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The Stars Are All Out

from Birds Falling from the Sky by Harmonica Pocket

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about

(Written Spring 2002)

On a trip through Portland Oregon in 2004, I met Heather Harlow. She had worked on a number of music videos and we talked about co-producing a Harmonica Pocket song together.

The Stars Are All Out is an epic art song -- it has numerous parts, changes in strange places, and is generally difficult to teach to other people. I wanted Heather to understand the structure of the song quickly, and it was also important to be able to communicate our ideas about the different parts efficiently. I ended up drawing a "song map" for her. It was the first time I had ever done this. It really worked for us, and it facilitated some ideas that probably wouldn't have occurred to us without the map.

Basically, we broke the song down into a structure with these parts:

A - B - A - B - C - D - E - A

Each part was then considered a room in a house and our goal was to define and decorate each room as distinctly its own thing.

Music and light fill a room in a similar way and we wanted to explore different feelings and colors. So that when you crossed the line from one room to the next, you knew you were somewhere else. Instantly.

Lyrical images were one factor in determining the feel of each room. In the first A section we were attracted to the words "electricity," "power company," and "stars." On the map we scribbled the new related words "sharp," "charged," and "glass on glass."

We wanted to thicken up the A sections with sounds of glass shattering. Since we didn't have any of these sounds we had to go create some, and this is where things got ridiculously fun.

I have some wonderful and amazing friends in Portland who are always up for a good time. We gathered up the digital recorder, some microphones, about three weeks worth of recycling backlog, and headed out to an alley behind the loft where we were working.

We smashed A LOT of glass and did a bunch of laughing. Some of those sounds were dropped into the mix with delay and other effects.

The rad Portland band Sounds Like Fun (see the song credits for their names) helped bring this song to life. They brought some great musical and production ideas to the recording, like distorted double-tracked stereo drums. We used a tape recorder to track the four part harmonies, then dumped the audio into Pro Tools to mix into the song.

lyrics

"The stars are all out
Of electricity,"
Said the power company.
"We're dead," we said,
"Dang they don't hang
The stars or the moon
Like they used to."

From the moon to you
Nothing quite
As beautiful as you

She gave him
A heart left it
Rather in a place kept
Between his face and pillowcase
As it turned out
It wasn't meant to be
It just happened
To happen this way
It just happened
To happen that way

From the moon to you
Nothing quite
As beautiful as you
Underneath the moon
Dee daa doo
It's just a pretty view
And I'm saving this seat
For the girl
With chocolate on her cheek

Maybe I ain't the one to say
But baby your stars are all dark today
Something very powerful someone wise
The mosquitos up in heavenly skies
Or the angels that live in your eyes

Took a moment from their busy week
To take the time to put a kiss on your cheek
With love so strong it left a mark
Which like the stars tonight are all dark

I just want to sit
And maybe one kiss
I just want to sit next to you

credits

from Birds Falling from the Sky, released July 21, 2021

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Harmonica Pocket Port Townsend, Washington

Acoustic & chill, The Harmonica Pocket will win you over with laid-back originals and playful re-workings of songs you love.

Recorded on a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest using solar electricity, their albums feature ukuleles and guitars strummed over tight vocal harmonies and delicate fingerplucked melodies. Horn sections swell and tiny musical secrets are woven into the corners of the mix. ... more

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