Last month would have been my mother’s 61st birthday. In recognition of that, I decided to upload two original songs that were favorites of hers. You can now find the single “Poor And Wistful” on all major streaming platforms along with the B-side “(I’m An) Orange Daisy”.
Poor and Wistful
This is a song I first wrote around 2012, I think when I was living in Aurora. Before I even recorded a demo of it, I went to visit my parents one evening and played it live for my mother. I sat on the church pew bench in the dining room while she was making a cake in the kitchen. And what you hear in this recording is pretty much how my mom heard it for the first time.
This universal link from TIDAL should take you to your default music player. You can also hear it on YouTube.
(I’m An) Orange Daisy
This is a much older song, but I’m not exactly sure how old. My mother always thought it was great, but I just thought it was a silly thing I would forget about. You should know that it was The Smashing Pumpkins who first inspired me to pick up the guitar, so I always thought I’d end up writing loud rock songs with great riffs.
The origin story of this song is pretty silly as it is. Once upon a time in the early 2000s, I made some friends online at the Zwan message board. One of those friends was Wendy Nikel, who has written several books and short stories since then. One day I logged in to MSN Messenger for the first time and my default avatar was an orange daisy. And that was it. Wendy and I mused about it for some time and at some point it became a song.
Although this is a B-Side, I actually did a physical release of “(I’m An) Orange Daisy” over 20 years ago. It’s not very good. I burned it on blank white CD-Rs, used a rubber flower stamp and orange ink pad, and wrote the title by hand on all of them. If I find a copy I’ll share it here later.
The cover art for the single comes from a photo of pot that used to belong to my great-grandmother. It hosts a jade plant on my kitchen window sill.
“(I’m An) Orange Daisy” on streaming platforms
Production and Distribution
Since the original versions of these songs were so rough, I decided to release versions similar to what my mother would have heard, and not go all out with extra instruments and production. “Poor and Wistful” was recorded with two microphones in a single take. “(I’m An) Orange Daisy” does feature a doubled vocal track.
I did some basic EQ and mastering in Logic using LANDR to the best of my ability, but these are not polished studio songs. And even when I do get to more polished recordings, my know-how and tools will probably limit the overall quality.
All The Rest
Life has been challenging lately, but I’m starting to find a routine I’m comfortable with. Originally I planned to release two multi-track EPs in July, but it looks like am going to hold off on them a little longer. I have no specific deadline and I have some upcoming time off from work.
The first of the coming singles will be a full band version of a song called “My Arm”, which I first recorded in October of 2020. You can see the original recording at YouTube, but don’t get too attached to it. The studio version will sound noticeably different with bass, drums, and multiple guitars.
And that’s all I’ve got for now. Some other stuff is happening personally and professionally, but we’ll get into that in a future post.
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