» Child of the Void

At this time, February of 2015, I am proudest of this song.  I was driving home from work, pulled into the garage, shut off the car, and sitting in the driver's seat, I wrote the lyric "Children of the Void" right there, from start to finish.  There was no conscious inspiration, just the urge to write something on my Blackberry at that moment.  As I wrote it, I chose to make it about the legacy my generation was leaving to my children's generation, and I was also trying to match the space theme of the album under development by Crosley Court.

I was also preparing a workshop lesson on "Writing Younger", in which I was going to present the concept of writing off-chord melody - what I believe to be a hallmark of alternative rock since the late nineties.  I took the cold lyric and wrote the melody you now hear. I gave it to Bryce Gullett, my current demo producer and the leader of Crosley Court, and he really liked it.

Later, my son came to me and said that Bryce wanted to cut it but wanted it to be "Child of the Void" because he was identifying so strongly with it.  Michael had some ideas about how to improve the song, too.  What followed was one of the most intense and amazing collaborations I've ever had, and the tight rhymes I had already written became even tighter and more graphic and exciting.  While Michael and I had collaborated before, I believe this song created the rhythm and style of our collaboration that has carried us through songs like "The World Burns Down" and "Goodbye".

Quite frankly, after giving the song back to Bryce, I forgot about it.  I couldn't play it very well myself, and I had no vision for its production.  Over a year later, Crosley Court went to a cabin and spent all night recording live acoustic versions of their latest songs, including "Child of the Void."  This version, according to Bryce, was recorded at about 4 AM.  The videos are on YouTube, and I strongly recommend them.

But "Child of the Void" - my God, it was so good!!!  Bryce's voice was amazing, and the arrangement was beyond anything I could have imagined.  With no preconception of what the song would be, I heard the song almost as if I had never heard it before.  And what I heard was simply amazing.

The video includes a dramatic pause as a transition between the acoustic guitar section and the full band, but I wanted a version without the pause.  I therefore downloaded it and edited it to take out the pause.  That is what you will hear.

Crosley Court will be releasing an even more exciting version on their next album, but I have told so many people about this one, I finally decided to go ahead and include it in my studio.