Striptease + 2 EP
STRIPTEASE
This EP was a three song peek at what was going to be a full album called Celebrity Boyfriends. I may have spent more time on this song than any other, at least it had more drafts than any other.
This one is about how the celebrity only reveals what they want us to know, like a carefully choreographed striptease. Yet we always want more, wanting them fully exposed. But how much do they owe us? Don’t they deserve a little privacy too?
Striptease + 2 EP
ROck Star Vs. Model
When you record everything yourself, you sometimes end up jack of all instruments, master of none. In this song, I decided to skip a guitar part and focus on keyboards. This one is a little tongue and cheek look at how the err…homeliest of rock stars can attract the prettiest of models.
Striptease + 2 EP
I Want to Be a Punk ROck Singer
Quite possibly my favorite song I have ever done. Short-that’s always good. That crazy off-kilter acoustic guitar and most of all when that arpeggiated synth kicks in.
Lyrically, it’s true. I wish I could belt out a punk rock song, but I do sound like a Cowboy Junkie. And while the theme of many of the Celebrity Boyfriends songs are about crushes on rock stars, this one says why not just become famous yourself and be the Celebrity Girlfriend.
Single
Ben & Me By the Riverside
A little ode to the end of summer. Two people messing about by the river on a lazy summer day. The doubled guitar “solo” was inspired by April Wine. No, really.
Timid Pop Songs for the Perpetually Shy, Vol I was the first proper release as Maps for Sleep. After a multi-year hiatus from writing songs I thought maybe the creative bug had flown away. This was meant to be better recordings of my favorite songs from my past, moving from 4 track cassette to digital recording. What happened when I starting working on this was I began to write new songs, so Vol II never happened. Maybe someday.
Timid Pop Songs for the Perpetually Shy, Vol I
3 Minutes to Seldom
This is another one of my favorites from my catalog. Written during a period where there were a lot of shy girl, unrequited love songs. Our heroine just can’t muster up the courage to talk to the guy she wants. Favorite moment: the little flicks of the pitch bend on the keyboard near the end. Sometimes it’s the little things.
Timid Pop Songs for the Perpetually Shy, Vol I
Moonshake
Another take on the theme of not having the nerve to let someone know they’re kind of awesome. For this re-recording, acoustic guitar credit to Jocelyn of Late Tuesday who graciously came over to lay down a track since I had no acoustic guitar of my own. Of course she nailed it in one take but did a second anyways so I’d have a choice.
Timid Pop Songs for the Perpetually Shy, Vol I
Windshield Wipers
I love it when music really evokes a mood. Like in that 54-40 song Baby Have Some Faith when the guitar solo starts and it literally sounds like the sun is coming out.
Windshield Wipers has nothing to do with the sun. It’s about driving down the freeway on a dark, rainy night to who knows where. On the original 4 track recording I managed to make my synth sound more like windshield wipers but if I wrote down the settings, I couldn’t find them when it came time to re-create this. Inspired by when you are listening to music in the car and the windshield wipers are sometimes going back and forth in time with the music, then fall out of step, then back in time again.
Timid Pop Songs for the Perpetually Shy, Vol I
Trouble Gets all Black
Maybe one of the more personal songs I have ever written. After some happy shy girl unrequited songs we get a more despairing “what about me, what’s wrong with me?” One of the last songs I wrote during the Virginia Creeper days. My bandmates thought it should end after the vocal part but I really liked the A/B structure the ending section adds.
Timid Pop Songs for the Perpetually Shy, Vol I
SWIRL
This is an oldie. Sometime between 1992-4 I took a music business class at BCIT and the teacher was the then program director at Vancouver’s CFMI. For the last class, brave man that he was, he invited people in the class to bring their demos for listening and group critique. I brought this song (the original 4 track version). I think everyone was a little surprised by what the quiet girl at the back of the room brought in. The consensus was good song, crappy recording. And yes, early 90’s, there is definitely some My Bloody Valentine influence at work here.
Timid Pop Songs for the Perpetually Shy, Vol I
Captain, My Captain
One of the last songs I wrote with Virginia Creeper. One of the few songs that I was happy with the energy. I think we played this at our last show. A couple people came up and complemented my songs. One was a guy Ben G. who was in the next band up. A few years later he would be famous.
MORE RANDOM TRACKS
Single
Celebrity BOyfriends
This would have been the title track (obviously) if that album had ever been finished. We come to admire a celebrity based on reading an interview here and there, their appearance, and then project traits of our own ideal partner on them to fill in the gaps. If we ever met them, we probably wouldn’t want them but it’s nice to imagine they’re perfect.
Single
tame
When I wrote this song, Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville was in heavy rotation in my car, and I was very inspired by that album. I read somewhere that she spent a lot of time crafting her songs. I gave it a try with this song and I do like how it turned out.
This is a modified version of the original. I was a last minute guest on a locals only show on KISM and needed one more song to bring. I re-recorded this but changed some of the lyrics because, well, some of them were too damn embarrassing to sing 20+ years later.
Single
I’m Just here for the music
I am not sure if I like this one or not. I’ll include it anyways. I have been to so many shows where people near the front are just drinking and chatting, not even paying attention to the music. Why spend money on a ticket for that?
Then there was the time we were headed to an all ages show and someone needed one more drink, then someone else decided they may as well too, and so on. Net result, we missed the first 20 minutes of a <60 minute set. I don’t go to a show to drink (who can afford it?), I go for the music. It makes me feel alive and fully in the present moment–who needs more than that?