"In The Way" was the last song written for Like We Were Never Here At All, and it was also by far the most rushed piece of music I’ve ever released. It evolved in a rather strange way - I wrote that chorus in late 2021 for a friend of mine who was having a hard time coming up with a chorus for a song he was working on. He sent me his demo, and I thought about it for a few weeks, and by the time I sent this idea back to him, he’d decided that song didn’t need a chorus. So I suddenly had this chorus that was detached from the song I’d written it to fit, which is a strange situation as a songwriter. I set it aside, and every couple of months I would think of it again, and play with ideas for what that chorus could be about.
Around June of 2022, I eventually stumbled on the first verse. I loved the idea - the conflict of the song is climate change, and how we’re kind of in our own way. Our apathy, our comfort, the sheer scope and time scale of the problem we’re dealing with. We know what we need to do, but it’s difficult, and the consequences feel far away, and so we delay. We try to forget, and to ignore the existential dread of this massive problem. Sometimes I even resent that dread, for making it harder to enjoy beautiful moments in my life. Anyway, I had a topic for my song.
As soon as I knew the concept, I felt like it had to be included on this album… but at that point, it was June. It was half-finished, while I already completed the basic tracking everything else - drums, bass, and rhythm guitars were done for the other twelve songs at that point. I forced myself to workshop the additional verses after work every day for a week. The second verse came easily, but it took the full week to land on the ending. I don’t actually remember writing the bridge section... finishing the album is a bit of a blur in my memory, because I wasn't sleeping much.
I was still arranging and recording parts on this song when I received the first masters back from DamageAudio in August. It was not a fun way to finish a song - I’m not accustomed to working at such a fast pace, with so little time to finalize decisions or figure things out. I seriously considered cutting it, because I didn’t think it sounded as good as the rest of the album. But eventually the subject matter won out, and I decided I had to include it.
Since Like We Were Never Here At All was released, this has been the most often-cited 'favorite song'. When I listen to it now, I hear things that could have been more polished… but other people aren’t hearing that - they’re hearing a sincere song about a subject they can relate to. And as someone who identifies as a songwriter first... that brings me satisfaction.
"In The Way" is track 2 on my album Like We Were Never Here At All. Listen here.
Lyrics:
I was staring at the sunset
Wondering if there was an easy way
To forget why the sky looked like a
Blaze of burning trees a thousand miles away
And just enjoy the picture
But there’s something in the
Way there’s always
Something in the way
I was standing on the shoreline with my
Daughter wading, watching endless waves
I wanted to believe it all would
Be there for her kids to see someday
Instead of underwater
But there’s something in the Way there’s always Something in the way
I was listening to the lightning coming
Close as primal fears crept through my brain
I thought it seemed so natural that
Simple distance keeps our doubts at bay
So we can play with fire
But there’s something in the
Way there’s always
Something in the way
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