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HeartSongs - 20170731

  • Published in Columns

Welcome to HeartSongs, our regularly scheduled (probably) look at songs and the people who write them. We spoke to Charles Griffin Gibson AKA Chuck from New York City about his new single ‘New Yorker’. The song is free to download from bandcamp.

“I've done a lot of freelance work around the corner of 34th St. and 10th Ave. Right around there is this building with red neon letters that say "New Yorker". When you see it at night it has this Great Gatsby green light vibe. I don't remember what kind of mood I was in, but one night I saw it and the basic chorus just popped into my head. I stopped on the street and sang it into my iPhone. I would sing it to myself from time to time when I would see the sign, but otherwise I didn't think about it for like a year. Eventually I had some home studio time to mess around with and I found the recording and started to build the song out.

All the songs on the record have been written, recorded and mixed over a long period of time, and each one in it's own way feels like a science lab creation. Some have guitar parts that date back four years, drums recorded in a real studio, vocals I did a few weeks ago in the bathroom etc. Some of the songs have ideas from a brain (a younger me) that I don't recognize anymore. The whole record has been crafted in a very piecemeal fashion, just like the monster in Frankenstein. "New Yorker" is one of the songs that is a bit more contained / newer though. I'd say it was recorded and mixed within a six month period. The other reason why I'm calling these "Frankenstein Songs" is because as I was working on this album I started to feel like the monster from that story. I've spent a lot of time fighting my body. Diets, surgeries, cosmetic routines, exercise regiments etc. It's sort of like I'm the doctor and the monster actually. I think there's a lot of themes in the songs that speak to this idea of trying to force yourself, both body and soul, to become something different.

A lot of it is true, but I've borrowed a few details from other friends. I did move to NYC when I graduated college, just not the East Village. I didn't buy a bed in Queens, but my best friend did and he had a funny story about it. I did get a "cool" job at a "cool" office. I did start wearing black because everyone wears a lot of black here. I threw in the Billy Joel line because I saw him at Madison Square Garden this year and it doesn't get much more New York than that. Overall, I was just trying to get at the origin story, as I see it, of many young non-native New Yorkers.”

‘New Yorker’ Lyrics

When I graduated college

I moved into the east village

I got a job at a cool office

I got Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits

Huh-huh-huh

I found a couple bars to lay my head

And I drove to Queens and I bought a bed

I made a whole bunch of New York friends

And I wore all black cause everyone else did

Huh-huh-huh

And now I’m a New Yorker

At an art gallery downtown

I’m a New Yorker

Get the hell outta my way now

Yankees, Rangers, and Knicks

Theater, Pizza, Velvet Underground

I’m a New Yorker

Get the hell outta my way now and go die

Now I’m used to living hand to mouth

I go to Rockaway when it’s really hot out

I hate Williamsburg North, East and South

I know all the lunch spots in Midtown

Huh-huh-huh

I work so hard that my hair’s been gettin’ thin

I ain’t got no time to hit the gym

I picked up a little bit of Spanish

I’m a pretty smart guy, not for nothing

Huh-huh-huh

And now I’m a New Yorker

At an art gallery downtown

I’m a New Yorker

Get the hell outta my way now

Yankees, Rangers, and Knicks

Theater, Pizza, Velvet Underground

I’m a New Yorker

Get the hell outta my way now and go die

 

Go die

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HeartSongs - 20170724

  • Published in Columns

Welcome to HeartSongs, our regularly scheduled (probably) look at songs and the people who write them. We spoke to Kim Ware from Americana/indie-folk collective Good Graces about their recent single ‘Remember The Old School’

"I'm a member of a Facebook group called Theme Music. I haven't been as active recently as I once was, but the group inspired about half the songs on the new album, including "Old School." The way the group works, once every two weeks we're assigned a new "theme" to either write a song based on or cover an existing song that fits it. Then you record and produce a video for the song, and post it to the group. "Old School" was inspired by an "Old / New" theme if I remember correctly. The title just popped into my head, followed by the idea of writing a song from the perspective of someone older who still plays music and perhaps doesn't feel like they are getting the recognition they deserve for it, but then remembers that what really counts is being passionate and honest about it. They aren't getting rich from it, but that's ok, and perhaps it's just as important that they realize that and understand what they ARE getting from it.

So it's sort of a song about saying, "Yeah, what I do might not be trendy or cool, but it's me, and I love it."

I guess it's a bit autobiographical in that sense, but I also wanted to add some humor to it, kind of make it my "Get off my lawn!" song. I think as we get older it's easy to fall into the, "My music is better than yours!" thing, and brush off anything new in favor of the music we used to listen to when we were growing up; I especially see it around country music. Folks pointing fingers at what's being played on Country radio but saying, "That's not "real" country!" I think that is so silly! I kind of wanted to poke fun at that, too. Near the end of the song, the lyrics in the chorus subtly reference one of my favorite bands, R.E.M. A lot of what I hear in current Americana / folk stuff they did with Automatic for the People, which is kind of amazing. That was 25 years ago! All of those things inspired the song in one way or another.

Initially, all I really knew was I wanted it to be very punk rock! Or at least more punk than anything else I had done. I felt like that genre fit the resentment and resignation that you speak of. Then when Jonny and I started putting it together, I referenced Rilo Kiley a bit in my head. I'm a big fan of their arrangements, and how some of their songs seem to have a strummy acoustic foundation but then incorporate a drum machine, or sometimes lean sort of punky, or at least have a little attitude. So I wanted the song to reflect all of those same elements.

 

REMEMBER THE OLD SCHOOL

 

We’ll make the rules up as we go

And we will break ‘em and nobody has to know

We’ll drive too fast, get there too late

And we’ll believe the others didn’t mind the wait

And we will try to cover up our worst mistakes

We’ll tempt our fate

 

Are we hanging out, or just hanging on

Have I forgotten all the words to my own song

I’m not expecting you to try to sing along

That would be so wrong

 

(Chorus)

Yeah I may never be in fashion, I don’t know the latest trends

But at least I have the passion, or at least I can pretend

 

When every shoulder seems so cold

We’re not getting rich, we are only getting old

Our fingers bleed, our muscles hurt

Can’t see the shine underneath all our own dirt

And all the good guys never seem to finish first

And it just gets worse

 

(Chorus)

Yeah we may never be in fashion, we don’t know the latest trends

But at least we have the passion, or at least we can pretend

 

We win the game, but lose the fight

We save the day, but we never spend the night

We only wanted someone there to hold us tight

It would be so right

 

We can’t go big, so we just go home

And then we stay up watching Netflix all alone

And we’d call a friend but we can’t find the phone

‘cause we’re too stoned

 

(Chorus)

Yeah we may never be in fashion, we’ll never be that cool

But we’ll still talk about their passion, and remember the old school

 

(Chorus)

Yeah I may never be in fashion, and I might look like a fool

 

But I’ll never lack the passion, ‘cause I remember the old school

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