My Heart Is Mended
Writing “My Heart Is Split” has been a really bizarre process for us. I mean, first off it’s the first time we’ve showed our process so publicly. But beyond that this has been a really odd example to start with.
We pride ourselves on being very flexible about who “goes first.” (sometimes kait starts w/ a lyric, sometimes I start w/ a melody) but generally no matter how we begin the process is always the same: someone starts - someone finishes. if kait starts w a lyric, i set it and we’re done. sometimes we have to repeat that several times over several sections of a song. But rarely do we have as many “back and forth” passes as we have w/ this song.
Because we’re usually on my couch. My ugly, cardboard couch. (you can get your own here: http://www.homereserve.com) We sit there and eat thai food from Pam Real Thai or Yum Yum Bangkok (Pam has better Pad Ki Mao and YYB has better Pad Thai) or even calzones and chicken rolls from Fat Sals. But there’s always food. And we eat the food and fight about structure. Is there a bridge, what does the bridge do. Brian why do you want a double chorus, Kait why can’t you write lyrics to my prechorus, Brian why did you eat my fucking chicken roll.
It’s hard to adjust to this format. We’re trying very hard to make everything transparent, and to keep all of the information here, but it means we don’t work on these songs in the same room as much and sometimes there are miscommunications. Kait came over on Monday afternoon. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and soggy french fries. And we fixed it.
So here’s a recording of the full-length “My Heart Is Split,” the first finished song we’ve got so far. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s me singing, so brace yourselves. Oh and also i just bought a MacBookPro. It’s beautiful. It’s going to teach us how to make better videos for you. I love it. It took a picture of me this morning:
Clearly I’m 12 years old.