Never Had A Reason

Sonic Sparkle # 10

Apr 08, 2024

I have to be honest.

I’ve had this idea for a song- this exact recording I’m posting- kicking around inside my head and my Garageband files for well over five years now. I have long thought that I would add a second verse to it some day, and just…well…MORE to this recording, but I woke up today with a strong cup of clarity.

The fact is, that is not going to happen.

Today, my song and I both grew up a little. I came to terms with accepting it exactly the way it is, a little short but definitely sweet and most certainly punchy.

And it grew up out of the darkness of its digital dormancy and out into the light.

Today, I celebrate the release of Never Had A Reason.

Enjoy…..xo

the context

When I record digitally, in a DAW like Garageband or Ableton Live using midi and plugin’s, etc, I often end up writing a song in reverse. Rather than writing a complete song with lyrics and a mapped out arrangement FIRST, and then recording it, I will often sit down to just play with sounds, having no set agenda or destination. This free-wheeling and experimental approach to ‘sonic painting’ often inspires the birth of a song, that I then have to write lyrics for and impose a structure upon.

Never Had A Reason is one such song.

Once I have a nice hook happening, I look to add a vocal line next. The lyrics are sometimes improvised in the moment to formulate ideas for various melodies. But most often, they are inspired by randomly flipping open a journal and singing what’s written there. Magic often intervenes at this stage. My hand opens the book to the right page and my eyes land upon the right words.

A song is born.

Around 2017-2018, I was doing a lot of journalling about the damage of collectivist thinking. Group think. Not my cup of tea. And at that time, I did a lot of writing so I could work through why these ideologies are so unappealing to me.

I came to the conclusion that the kind of worldview that asks me to make assumptions about people I’ve never met is one that I reject.

Call me crazy, but I’m not going to hate groups of people (read: individual living breathing Humans) just because it’s trendy to do so.