Category: Songs

Behind the Song “Masquerade”

~ Melissa Bianco ~ Leave a comment

I love writing. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. Nothing great, mind you, but just stuff. I was just chatting with my bestie from grade 6 (grade 6!!) and she remembered a poem I wrote for her for her 11th or 12th birthday and she quoted my own poem back to me, word for word. I was floored.

The poem was terrible, but it rhymed, so I have that going for me. Anywho, once I hit double digits and started going to high school, I kept writing. Nothing fancy. An entire story dedicated to meeting Davey Jones (yes, from The Monkees, I had a crush.) to other just ridiculous stories.

But I also wrote a few poems. So when I was on my High School Annual (Canadian version of a Yearbook) Committee, I had an opportunity to GET PUBLISHED. Hey, published is published. I’ll take it.

Since I was in high school and everything was a big deal, I wrote some incredibly angsty poem about hiding behind smiles and living in cages of making everything seem perfectly okay (please note: this is an Easter Egg. Continue listening to my music to see a reference to this phrase…someday.)

So I thought, you know what? I’m gonna write a song about how we all hide behind these masks in some way. And that’s where the song came from. . Throw in a catchy 80s new wave vibe and we’re cookin’!

So now you know.

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Behind the Song: “Pack It Up”

~ Melissa Bianco ~ Leave a comment

From the Album, Across the Frequency, an 80s-inspired album, this song is a simple one: don’t live in the past. I, as much as anyone, have a tendency towards nostalgia, even when it’s not warranted.

To help give you an idea of nostalgic I can be, I was less than ten years old and I’d save gravel from the alley behind the house so I wouldn’t forget where I lived. I wrote my diaries in block letter so I’d be able to read them when I was “old”. Yep, that’s the brain you’re dealing with. 🙂

Anyway, I was also a bit of a pack rat. I may or may not (fine, I still have them) every letter and card I received during the 80s. Like, every one. I’m sure they’re falling apart by now. I kept notes and letters and drawings my old boyfriends gave to me. Finally, after many years, I went through most of them and said goodbye. In some cases, it was an easy decision because I’d stored them in the garage and, ah, rats got to them. (Sorry!)

So sometimes weather pushes along the need to move forward and not live in the past. As we’ve moved over the years, it’s been a great opportunity to “out with the old in with the new” and I’ve taken a last look, smiled and remembered what these things meant to me at the time, and said goodbye.

That’s it. No real moral of the story. Just an example of how sometimes if you’re so busy lived in a past (that seems to somehow get “better” with age), you’re not living in the present and appreciating all the amazingness that it has to offer.

kthxbye!

P.S. If you enjoy the song, please do me a favor and (yeah, I’m going to be that broken record — apparently it matters to YouTube), LIKE my song and – if it pleases you – SUBSCRIBE to my channel. I’m trying to build it up. (But not my ego! Don’t worry!) Seriously, it’s abysmal. Maybe I’ll hit 100 subscribers (I have small social ambitions.)

As always, you can find me all over the dang place:

HyperFollow Link: https://hyperfollow.com/melissabianco

Behind the Song: “Not Far At All”

~ Melissa Bianco ~ Leave a comment

I really liked writing this one. It brought me back to high school and finding my good girlfriends. My mom reminded me the other day, I came home once and was whining (Whining? Really? Me? Are you sure?) about not having any friends. She told me, “Well, go out and make some. You have to be one to find one.” (Or something to that effect.)

A few huffs later, I was a teenager after all, I went out and got me some. Yeah, apparently it was that easy back then.

Anyway, this song is dedicated not only to the lovely ladies who became my chums but also to all the other groups of friends who have stayed close over all the years, even if they’ve physically moved apart.

Not a complex song. Just appreciation and smiles looking back.

Call your friends!

(Nice to write about an easy one after last week’s emotional intrigue, fo sho!)

kthxbye

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Behind the Song: “Broken Wing”

~ Melissa Bianco ~ Leave a comment

Some songs come easy, like last week’s song. Some songs are hard-earned.

This song was easy yet difficult to write because it forced me to go back in time and re-evaluate in living color some uncomfortable truths about myself back then.

There’s always that one person you could have done better by. In this case, how I’d handled myself as a girlfriend when I was a teenager. I suspect that most of us are dopes back in our teens, but it still can be touchy to go back evaluate these things, even as an adult.

Wow, vague much, Melissa? (I’m not trying to Carly Simon anyone here, I’m just respecting the past.) Only one getting hit by a bus is THIS girl!

Oh self-reflection, you are a cruel mistress!

Anyway, not a lot of details on this one other than to say that obviously I’m not the person I was back then. I’ve grown up. I’ve matured. I know how to be in a relationship and all those great things. But when you decide you’re gonna write a ballad about yourself, better be prepared to open up an emotional vein. Even if it’s describing a time from decades ago.

Melissa