Little Paper Boat
Now that my songs are in a recorded format, more people are hearing them, commenting on them, and asking questions about them. I couldn't be more excited about all of this.
In particular, people ask what the deal is with Little Paper Boat, which doesn't surprise me since it's somewhat of a bizarre song.
I've told the story about how Little Paper Boat came to be a handful of times previous to recording it. It all started with a picture on facebook, posted by someone who I know through the music community, but not really in person. She was into origami at the time and posted a picture of a boat that she had made out of paper.
I said to myself that I'd like to sail in a little paper boat and a flood of images, thoughts, and ideas came to my mind. I saw a concept for a song. It would be about perception, in particular, the way we perceive the world and how it would be much different if we were littler and sailing around in a paper boat.
The music came to quite quickly: folky. The melody was dreamy. The lyrics were simple: If you made a little paper boat and placed it in a puddle at our feet.
I wrote a first verse and played around with a chorus. I tried writing a second verse, but it was convoluted. I had so many thoughts and I could say them in a song format.
Eventually, I made a list of the thoughts in my head. This helped me focus and I finished the song... sort of.
I say "sort of" because I didn't like it. There was too much to say and the format of the song couldn't allow for it to be longer. I could just go back and rewrite the entire thing... or put it away for a while.
I put it away for a while.
Months later, I found myself at a gathering of fellow songwriters. We were all talking about songs that we've written or songs that we wanted to write, but were stuck on. I took out what I had for Little Paper Boat. I played what I had so far. Then I talked about some of the ideas from my list.
My friends were helpful and they each gave me their thoughts. I started jotting down a new list. As I wrote, the thoughts that they were giving me turned silly. For example, "You can't have a fire on a paper boat" and "what if someone steps on you?"
I continued jotting down these thoughts, no matter how strange they were.
That night, I returned to my house, grabbed a beer, and finished the song. I incorporated many of the silly thoughts.
I played the song a few times for some friends and then tweaked some of the lyrics slightly (this happens often after a song has had time to digest and you've played it a few times and discover that some of the lyrics are bulky or don't flow well).
I knew I wanted to record Little Paper Boat for the album, however, I didn't expect it to become the first song.
Sonny Speed, who produced the album, came up with the idea for an accordion solo and played it himself. I find it to be quite fantastic. The acoustic flavor in the recording is absolutely tasty.
I made a silly video to go along with the silly nature of the song. I'm very proud of it.
People have asked where the inspiration for the video came from. It came from the song.
I hope you like it.
In particular, people ask what the deal is with Little Paper Boat, which doesn't surprise me since it's somewhat of a bizarre song.
I've told the story about how Little Paper Boat came to be a handful of times previous to recording it. It all started with a picture on facebook, posted by someone who I know through the music community, but not really in person. She was into origami at the time and posted a picture of a boat that she had made out of paper.
I said to myself that I'd like to sail in a little paper boat and a flood of images, thoughts, and ideas came to my mind. I saw a concept for a song. It would be about perception, in particular, the way we perceive the world and how it would be much different if we were littler and sailing around in a paper boat.
The music came to quite quickly: folky. The melody was dreamy. The lyrics were simple: If you made a little paper boat and placed it in a puddle at our feet.
I wrote a first verse and played around with a chorus. I tried writing a second verse, but it was convoluted. I had so many thoughts and I could say them in a song format.
Eventually, I made a list of the thoughts in my head. This helped me focus and I finished the song... sort of.
I say "sort of" because I didn't like it. There was too much to say and the format of the song couldn't allow for it to be longer. I could just go back and rewrite the entire thing... or put it away for a while.
I put it away for a while.
Months later, I found myself at a gathering of fellow songwriters. We were all talking about songs that we've written or songs that we wanted to write, but were stuck on. I took out what I had for Little Paper Boat. I played what I had so far. Then I talked about some of the ideas from my list.
My friends were helpful and they each gave me their thoughts. I started jotting down a new list. As I wrote, the thoughts that they were giving me turned silly. For example, "You can't have a fire on a paper boat" and "what if someone steps on you?"
I continued jotting down these thoughts, no matter how strange they were.
That night, I returned to my house, grabbed a beer, and finished the song. I incorporated many of the silly thoughts.
I played the song a few times for some friends and then tweaked some of the lyrics slightly (this happens often after a song has had time to digest and you've played it a few times and discover that some of the lyrics are bulky or don't flow well).
I knew I wanted to record Little Paper Boat for the album, however, I didn't expect it to become the first song.
Sonny Speed, who produced the album, came up with the idea for an accordion solo and played it himself. I find it to be quite fantastic. The acoustic flavor in the recording is absolutely tasty.
I made a silly video to go along with the silly nature of the song. I'm very proud of it.
People have asked where the inspiration for the video came from. It came from the song.
I hope you like it.