We're avoiding obstacles

Exhuming a rejected demo and a farewell to my first band

Kat wanted us to come up with a new song, something that we could open our sets with and serve as our “intro.” I like writing music with a goal in mind or a problem to solve. It helps the process along.

The song I wrote is called “We,” and it came together quite quickly. You can listen to a demo of it here.

I wanted it to have a long musical introduction, so people who stepped away from the stage would know the music was starting up and give them time to get their drinks ordered and paid for. I also wanted it to be an introduction to the band and the way we played together. Indoor Friends has a pretty unique configuration—two singers, a ukulele, as many as two guitarists at a time—and I wanted the song to use all those elements in tandem.

I started with drums since so many of our songs started with guitar, making Kat the unofficial timekeeper more than she’d like.

Guitar came next. I wanted a powerful chug, somewhere between Japandroids and the Replacements.

I put a simple chiming riff on top of that to keep the propulsion up, something that our singer/ukuleleist could play. Same deal with the bass. Simple. Propulsive.

Once I had the music in place, I started putting vocals in. My approach to lyric and vocal melody is almost always unconscious—I hear the music and sing whatever comes into my head. Sometimes words appear, but usually just sounds. This time, the first thing out of my mouth was “We are,” and I immediately got excited. A declarative statement, a manifesto for the band. I’m onto something.

I wanted the song to showcase both our singers, so I wrote two pretty distinct verses that I thought would play to their strengths. The idea was that they could trade off mid-song as a nod to them trading off lead vocal duties throughout the set. The first verse, for our lead singer Amanda, is full of long, arcing notes. She’s a powerful singer and very melodically minded, so I thought this would suit her well. Krista, our secondary singer, is a little more fiery and has dabbled in some hip-hop adjacent stuff so I made the second verse a lot punchier and denser with words.

Here are all the lyrics.

Vox 1

We are fast to one another

We are lost in ourselves

We are made of paper

and we don’t put our trust in a stone

Chorus

We

We’re always changing roles

Oh and we

we’re avoiding obstacles

Oh and we

We stay the course

We play all we know

Til we come back home

Vox 2

We are one and all providers

and we take no shit

We’ve dealt with love the best we can

And found a middle ground in fantasy

We’ve given up the upper hand

When we look down the valley’s all we see

Don’t we?

Chorus

I finished the demo just before we left to go record a studio session in Philadelphia. I played it for Matt, our drummer, in the car ride down and he was pretty jazzed on it. He said it reminded him of LCD Soundsystem, a major compliment to me.

When I finally played it for the band at our AirBNB in Philly, there was a mixed response. No one outright disliked it, but they didn’t know what to make of it, either. I could see confusion on their faces, eyes cast downward. It’s hard showing people music you’ve written. This is why.

We tried it a couple of times our next practice in Boston but no one could really get a feel for it. The drums weren’t doing what they should, the rhythm guitar too basic, the vocal melody not in range, the verses of unequal length. More confused looks. The song was scrapped.

I’m not saying it’s a perfect song, but there are things about it I’m proud of. I like the lead guitar part in the second verse. I like the lyrics a fair bit, particularly the line in the chorus “We’re always changing roles/we’re avoiding obstacles.” I considered reworking the song, but it’s too tied to this band, this premise, these people. It’ll always be an Indoor Friends song to me.

I’m no longer a part of Indoor Friends. The departure was filled with lots of love and emotion, but I believe it to be for the best. I’ve still got mad love for those folks, and vice versa. They will always be my first ever band, and you never forget your first. May they continue to avoid obstacles for as long as they can.