The night we burned the whole thing down

This song emerged after a long creative dry spell. The inspiration came from reading Danielle Evans’s short story “Robert E. Lee is Dead” from her collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. The story delves into the lives of two young friends—one who masters the art of shaping herself into a version acceptable to conventional white U.S. society, and one who either doesn’t know how or refuses to conform. Without giving too much away, it’s a powerful exploration of loyalty—both to yourself and to those who make life bearable. It’s about being understood, about the reckless and righteous rebellion of youth. I read it about four years ago, and its impact lingers with me to this day.

Musically, this track features Josh Kaplan’s expressive drumming and John Guari’s sensitive keyboard work—they both seemed to intuit what I was aiming for right from the start. The chords in this song evoke what I think of as “Coronation Street” harmonies. There’s a style of instrumental horn music that was popular in England around the time the theme for the long-running soap opera Coronation Street was composed. It’s a blend of West Coast Jazz, European classical influences from composers like Ravel and Debussy, and the sounds of colliery brass bands. My ear has always been drawn to these harmonies, and this song might be the closest I’ve come to capturing that essence, even without a horn in the mix.