songs for a girl I've known my whole life

I secretly wrote an EP about you.

A year after that cool summer night, the last time I ever saw you, I wrote an EP about you. Well, it wasn’t all about you — only most of it was.

I wrote it to get all my inner chaos, real and raw, onto the page. But maybe it was too real and raw, and I was embarrassed? I never sent it to you.

It was my first attempt at making music. I wrote it in Baltimore, between shifts at the neurology clinic. Then I submitted it as my portfolio to music school, and that took me to NYC, but by the time I got here, you’d already left, gone overseas.

Anyways, like I said, I’ve moved on — I’m not in love with you anymore. But you never forget your first. You were my first muse.

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the original EP cover art

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I wrote Pulse first. Those are my heartbeats, recorded through a stethoscope, and Jim and Pam’s voices in the intro. I tried to capture the tension and release of finally telling someone how you feel.

I wrote Element on a flight home from my first music festival. It’s about moving on and acceptance. The voices are from Zuko and Katara, and you’ll recognize the song I used in the first half. The second half samples the outro music from Avatar.

Then Homecoming, well.

The summer before college I went camping with some childhood friends, who asked me who I would have asked to prom, had I not gone abroad for high school — and without thinking, I gave them your name. They teased me mercilessly for it.

You’d actually gone to prom with a friend of mine and I heard it went terribly. I was secretly glad.

This one is Hisaishi inspired. It’s about what-ifs and letting go.

Hope these take you back.