Earlier this year, my friend Henry sent me an idea for a song, and I worked on it and sent back some verses and harmonic ideas. It was familiar and still uncanny. Our creative process used to be very much in-the-moment, but now we were corresponding like old colleagues. It was still fun and refreshing, but also a reminder of how life moves on from the garages you used to jam in.
We finally had the chance to meet up and record it last weekend, and it brought the whole process full circle. The pizza was higher quality and we had better recording equipment, but it was the same energy and exploration in the music. I always enjoy songwriting with Henry - I think that our styles compliment each other, pushing introspective and pulling earnest. It was also great to get to share that part of my life with Lisa, specifically the "Ducks of the World" style of collaborative song building. Lisa and I usually work on more taiko-adjacent projects together, so it's fun getting to learn more about each other in different musical settings.
This cut might not be our final product, but it's something that I want to remember for the moment it was. The song was mostly recorded in a single session, though we went back a few days later for some mixing and layering. The video was mostly shot in a quick trip to the Sacramento River towards the end of the recording session.
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"I Lost You and You Lost Me" (Knight and Wada, 2023)
Performed by Henry (vocals, ukulele, percussion), Lisa (saxophone, drums/percussion), and Gregory (ukulele, guitars, bass, drums/percussion) on July 29, 2023.
The song expresses feelings of dislocation and yearning in what seems to be a rising tide of negative news and discourses. It could be about a relationship between individuals, but could also be a broader sense of loss between members of society.