I hope you are enjoying this new blog series and listening along with me! Next up, "Falling Apart." ~Tara
The Art of a Song: "Falling Apart"
Are you a people pleaser? Man, can I fall into this category—I have to fight against it daily. And what happens a lot of the time is I don’t even remember what it was I wanted or what I thought was best anymore. But I’m an extremely driven person, so, oftentimes, I feel like there’s a war going on in my head. This song stems from all of that. I knew what I wanted to say for a long time but couldn’t figure out how to say it. And then, one day, the rest of the song finally fell into place.
One of the most memorable things about this song is that it was a blast to record! Some of the most joyful times of the recording process were Jim and I recording the claps for this track—our hands turning red up to the wrists, as we were silently laughing and mouthing the words while the track played along like we were in a music video. It was really thrilling to see how this one would turn out since it was probably the biggest “blank slate” of all the songs on the album. For most of the others, I had basic arrangements and ideas for instrumentation and style far ahead of time that played over in my head, but this one was a bit more of a “let’s-see how-it-comes-together” recording.
I ended up laying down a piano track first to set the tone, even though I originally thought this would be one of the tracks I’d hand off to another pianist. The guys at the studio were all so encouraging that I agreed to give it a shot and put down a couple of takes. After all, it was just supposed to be a scratch track in order for us to lay down the rest of the recording. But as we recorded the rest of the song, my scratch piano track ended up being the final one you hear on the recording.
I guess sometimes it’s best not to know these things ahead of time because sometimes we create beautiful things when we just take the pressure off ourselves and give it a whirl. Our best can shine through much stronger if we get out of our heads, stand in the present, and be who we are, setting aside all of those heavy expectations that so often burden our existence. And perhaps that's what this song is really about: Less thinking, more doing (which is one of my favorite mantras when I get stuck in analysis paralysis).
Just get out there and do what you're meant to do, never mind the naysayers or that little voice in your head that says you shouldn't try or that you're not good enough. Don't live in your head; live in the moment. I like that. I may have to print that onto a t-shirt...