Happy Tuesday everyone!
My album "Legacy" is available now on CD, high-resolution digital download, and MP3 from iTunes, Google, and Amazon. Check out my website for links to buying your copy today!
So I'm continuing with the daily "story behind the song" for each of my songs on the album. Yesterday's song was "Spheres", the first track from the album, and today's track, going in album order, is song #2, "Daydream".
My song "Daydream" is one of the oldest songs in my catalog. The first versions of this song started to take shape as early as 20 years ago. Back at that time, I was finishing up college and I only had a couple of instruments, and in a sense, that limitation helped me to focus on the melody of the song.
For the longest time, this song had no title; it was just a simple groove with the verse melody. The chorus and bridge eventually came to me, but I still didn't have a good title. Often times, when I'm trying to name a song, I'll listen to it and daydream, and this is what I did. Instead of coming up with a title via my daydreaming, it occurred to me that the very act of daydreaming itself was a perfect theme for this tune.
The original version of "Daydream" had no guitar at all -- another 100% synthesizer song. However, a year or two after recording the original version, I had a chance to perform it at the Honolulu Academy of Arts theatre with my good friend, multi-instrumentalist and composer Stephen Fox, along with an ensemble of amazing musicians including Taiko drum master Kenny Endo, Guinean Balafon master Lansana Kouyaté, and saxophonist Randy Wheeler. Among an impressively varied array of compositions by Stephen and the other musicians, Stephen & I arranged this song and a couple others of mine with guitar, violin, and soprano sax carrying the melodic parts. This event helped cement in my mind the importance of a strong melody and the willingness to be flexible with one's own vision of their music.
I always loved the melody from "Daydream", so this song was actually the first from this album project that I transcribed for guitar and also the first to be recorded. My first draft of the new version had an extended guitar solo, and I really hated how it sounded. It was indulgent and unnecessary. It distracted from the carefree simplicity of the melody, so I got rid of it entirely and replaced it with a very short, subdued bridge motif that leads into the final chorus. I felt like it worked a whole lot better.
Some might be surprised that this song isn't overly virtuosic or "shreddy", but I figured this song is all about the melody, and anything that gets in the way of that is the wrong choice. Daydreaming at its best is light, fun, relaxing, and simple, so I wanted this song to reflect that.
So there you have it, my groovy little song devoted to daydreaming!
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you again tomorrow with another song!
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