"Ourselves" (unreleased song)

Pillow-talk for self-care

I’d like to use this platform to share with you at least some of the large quantity of voice-memo’s I have of old songs I’ve written buried in my phone and google drive.

I’ll share some early versions of songs I’ve released to see how they started, and I’ll also share some songs that, at least to this point in time, have never made the cut to be officially released into the world.

Today I’ll share with you one of those songs.

This one is called “Ourselves”, and I began writing it sometime in late 2020 or early 2021. Pretty much all I did in those times was write, and I was in the process of putting together my first and currently only full length album, “Nobody Really Makes Love Anymore”. The core of this song was inspired by the feeling of being separated from myself…and not in the healthy, introspective and Eckhart Tolle inspired way of looking inward by stepping outside of your own mind. It was in a much more unhealthy way like I was completely losing my shit. And this song was written in a way to serve as a bit of a reminder to not overthink things, don’t linger on the past and risk missing out on the beautiful things in front of you…and to encourage me to find more value in the simple things.

There were elements of it I enjoyed, but it just didn’t really fully click for me, and inevitably it ended up not making the cut for the album, but I kept the voice memo on my phone just in case I ever went back and noticed a beauty in it that I hadn’t seen before.

I ended up revisiting it randomly over the summer of this past year, 2024, and concluded that my main issue with the song were the verses. The melody was a bit lame and the words kind of meant something, but maybe not as much as I wanted them to. So I re-wrote the verses, recorded a new voice memo, and this version below has been living in my phone ever since.

The first verse sets up the narrator who is losing his/her mind, the chorus pleads for simple thinking and recognition of everyday beauties, the second verse examines some of those beauties that have been missed, and the rest of the song continues the encouragement.

I’m not sure if it’ll ever be officially recorded and released, but I do enjoy it much more now than I did before. I recently played this for some friends and someone close to me described it as “pillow talk for self-care”, which I absolutely loved.

I’ll share the lyrics below and of course the voice memo. Would love to hear your thoughts on it, and can’t wait to share more!

Lyrics:

Verse 1:

A feign need for change at first

Site of despair

Tricking yourself to think the worst

That everybody cares

Mind traffic, old habits never could ignore

Looking for a metaphor

Chorus:

Maybe the simplest dreams

Are all they seem, yeah it’s

Not so complicated

We’re all so separated

In this life I know

Not to be a ghost

When it all gets complicated

We all get separated

From ourselves

Verse 2:

Hair to run your hands right through,

And a hand to hold

Songs to sing and maybe new

Places to go

Plant sightings, inviting chances to grow

…and choose to barely show