#jetcoaster

This song is about true love and faith. It was also one of the first ones I wrote after my band Jetcoaster quietly disbanded at the end of 2013. It is also a song about changing directions. It was a tough decision to change directions and stop focusing on creating original music. But at the same time it was an obvious decision. As you can hear in the lyrics of this song, there is a weight that comes with putting all of your energies into an artistic endeavor with the ultimate direction of the project always in flux. Balanced by the beauty of sharing our hopes and dreams together and steering the ship always in the direction of our hearts. I wrote it from Sarah’s perspective, the greatest love I have ever known. The way she has beautifully stuck with me on this wild musical journey, even through the days I was sleeping in well past 10:30AM (a far away thought for us now that we are responsible early-rising parents.) Love is to be faithful. And to be faithful is to love. How lovely.

MUSIC MAN

Fortunes of Silver a Gold is a song about dreams. Similar to last week’s recording Sad Eyes, I wrote this one during the same time period in my life 10 years ago, feeling like there were a million ideas in my heart just waiting to pour out. This was one of them that came incredibly quickly, taking less than 15 minutes to complete on paper. The recording was another story, taking about 3 years until I had this version, which never did see a proper release. This song was inspired by the avant garde rockers of the 70s and 90s with their 20 layers of guitars and 10 minutes of solos thrown down in the middle (a la Smashing Pumpkins Pisces Iscariot.) The meat of this song is so much more important. I had moved to Toronto with my band from Calgary with humongous dreams, only to watch those dreams quickly turn back into clouds in the sky. After the dust had settled a few months later it was springtime of 2009 and I had a clear mind to write these lyrics. I remember sitting beside my little recording studio (a laptop with condensor mic and analog pre-amp all set up on a warped Ikea coffee table in my one bedroom apartment on Eglinton and Allan. The sun was pouring in from the south facing window which had a perfect view of downtown Toronto. And I thought how powerful the path really is. That walking it is the point. No turning back. And someday all will be realized and uncovered, which will be the point that we realize that the path itself was the very perfection we were seeking in the first place. It was like I was holding a mirror turned in on itself and for a few minutes I had all the answers to everything. How exciting! If only I could have held it a little longer, maybe it wouldn’t have taken 3 years to finally record this song!  Oh well, I suppose that was the point, wasn’t it? I love this song in its ridiculous unapologetic statement and length. Thank you to Sarah for the back-up vocals, Jonny for a million drum takes, and Nigel for the epic guitar solo that sounds like brilliant bolts of lighting crashing on a mountain in the middle of the night. Epic!

FORTUNES OF SILVER AND GOLD