If there's something I love even more than trees, it's flowers. Luxurious smells, vibrant colors that surprise me at how nature can paint better than any human. Light breezes pull flowers to dance. They have no need for muscles when the wind helps them move.
I give sound to the flowers in my new single Starflower. You can Pre-Save, or Listen NOW by subscribing to Roots. Starflower is about striving for a more perfect love. You begin by lamenting, "Trapped inside my mind, colorful imagination. Ignoring you, this time. Absorbed in the entertainment." These words resonate with my modern experience, where so much competes for my time. The ones you love, they should win your time.
“Don’t want to hurt you, but I love you too much” is my favorite line. You can interpret it from both a human and Godly perspective. Sometimes you have to hurt someone because you love them. And I believe with God it’s the same way.
I interviewed with Chuck W, who called Starflower my weirdest track yet! Wow, weirder than 2020 SOUP? Well, Starflower definitely belongs on Adult Swim- Off the Air specifically. I pulled influence from Beck and Bowie. Some vocal flourishes are from Matty Healy of The 1975. A slight Jacob Collier vocal layering.
Recently I had some great ideas to top this song off, like adding synth flourishes that compliment my lyrics. This track started off with just 5 layers (made for the netvio 5-layers-only August challenge). And I wanted to take it further, and lately I had the courage to “refactor” the drums and some bass.Â
I have a tendency to not wanna change what’s written into the DAW (especially when my songwriting happens in the DAW) but I’m so glad I changed the drums up! All those synth and vocal layers are making this track BIG. I applied advice from audio engineer Dan Fur to fine tune Starflower. My music professor Dr. Lee Johnson also helped me get my vocals right for good. I learned my voice needs a pretty hefty low-cut and I began using a channel strip emulator on every track. I play with different EQs for each layer and using the same plugins makes a consistent sound. I want to try less low-cut on my voice in a beat with plenty of space in the low-mids.
Starflower came so far since its inception in July 2020. Looking back, I love the video I made for that first release, and vocals sound 100x better now. I believe I am making progress, I can really tell when I watch old Future Trees.
My beautiful reader, you pursue what you're after as well. And if you passions pulling you in opposite directions, I encourage you to hold on to each one even if it seems they take away from each other. Besides your intrinsic human value, The unique combination of everything you do gives you value. And the most valuable stuff today comes from crazy combinations of knowledge and skills that are not typically connected.
Thank you so much for being here. Enjoy the lyrics as a teaser before this sparkling song hits streaming đź’š
Lyrics:
I was not hereÂ
I was not hereÂ
Trapped insideÂ
My mindÂ
Colorful imaginationÂ
Ignoring youÂ
This timeÂ
Absorbed in the Â
EntertainmentÂ
I wish we had more time, I doÂ
I wish we had more time, I doÂ
You see I wanna be the good guyÂ
But I fall short, every single timeÂ
Seeking pleasureÂ
I need struggleÂ
Repeat the lessonÂ
For double troubleÂ
You think I’d learnÂ
But I am humanÂ
Slam it in my head till I’m deadÂ
Yes, I am fully brokenÂ
And I need God to surviveÂ
Imagining youÂ
Perfection that incineratesÂ
Everything lesserÂ
Well I want your presence soÂ
I must get betterÂ
Be my babyÂ
Be my babyÂ
Be my babyÂ
Be be,Â
But everytime I tryÂ
I hurt you Â
Everytime I tryÂ
I touch youÂ
I still think of you that wayÂ
I can’t help myselfÂ
Dont want to hurt youÂ
But I love you too muchÂ
I still think of you that wayÂ
I can’t help myselfÂ
Dont want to hurt youÂ
But I love you too muchÂ
Everyone we love we hurtÂ
Never mind what they deserveÂ
They deserve betterÂ
I gotta do betterÂ
Everyone we love we hurtÂ
Never mind what they deserveÂ
They deserve better, yeahÂ
I need to do better better