Out Here

Out Here
Written 2014
Recorded 2015

This song did not come to be without putting a good fight. "Out Here" is one of many songs written in the wee morning hours. Long ago, I tried writing in the evening hours, but somewhere along the way I realized that I was much more productive when I woke up. I'm not sure why, as a general rule I am definitely not a morning person. Granted, that's more around those pesky people.

Nevertheless, I remember this morning particularly well. I started off noodling around on my guitar, and quickly found the verse progression. But that's where progress stopped. I was completely stuck, so I went over to our keyboard and tried plunking a few things out there. Then I had an idea for a vocal line. The problem was it felt way too simple, yet lyrics started coming. The words, "Out here," came out and I wrote them down in my notebook. Again, progress stopped. I couldn't get beyond that line. Noodled around some more and started coming up with the opening riff you hear now. Then I got the idea for "Breathe in where you've been." So I wrote it down and tried playing the progression and seeing if more words followed naturally. They did not. Up to this point, the tempo was much, much slower. So when I started finding the chords and melody for the chorus, that's when I made the move to quicken the pace. From there, it all kind of came together. I decided that a simple verse was fine as long as I added some harmony and the chorus was the glue to hold everything together.

• For being a glaring feature at first glance, I really enjoy the simplicity of the verse. This is not only in melody, but in message too.
• I was a little on the fence about the call and response style of the chorus, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It just made sense at the time and I needed to trust my gut. I think it felt a little cheesy to me when I looked at in on paper.
• The flow and structure of this song works really well. It's a very positive song as well, and that always helps. 
• Because this song was written at essentially two different tempos, it really took me a long time to start the song with the right one. The 'ole metronome (my mortal enemy in high school) saved my butt there.
• This recording is of Whiskey Doubles on our Nightcap EP. It's probably one of my favorite tunes from that batch.