JOSH EYGENRAAM
josheygenraam.com
So the working title is Compromised Kiss although Josh calls it "Make Out With Me"
Saw the boys after work
Rolled some dice, lost my shirt I didn’t call you Tell me the truth What did you loose? Up ‘till two no sign of you Tossed and turned chasing sleep Dealing with these bad dreams Ain’t nothing but a compromised kiss Got me wondering what else I missed Damned it girl I wouldn’t gamble this You’re my pocket aces Wasn’t I your lucky break? Baby, you know when I’m down and out I get a little desperate I ain’t no casino You can’t hide all your lies in a kiss This close up there are things I won’t miss I can’t hide all my lies in a kiss This close up there are things you won’t miss Make out with me No seriously Ain’t nothing but a compromised kiss Got me wondering what else I missed Damned it girl I wouldn’t gamble this You’re my pocket aces Tell me the truth What did we loose |
I think I could easily sit beside Josh and do crosswords all day. I suspected I wanted him to be a part of this project when I first heard his album Cheap Talk because of his eclectic, grab any and all musical influence and make a new song, quirky style. He was giving it away for free one night after one of his performances and if I remember correctly I gave him s**t for that and jammed some cash into his hand. There’s an essence in the end result of his music that makes me feel at home and reminds me of my first album (Double Entendre). I knew I wanted him to be a part of the project when we hung out at The Artery (one of Edmonton’s best live music venues) and in the midst of the madness the two of us sat there and did…yup, a crossword. Writing songs is sometimes a lot like doing a puzzle and this guy seems to like those.
Out of all the sessions I’ve done on this project, Josh had the most direct approach. He has a healthy amount of confidence and a whole lot of love when it comes to music. After the initial ice breaking conversation and swapping of songs and stories, we got right into lyric writing. “There is no one way of doing things (…) no matter what you do, you need luck.” We tried strumming some chords while coming up with random lyrics, discussed possible topics, tried having me ramble random lines while he took them down… A skilled multi-instrumentalist and a focused musician, not only does he work full time, on top of his solo project he’s part of several other projects as a bassist, guitarist, accompanist, and his guitar solos (normally I’m not a huge electric guitar solo fan) are ridiculously tasty. Anyhow, about 3 or 4 sessions and we cooked up a song. The process did feel a lot like doing a puzzle (I’m not used to working in such a strategic way): finding a hook, what would be the chorus, does x section work best before w or after y… When something started to take shape, I thought we would end up with a pop song, but man did it ever retain a peculiar quality. When we started recording it, he immediately started thinking about which vocal quality to use, what instrumentation the song called for… The great thing during this whole process was Josh’s openness and generosity, the continual back and forth, his ability to not only to communicate his thoughts and ideas but to also be receptive and curious about mine. I’ve always dreaded recording vocals because of being stone deaf in my left ear, but this is one of the times I’ve felt most comfortable. To me, Josh comes off as a full-picture musician with a great mind for producing and an easy going while getting-‘er-done demeanor. So of course, this exchange got 'er done and we have a quirky little song to show for it. |