"Birthright" & how it was made.

"birthright" is the 18th song in the yearbook series, track 3 of the "march" ep. early on in the making of yearbook, I asked my friend jon foreman of switchfoot if he'd be up for being a guest on a song at some point throughout the year. being the rad dude that he is, he said he would be up for it. at that time, I had no song in particular in mind, so jon and I just kept in touch for the first several months about it. when the chords and melody for birthright came into view, I knew it felt like the right song to invite jon to be a part of. he and the switchfoot gang were in the studio hard at work making their "vice verses" album, so I had doubts that the timing of my invitation would even be doable... but to my surprise, jon was able to make time to record this and did such a beautiful job.

it wasn't until the lyrical theme of birthright came together that i felt like this song was the perfect fit for jon and I to sing together on. I knew right away that in order to do a "duet" of sorts, the lyric subject matter had to feel right.

i wanted to tell small fables about family - little portraits of brothers and sisters throughout the verses, born into different circumstances. the first line that directed this theme was:

"she was raised by wolves, in the warmth of their fur."

that line definitely paved the path for each of the following verses to play with hard and soft images in just about every line. I enjoyed playing with those contrasts in this song.

to me personally, each "character" in these mini fables represent someone I know. without directly saying who, I can say that each of these mini fables do tell a truth. (hence the end lyric, "our fables tell our truths")

for the general fable imagery, I was inspired by the chronicles of narnia.

the resolve of each of these small stories is in the chorus lyric. it was inspired by a thought that I had a while back - although extremely simple and has probably been said an infinite amount of times before, I believe that pain finds us anywhere. to me that means that all pain is valid, no matter what situation it finds us in - rich, poor, healthy, unhealthy, etc. it doesn't matter, pain finds us anywhere and should need no qualifiers to be considered valid. and out of this pain, we can become stronger and more whole.

"Right or wrong, Tension makes us stronger By making us weak When we needed to be.

Privilege and pain When compared look the same. Comprehension begins When we pull back the lens."

although each verse tells a different fable about different brothers and sisters, I also intended this song to be read as one story about 1 brother and 1 sister, telling their stories from different perspectives. I liked the idea of having multiple dimensions to how this story can be read. and I liked the idea of two very different experiences and how on the surface one looks better than the other, but in reality - the pressures of either life presents similar challenges and hurts.

I really had fun writing in this fairy-tale, fable-like fashion.

musically, this song was also a ton of fun to piece together. Dan Perdue did a beautiful job recording piano (on my fav upright piano ever!), some key patches and bass. Jason Toth did a fantastic job on drums. and of course, Jon Foreman did a truly beautiful job as well. truly blessed to have my friends to be a part of these songs that mean so much to me!

for the guitar, if my memory serves me correctly, I recorded my baby Taylor acoustic guitar on this. could be my martin, but i am pretty sure it's my baby taylor. really pleased with the overall acoustic sound here... mr. John Goodmanson's mix work always makes things sound good and right. (he has magic!)

I am really pleased with how this song turned out from recording, to concept, to getting make music with friends that I love.

thanks for reading, gang!

love, ryan

listen:

lyrics:

BIRTHRIGHT

she was raised by wolves, in the warmth of their fur. surrounded by fangs, she knew that she was secure.

language barriers made no difference at all. when you’re truly cared for, there’s no purpose for walls.

his fences stood tall as the shoulders of old. but he dreamt that one day maybe he’d break the mold.

but time shyly stands still when you watch it unfold. from these ivory towers freedom is only a ghost.

privilege and pain when compared look the same. comprehension begins when we pull back the lens.

right or wrong, tension makes us stronger by making us weak when we needed to be.

they made her their queen on the day she was born. they placed on her a crown she wasn’t ready for.

but all impossible odds foreshadow our means, like paving a road to kingdoms we’ve never seen.

he woke up one day, written out of the will. they swore he'd be okay, with lesser shoes to fill.

“what doesn't kill us makes us stronger,” they say. our only birthright in this life is the breath that we take.

privilege and pain when compared look the same. comprehension begins when we pull back the lens.

right or wrong, tension makes us stronger by making us weak when we needed to be.

our fables tell our truths.

"Outlines" & how it was made.

