Back in 2009, Alex and I were both back in Austin for the holiday. We spent most of the trip with our families but managed to get a few practices in. The clock was winding down for when AG had to go back to Belgium, and I had to get back to Boulder. We found a last minute studio in Manor the second to last day we were in town, and booked a 9:00 am session. That day also happened to be the same day that our dear friend Nick Stiler’s mother’s funeral was taking place. She was a dynamite woman, who had been so kind to me and Alex and encouraged what we were doing from the very first time Nick brought us over. We decided to do the session as fast as we could then haul ass back down to south Ausitn to make sure we didn’t miss the service, which luckily we didn’t.
I wrote this song in Colorado, and this is pretty biographical and accurate for how this particular summer looked. The original way I played it was thick with chords, long, and drawn out. I sent a recording and a chord chart to Alex via email to see what we could do with it. Alex took the song in a completely different direction. His take was more upbeat (which is a nice juxtaposition to the emotionally draining lyrics) and all of sudden, a the song that was very somber, borderline depressing, was a hopeful song about overcoming some sad elements.
Whichever version, the song itself is about holding on through a hard time. The way I wrote the music acknowledged this, yet it did nothing to change it. In a weird way, Alex’s take engages the content better than I had, because his version captured just the right amount of melancholy, with out letting the message of forward movement become lost by slow, overly epic music verses. This is the way we play this song now, and when we do play it, i’m reminded of another reason why I’m lucky to have a fellow songwriter critique drafts. I say big shout to AG for singing this so early that morning, and letting me play on that 12 string which I had no business playing on. In any case, we found a way to make it.
It’s called “Hold on” and yes there are some sad elements that take place in this song, but please focus on the message of the chorus– light always comes after the dark.
TY