Once, I heard two people having a conversation. I had no idea what they were talking about. But one said to the other, “I dunno; I guess one day I just woke up and I realized, this is it. Life has already started. I spent all this time preparing for life to start, and I never realized it already did.” We often do not have control over when “life begins”, so to speak. Sometimes, (far more often than those of us who are very fortunate like to think about) a great tragedy befalls a person at a very young age and forces them out into the world far too soon. The death of a parent during childhood, an unplanned pregnancy, a mistake with drugs; all of these things force serious shifts in the lives of countless millions. For those of us who are blessed to not experience such twists, perhaps “life begins” when we begin to question our purpose on the Earth, where we came from, where we are going, why those terrible things happen to those other people. 

 

       This idea became the center of this record. A dear friend of mine experienced one of these life-rearranging wake up calls and came to me with a heart and a face still visibly shaken and shocked by the news. I do not wish to divulge the private lives of others, so I won't describe exactly what the deal was; it wasn’t inherently bad news, but it would certainly force some change. “Oh! Shit!” I do believe I so eloquently responded. We talked for a few hours, and then I went home. This tune was written in about one hour, fresh off that conversation. 

 

       Seeing as this is, in effect, the title track of the record, I feel I should tell you that a part of me hesitates to attach these letters to each song explaining the meaning behind them. It almost feels authoritarian. So, I hope you understand that the meaning I describe behind each tune is not the "correct" interpretation of it, it is merely what I think I was trying to get across. Often, lyrics come not as a conscious choice like a selection at a store, but rather a subconscious stream of ideas. Therefore, a better way to understand these letters as to think of them as my description of what I believe I learned about myself when I wrote the song.

 

I sincerely hope you enjoy Up.

 

Love,

NM