"outlines" is the 17th song in the yearbook series... track #2 on the "march" ep. when i write songs and prep them for recording, it is most common for me to have a fairly clear picture in mind of the overall shape of the song - the general instrumentation, where each of the sections should land (arrangement), etc. however, with "outlines," I approached the whole process without any clue of what the final picture might look like.

much like the song "wires," "outlines" opens with a melody created within my iPhone, and that's exactly where this song began in the writing process as well. I let that melody loop over and over and just began adding layer after layer of ideas... I started with electric guitar, and discovered a bunch of chords and ideas I liked, which was very helpful in finding the shape of the song.

a day or so adding and subtracting layers, I finally unearthed the overall "outline" (get it?) and heart of the song, which of course led to even more new layers and ideas. then my pal Dan and I explored some ideas on our keyboards and found some nice textures that filled in the cracks. Dan, added bass and did a superb job adding thickness to the song.

it was so much fun hunting for a mix of electronic sounds that played well with more organic "band" ish sounds (ie. drums, pianos, bells, etc) - for a song very much about origins (more on that later) - i liked the idea of natural sounds underneath modern and more electric sounds.

once all of the pieces were laid in place, I invited my good pal, jason toth to play drums. (jason appears all over my "storyboards" album and is a fantastic musician. fact.) his performance definitely gives this song its pulse.. the last minute or two of snare runs is pretty impressively fast - he didn't even pass out while doing takes. a total pro. we had a lot of fun recording him for this, and watching him sweat. ha.

the lyrics came next, as they often do... but in this song's case, I had no vocal melodies in mind just yet. usually, in the lyric-writing process, I will play around with vocal melodies while the song's shape is coming into view. but "outlines" was nearly finished musically before I payed around with any vocal ideas and lyrics.

the lyrics, and the overall concept came together fairly quickly on this one.

I wanted to write a song from Adam's perspective (of the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story) - this theme might be most evident in the lyric:

"garden of eden, lower your branches for another year." 

so I imagined what Adam's thoughts might have been in the aftermath of eating the apple. pleading, reasoning, hoping for and finding something more. the title "outlines" refers to this origin story, as the outline of who we are today. (hence the more organic sounds, mixed with more modern, electric sounds.)

thanks for reading!

much love, ryan

listen:

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/45645417" params="auto_play=false&show_artwork=true&color=000000" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

lyrics:

OUTLINES

hidden in plain sight, the world is an outline of shapes i used to know.

like pulling ribbon, all of a sudden the curtains draw back slow.

though i’ve been distracted, i am caught up in static no more.

garden of eden, lower your branches for another year.

i’m dust, unsettled until they reappear.

though my hands are prone to trial and error, i’m crossing my fingers for something to hold.

i can’t help but hope for brighter, here in the shadows of letting go.

God, may these good intentions be the outline of so much more.

when i breathe, from now on, i’ll mean it more than ever i did before.

Welcome!!

WELCOME TO THE NEW WEBSITE!

I'm very, very pleased to unveil the brand new official Sleeping At Last website!! Having a new website is a lot like moving into a new home... It feels new, clean and has a nice "new home" smell. This new website is my new home on the internet and I am so excited to invite you in - housewarming party!!
Some new features I'd like to point out:
  • "Tour" - In honor of the upcoming Spring Tour supporting Christina Perri, the "tour" section has been revamped. It now features google-map integration and, my favorite feature: the ability to "request a song" at any of the upcoming shows! No guarantees of course, but it'll be so great to hear from you guys as to which songs you'd like to hear, where! Check it out.
  • "How It Was Made" - Since Yearbook released, I've been writing some behind-the-scenes blog posts about each song and how it came to be. I'm still making may way through the 36 Yearbook songs, but I plan to do a post for every song I've ever released. Please take a moment to check out the currently posted ones in this new section of the site, here and check back often for updates
  • "Music"  - Entirely redesigned! Now featuring Lyrics to the entire discography, loads of audio and tons and tons of liner-note-ish information about each release! "Read all about it!"
The multi-talented, Ryan Strong is responsible for building this sucker from the ground up. He did such a great job! (quite the internet carpenter, I'd say!) Privileged to work alongside him on this! The handwriting was done by no other than, Brandon Horne (the very same, who won the Yearbook handwriting contest way back when!) Huge thanks to each of them, and to my pal Chris Howell, who lent us a hand in getting this thing up and running.
 
Enjoy my new internet home!!
 
SPRING TOUR

Tour begins tomorrow (Saturday!) and I can't even tell you how excited I am!! I hope to see and meet many of you on this tour, and cannot wait to play these songs for you!! Check out all of the dates and if you can make it out, request a song via the tour page!

Check out the dates here!

See you soon!!

