pop songs define this LP from Franklin Gothic, a light psychedelic sheen washing over all of it. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 20, 2022
