As of now, I’m using this here substack like a journal. No serious editing. Just ramblin’ on, stream-of-consciousness reflections on the songs that make up Sunburned. Enjoy!
“I’m in-between two lives // One of them is ending // Something’s gotta die // Something’s gotta send me”
Our first album ends with a song called American Boy, a bit of a rock meditation with the chanted lyrics, “If I wake up then you wake up.” So it felt natural for Sunburned to pick up where the self-titled album left off. Both songs in Open G, both heavy rockers about waking up.
I’m a huge fan of integral philosopher Ken Wilber. I got into him in 2015 when I was traveling to Albuquerque NM to study at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Jake and I were on our first DIY tour and we stopped in to a book store on Pearl Street, and I found a whole section of Ken’s books. Little did I know how big of an impact he would have on me. I picked up a book called “Integral Spirituality” and over the next few weeks I devoured it. The subtitle is “A startling new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world.” Very sexy.
Integral theory is a box I don’t care to open at this moment, but one framework for personal development that Ken frequently discusses is the call to “Grow Up, Clean Up, Show Up, and Wake Up.” In a nutshell, growing up deals with psychological and emotional maturation (moving beyond ego and ethnocentrism); cleaning up involves shadow work, showing up involves serving humanity, and waking up involves spiritual awakening.
Admittedly “Wake Up Now” is less about a mystical awakening, and more about waking up from a bad dream. There are these huge portions of our lives where we sleep walk through our days on autopilot, and then something happens that shocks us, shakes us, connects us. This is often my goal on stage. To tap into that space within myself, and to bring others into that.
We wrote the music for Wake Up Now during a jam in East Nashville in August of 2020 at a studio called 3 Sirens. I took the ruff mix home and started working on it in my basement, chopped it up a bit and wrote the lyrics and melody. Here’s that demo.
When we made it to Montrose, where we recorded most of Sunburned, we felt really confident about Wake Up Now, so it was the first song we tracked. But it didn’t hit at all. It felt flat and sent me into that “oh shit we actually suck” sort of head space.
Got up the next day, moved on to another tune, and came back to it a few days later with a different attitude. It felt great the second time, and the plate reverb on the snare made the whole song pop. It’s become one of my favorite songs to play live as it feels very natural and thick, and I like head banging at the end.
You can listen to ‘Wake Up Now’ from Sunburned here.
Is anybody there
I’m stuck here with my demons
Can’t come up for air
Can’t tell if I’m dreamin’
So come on golden boy
Nothing lasts forever
And all that I avoid
Comes crashing down like heaven
I know I’ve reached the edge
And I’m not getting better
I wanna breathe instead of screaming
I wanna leave my head
And wake up now
Wake up now
I’m in between two lives
One of ‘em is ending
Something’s gotta die
Something’s gotta send me
So help me out tonight
Swear you’re not pretending
I may have lost my mind
Or maybe just my memory
I know I’ve reached the edge
Baby, I’m not getting better
I wanna breathe instead of screaming
I wanna leave my head
And wake up now
Wake up now
Wake up now
For a song that felt flat initially, it sure turned out great. It's one of my favorites on the new record. Sounded killer last week at the Madison show, too.