Much love, Ryan - Sleeping At Last

"Pacific" & how it was made.

"pacific" is the 16th "yearbook" song, track 1 of the "march" ep.

i wrote this piece of music about a month or two before yearbook began... around that time, i saw a film called "the secret of kells" - an irish animated film, which was nominated for an oscar in 2010 for "best animation." i absolutely loved it. it's beautiful, haunting and inspiring. so, immediately after seeing it, i scoured the internet to find anything i could about who made this film and when and where can i see more. i found that it was directed by a gentleman by the name of tomm moore, who created "cartoon saloon" in ireland, a fantastic animation studio. i stumbled upon a "conceptual" trailer for tomm's next film, "song of the sea" and i was awe-struck. it was some of the most beautiful animation i have ever seen...

being someone filled with hopes of scoring films one day, i thought it might be a lot of fun to try my hand at writing music for this conceptual trailer. it already had lovely music in the trailer online (as heard in the trailer above), so there was no intention of "replacing" anything - it was just such a beautiful trailer that i felt inspired to write something to it, and i thought why not try my hand at "scoring" it for my own amusement.

(note: to hear "pacific" paired with the trailer, hit the mute button on the concept trailer, press play on both videos above)

so i sat down at my piano, with the trailer running on loop through my ipad. a day or so later, "pacific" was the result. i was really pleased with how it turned out, so (again, totally something i've never done) i wrote to tomm moore via twitter and asked if i could send him this little piece of music i wrote, inspired by "song of the sea." to my surprise, he replied and welcomed me sending it over. he responded incredibly kindly and it just about made me year to hear it.

"song of the sea" has yet to be released, and i believe (having had the pleasure of keeping in touch with mr. moore over the last couple years) it appears to still be in the production phase. i cannot be more excited to see this film though.. seriously, how gorgeous is that trailer?! although my music has nothing officially to do with it, i have watched this concept trailer probably a thousand times and i just think it's going to be a masterpiece.

so when i wrote this (right before "yearbook" began) i knew that i wanted to include this piece of music on one of the yearbok eps... but i held onto it until the right month came along.

"march" felt perfect for "pacific" for a few reasons:

 

  • something about the spring coming into view, makes me dream of the ocean. 
  • my family and i have had the incredible privilege of visiting hawaii many, many times and it always seems to be around this time. so i've enjoyed the pacific ocean in march many times throughout my life.
  • i got married in hawaii and the wedding was in march! so "pacific" was a perfect fit for the "march" ep.

 

originally this song was the exact length of the concept trailer - about a minute long. but when putting it together for the ep, i wanted to extend it. which created a unique problem -

most songs on yearbook, i recorded my piano a certain way that i like. i leave the mics set up and when i record my piano, i have the assurance of knowing it will sound like it did before, exactly as i like it. for "pacific" however, i recorded it a bit differently... i recorded the main piano with a small recorder, but i couldn't remember where the recorded was sitting when i originally recorded this piece of music. so in order to keep the performance of the original recording (which i very much intended to do) i had to figure out a way to add the new extension without it sounding like i started recording a totally different piano sound. so after several tests and trial and errors to figure out how i got the piano sound i originally recorded - i finally found a match, and continued on with the extended arrangement.

because the pianos were recorded with a small hand-held recorder, there were all sorts of background noises (a few coughs in the other room and tv chatter) - again, i had to decide whether or not to keep my original performance, or start over... but being the stubborn person that i am, i went with keeping the original at any cost!

i sent the piano track to my pal, jason ward at chicago mastering (the very same amazing team who mastered every yearbook ep! if you're ever looking for mastering work, use them! amazing.) and asked if he had any magic abilities to clean up the background noises and hums and coughs and whatever... and he did an insanely good job. sent it back and it sounded perfect. so my stubbornness paid off.

a long, long while ago my brother and sister-in-law bought me a violin as a gift. i adore it and play it often, however it is by far the most challenging musical instrument i have ever touched. and it sounds that way too when i practice. on this song (and many more throughout yearbook actually) i wanted to give it a shot and record some violin parts the best i can. usually i will write the arrangement and have skilled string players play it. but for this song and most others that i actually played the strings on, i just do lots of takes of misc. i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - it has character. wonky character maybe, but character nonetheless.

added a bunch of other subtle layers throughout and really had fun putting this one together. it's the second instrumental song in the yearbook series, so it was nice to give my voice a break and dive into a film-scoring type of mindset here.

thanks for reading!

much love, ryan

Cart (0)