One year of Finite

March 7th marked one year since I released my first song, “Finite.” Like some of the other songs that followed last year, it was a bit melancholy, but with a bit of a groove. In this post, I’ll break down some of the lyrics and some of the music. Hopefully, I can keep this up and do so for every song of mine.

Lyrics

This song gave me a chance to express a frustration that I very often feel. I think that people generally place too much importance on endurance and equate that with meaning. Not to pick too much on religions, but you see this very often in heaven and related concepts where there is such a reverence for the infinite. Sometimes, I feel, at the expense of the finite. I decided to write an intentionally short song to express an appreciation for the finite and the idea that things might matter despite their short existence.

Why did I choose a hotel dalliance as the metaphor to express this? Who the hell knows? It was just something that sprang to mind. So I wrote:

Through the hotel window

the morning sun to find

the stillness of tomorrow

and the bedlam left behind

Then after describing something fleeting and (possibly) memorable, I could not help but ditch metaphor and whack the listener over the head with my complaint:

Why’s a moment lost its value?

Just a vapor you’re bound to lose.

Why’s forever its own virtue

and an ending is a bruise?

Music

This song is in Eb at 72 bpm. The music actually sprung out of a challenge I set myself. I took a stock breakbeat drum pattern in Ableton and told myself, “make something to go along with that.”

The chord progression goes Ebmaj7 – Fm7 – Ab (Abmaj7) – Fm – Eb. Which is a little weird but I think sounds nice. The second half of the song is a more classic I-ii-V7-I, or Ebmaj7 – Fm7 – Bb7 – Ebmaj7.

Rhythm guitar is my trusty tele, doubled and panned wide, recorded through my Bassbreaker tube amp mostly clean. Bass guitar is my frankenstein ’71 musicmaster that I rebuilt and through an Orange bass amp.

To be completely honest, the guitar version of this song was not the first version. There is an electronic piano version with a kind of cool synth. The world isn’t ready for that version yet, I’m afraid, but maybe someday.