Songwriting
Out of my Box
But for the first time in years | I step out of my box
Can’t wait to see you again | Been out here in the boondocks
I don’t know, I don’t know anymore how to walk into a bar.
The COVID-19 Pandemic has been a real pain in the ass. I know. Hot take. Endless weeks and months holed up in our homes and nearly all social connection happening in Zoom meetings where we’re all confined to these little boxes where we slowly lost our ability to connect with each other due to weird lag or our inexplicable inability to unmute before talking. It’s not that we couldn’t leave, but there was no where to go.
This song is about the hope that comes with the long COVID winter beginning to thaw. As a musician spending this time alone in my studio it’s been a great opportunity to work on all sorts of projects but I think the thing we all want the most is to be able to play live and connect with people again. In person. In 3 dimensions. And I’m not even sure I remember how to do that.
But it is time for us to step out of our metaphorical boxes and cautiously begin to meet in the big world for coffee or dinner or maybe a show. But if you’re not feeling well — stay the hell home.
The Song
I had a blast writing this song. I experimented with a lot of techniques including lots of vocal doubling and a bit of help with some alignment of the vocal tracks. I spent a month in a class to help me with my singing voice and it’s finally getting to the point where I feel pretty good about how I sound. I knew I was getting somewhere with the chorus when every time it played while I was mixing, I had to sing the “Been out here in the boondocks” line as it flew by. Occasionally embellishing it with lines like “Been out here playing Roblox” or “Been out here with the Seahawks”.
I put myself in the position of a working musician who has been locked inside for the past couple of years. It’s been way longer than that since I played out live but I could imagine playing songs like this live and that helped with the writing and performance of this song. It’s been a long time, I know I’m way out of practice and I hardly even remember how to walk into a bar, let alone play at one, but here I am and I’ve come with my guitar.
