Moons and Stars

Moons and Stars
Written and recorded 2008

Of all the songs that I wrote and recorded throughout high school and college, this is one of the better ones as a whole. "Moons and Stars" originally came about after hearing the Blue Man Group's record The Complex. If you put aside the hilarious antics of the Blue Man Group, it's just good rock music. There is great production and the instrumental tracks keep the listener engaged. It was very inspiring at the time.

I wish I had the original demo, but it is long gone. So we are left with another nice recording by the King's Gentlemen, my college band. Whatever I had on the original demo, Trevor (the drummer) took this song to a whole new level. This recording has probably reached more people than any other. It was done as part of project my senior year. I put a TON of time into this and was extremely proud of it. Still happy with the result all these years later.

• This song was written long before I started thinking about the key I should actually be singing in. I would pick up a guitar and if I liked how to chord progression sounded, I'd stay in that key. Not many songs in Bb minor...
• Lyrically I tried to create extremely vivid pictures. "Tears fall like snow," was a favorite line. I'm not positive where these come from or what I was trying to say. If I had to guess, I don't think I was trying to say anything in particular. But I think that's what makes this one still work to me. It's 100% open to interpretation and the listener can take as much or as little from them as they want.
• This has to be one of the first songs I wrote without a clear cut chorus. Though there are two different chord progressions in what I would call a verse. It just kind of keeps going, gaining a little more momentum as the melody gets higher. In this prog rock-like setting, it works really well.
• The riff between verses is a nice break. Kristen has told me that the octave jumping part of it reminds her of "Salt Peanuts," by Dizzy Gillespie...which I had never heard.
• I had always wanted to learn how to tap a guitar solo. So what did I do? I wrote one into a song that I had no choice but to sit down and learn how. My old roommate can probably attest to how I worked on this solo for hours.
• This is one of those songs that came pretty naturally. I have to give a lot of credit to my bandmates at the time though, they really helped make this one something special. I've often thought of adapting it for Whiskey Doubles, but I kind of like it is.
• The soaring guitar lines at the end of the song were done as a last minute idea in the studio to give the song some extra power at the end. I wasn't sure if it was too cheesy at the time, but I'm really glad I kept them. They help keep the momentum up after the solo into the final section.