Just in time for Valentines Day! (Which neither my husband or I are particular fans of so we usually celebrate date night on a different day.) I mean it just make sense, doesn’t it?
Anyway, on the dawn of Valentines Day, this is the second of two male vocals for this album. Let’s see if I can explain this. I wrote this song for my husband as if he wrote it for me. (It really makes more sense when you hear the song. Truly.)
Anyway, a few easter eggs in the song:
The first day we met he saw my smile and well obviously it was over for him (I swear, he likes my chubby cheeks)
North Star is a reference to my coming from Canada
The line, “I’ll slay your dragons, one by one” is a reference to a story he wrote me when he proposed to me
Some songs fall out of my brain straight onto the page. This was one of them. I’m not going to say how long it took, it’s a pretty simple song, but it came quickly.
By the way, he liked the song. I know I did it right if I see some tears in his eyes. (I got me some tears.)
I normally design my own covers, but since this one was for him, I let him contribute to the cover.
The ASL (American Sign Language) sign for “I Love You” is front and center. (It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek since it’s a hair band 80s ballad so that’s why you see the long hair. And normally guys are all, “Yeah, man! The horns, baby! The horns!” Since Ron and I are Christian, that was out, so we added our take instead. Actually, I thought it was pretty clever. Again, that was his idea.
The shining star does double duty — one is a reference to the North (it’s north on the album cover), but also since Jesus is our guidepost, it’s a nod to his guidance as well. (That’s why you see “I swear to Heaven above” — we married and made a commitment to each other.)
We’ve been together for over 25 years and, man, time flies! Needless to say, this one is dedicated to my husband, Ron Bianco.
Happy (almost) Valentines Day, everyone!
If you’re all, “Bah humbug. People are horrible.” Uh….then Happy Friday the 13th?
After I got into the groove with my Chance of a Lifetime album (BTW, all those songs have Lyric Videos on YouTube now!) , I got it in my head that I really like doing this writing thing! I can just write a song to tell a story! Bite-sized, just like me!
So after some thought I decided, “I’m gonna write me an 80s-inspired album!”
I wanted a good cross-section of songs from 80s ballads to new wave to — duhhhh — rock. And so I plotted it out. After a few weeks of writing, I had my ten songs.
I’ve been doling out the songs, one per week, for the last three weeks. And, it’s been FUN! I have learned so much about writing (the first few singles I did – don’t listen, they’re terrible – were kind of random and meandery), licensing, distribution, and how to format YouTube videos and why it’s good to have consistency, etc. etc. etc.. But that’s a topic for another day once I’ve learned more. For me, it’s about getting what’s in my head into a song. So that’s what I’ll focus on.
I don’t want to bore my Facebook friends with details they maybe don’t care about so I thought to myself, “Well, uh, you dolt, that’s what you have your own website for! Sheesh!”
So here we are!
The Album is called Across the Frequency (comes out April 10th! But I’m releasing singles under separate covers because making covers for each song is kinda fun) and like I said, it’s 80s inspired. Mostly I wrote about time back then, but I have a modern song or two but with an 80s sound. So it kind of crosses the timeline a bit. I felt the title worked nicely.
Here’s the album cover that I’m really excited about.
I wanted to go for the 1980s vibe, but not the crazy colors and pop kind of covers like Queen’s Hot Space or Talking Heads’ Remain in Light or Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ Imperial Bedroom. No, I wanted more simple like The Cars’ Candy-O (some of my single covers will give that vibe, I hope.)
But the image above was born of me wanting a Frank Frazetta style cover without the girl in the metal bikini riding a tiger. So I thought, ok, lose the girl, keep the cat. Panthers are cool. So if you look, his musculature is exaggerated in style. And I wanted old world meets new. Which Frank also did. So you see the Barbarian kind of style and his futuristic style. I wanted to combine the two in a very subtle way.
Note the hanging vines and foliage around the sides and ground (old) and then the cosmos in the background (future) — hence, across the frequency. And, if you’re paying attention, there’s a little easter egg with the frequency symbol near the panther.
I’m fairly positive that I’m the only one who cared about all these details, but at the end of the day it looked just plain COOL and — to me — very 80s.
So far a few singles have been released — I release one per week on Fridays:
This super silly fun (assume 80s in everything I write about style) pop song is about growing up as a kid in the 80s with the iconic games and toys and just hanging out with friends. It’s really not meant to be deep. There’s also a reference to Generation X, which I am apparently a member. Forgotten Generation? I guess. Remember this song. This album has a purpose in each song. 🙂
Now this one is a wonderfully classic anthem rock song. Simple message, hard rocking beats, and lots of heart. I wrote this for my husband who struggles with MS and never ever gives up, no matter what he does. So I wrote this in maybe five minutes. There are some fun battle / sports references. It all counts, I’m sure. Look, I kept it simple, ok? Sometimes I’m really not that deep. Anywho, along with this hard rock anthem song – I went with a male vocal. It’s only one of two times I went with a male vocal on this album. The second one will make sense, too, when you hear it.
This is another rock song, hard-hitting, great beat. It’s about running. Sometimes we think if we keep moving enough, those things we don’t want to deal with will go away, but they don’t. While I didn’t write this about me, I do feel that way back then, I’ve done a little running in my day. Emotionally. Situationally. You name it. This one probably will ring a bit true for all of us.
….and that’s where we leave it, as of today.
Next week, I think I’ll do a post for the next song on the list. It gives me an opportunity to go a bit deeper. (And I don’t spam my Facebook friends.)
(All my links are down below via this one DistroKid one if you want to support me on this crazy journey I’m on.)
MelissaBianco.com 
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