Radical Face - The River With No Name

The short description of this track: It's a song about moving.

We will be moving again next year, and this will be the ninth time for me. Moving used to feel overwhelming. It was something I dreaded. So when we moved to where we are living now, and I set up a studio in the garage, I was convinced I was going to stay in place for a while. But a pandemic wasn’t a part of the plan. Like any major life event, it shifted priorities and outlook a huge amount. So we are back to the drawing board.

But I noticed it wasn’t bothering me this time. I’ve gotten good at it. And I can have fun doing all the research for potential places to live and mentally trying them on. Since this is something I’ve been doing in my spare time, and I have been using these newsletter songs as an excuse to make “slice of life” moments into music, it felt like as good a topic as any.

Musically, the major influences were some old Bossa Nova compilations, French pop music from the 60s, and the theme from “The Reading Rainbow.” Odd combination, but these have been in rotation for me while drawing lately. I’ve been enjoying letting things influence me with no intention of being clever or particularly mindful about it. There’s something fun about being very unfiltered and spontaneous. I think these are the only songs I’ve ever made where I have had no rewrites involved. It’s been a great counterpoint to working on such an elaborate record.

As with the other Hidden Hollow singles, the video is just a time-lapse of me painting the cover on Procreate.

LYRICS:

Maybe this time we will get right
Every step’s just a step until the one where you stop
They say the third time’s a charm
Yeah, well, how about the ninth?

Or maybe look at this a different way
You only know where you’ve been
Not where you’re going to be
If you learn as you go, you gotta go just to learn

So take a step into the river with no name
And you’ll be carried off into a horizon that you’ve never known
Don’t close your eyes, it’ll all be okay
Come dry yourself beside the fire
Made of all those former worries that you’ve carried inside you
There’s no need for names
Just let them burn and warm yourself by the flames

We thought this time would be a different case
That we know where we are and we know what we want
It only lasted two years
But, hey, that’s better than one

So back to throwing ideas at the wall
My throwing arm is getting good
Yeah, I could do it all day
And you know I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t fun

Let’s take a step into the river with no name
And we’ll be carried off into a horizon that we’ve never known
Don’t close your eyes, it’ll all be okay
Come dry yourself beside the fire
Made of all those former worries that you’ve carried inside you
There’s no need for names
Just let them burn, we’ll warm ourselves with the flames