My first track for my first February Album Month. Excited to be writing and releasing with less overthinking!

Lyrics:

Wait,
I'm catching up.
Take the miles we walked together,
Add 'em up.

Cuz I don't mind,
Wasting days,
Wasting time,
With you.

Love,
Oh, I hold it close.
In the arms of all your beauty,
I'm enough.

But, late at night,
When the world is quiet,
I'm alone.

Out through the alley, double vision,
Glare in my eyes from the passing cars.
Dragging my knuckles on the brick walls, bloody,
When lonely is not enough.

Promised a girl I would try to get better,
Promised the world I would open my eyes.
In the back of my mind, I'm so full of fucking doubt,
But I really wanna try.

Let's face it,
This world is cold and jaded,
And fear is so contagious,
When you see the long way down.

Oh, there's a knot inside my chest now,
You can't be lost if you never were found.
That little voice is screaming out,
"No you won't get far by crawling".

Feel the moment on your fingertips,
Where it ends and where it all begins,
Cuz when you're closer to the edge,
The hardest part is falling.

The hardest part is falling.

Leap Year

Second track for FAWM! Took a bit longer to get this written, went through a few versions that were longer and more bitter. Cut out a whole final chorus because it ended on a more cynical note, I think as it stands I like this more. Maybe later I can tweak it! Until then, enjoy an upbeat, semi-cynical song about grief and moving on!

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Foolish,
I don't even know
If I can do this,
No greater mistake than the

Shading of the lines
Between the shape of your heart,
Will the colors even mind if they
Die for the art?

Focus,
Don't push any buttons 
Or be noticed.
I'll watch it unfold,

Put some holes into the wall
When the service is done,
But for now I'm just a shadow,
With my back to the sun.

Pre-Chorus 1:
I try to fit all the pieces
Into place,
But what do I know about the 
Figures and the faces?

The point of return 
Makes no exceptions,
If you
Burned out from both ends;

What doesn't kill you,
Leaves you broke and bent.

So they say:

Chorus:
"Keep it light,
Don't let it get heavy,
With all the
Weight you hold,

Cuz every single 
Song you wrote,
Is useless,
When you're trying to small talk.

Do it right,
Just keep it simple, stupid,
And leave it at the door,

Cuz nobody will see you,
And you won't see them,
With your pity party on the floor."

Verse 2:
Face it,
Pain is a waste, if you chase it.
But if you remain,

You'll be learning how to lose,
Until the end of your life,
Oh the days are never easy,
But you're gonna get by.

Hold it,
Your hand isn't useful 
When it's folded,
You know it's the truth.

It's like only being honest
When you're caught in a lie,
No, you don't get any points,
If you don't even try.

Pre-Chorus 2:
Pull me back
From the fog, across the sea.
I don't even know if I could be capable,
Of learning how to breathe again.

The waves will dash 
Against the rocks,
But they will not
Bury me.

These are the ways that
I learned to live with grief.

Let's Keep It Light, Shall We?

Third FAWM track! It was actually the first track I started to write for this, I just kinda lost the plot and was off to other songs and ideas before I came back. Kind of feels like there should be a bridge or an outro, but eh, FAWM is not the place for second-guessing and over-analysis. That's an After February problem.

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
A paperweight could keep me down<
Give or take this bed I made
To drown in.
I digress, I digress:

I'm tangled up,
Spinning round,
Hanging by a thread.

Fireflies and memories,
I'll let you know so you can leave
The light on
When I'm gone, when I'm gone.

A perfect hill to die on,
No summer rain,
To help drift to sleep.

Chorus:
Hang me out,
So my bleeding heart can dry. (Don't let me down x2)
And maybe, if it's broken,
You can find me a new one.

The city lights
Look a little like constellations. (Don't keep me out x2)
When I'm miles away from 
All I love.

Verse 2:
Twist and turn and shed me skin,
The odds and ends and Never-Been's
Control me.
So it goes, so it goes.

The engine purrs and we depart,
But we never grow apart.

I dream of nights I'll never see,
Rolling hills, fallen leaves
Without you.
I'll wake up, I'll wake up.

But a part of me is so afraid,
I'll fall asleep and
Never see you again.

Chorus:
Hang me out,
So my bleeding heart can dry. (Don't let me down x2)
And maybe, if it's broken,
You can find me a new one.

The city lights
Look a little like constellations. (Don't keep me out x2)
When I'm miles away from 
All I love.

Paperweight

Fourth Fawm track! Having a lot of fun coming up with tiny little ideas and getting in and out with them. Here I wanted to make a song that was both in a non-standard time signature but ALSO not have it be super serious or proggy or whatever. So it's a love song in 5/4 I guess!

Lyrics:
Verse:
I found a little box
Of all the things that we couldn't have,
All those photographs
Lost to time.

It's been a beautiful life,
And you know I don't wanna let you go,
But it's our story,
We'll be just fine.

Out of our minds,
But never feeling like we're out of step,
Swaying to the rhythm again,
Until the lights go out.

I'll follow you forever,
That's what I'm supposed to do.
I'm just a fool,
In a plastic crown.

Chorus:
Wrapped in indecision,
Regrets tied up into a bow,
You're the dark and winding road,
And the path ahead that takes me home.

The flowers and the poems,
For every single life we left behind,
They make me wanna sing,
You're the only thing that I got right.

Outro:
Let's slow dance tonight,
And I don't care,
We can stay here for forever.
Forever.

If we don't get far,
Then we'll get there together.
If we don't get far,
We still got each other.

Right through the night,
And into the morning,
With you.

Jughead

Fifth FAWM track. A little moodier, a little quieter, a little blues-ier-ish.

Lyrics:
No point in counting
The stars in the sky;
Endless projections
From a place that has died.

A light from a life is much
Harder to find,
When the black that surrounds them
Is there til the end of time.

When does the chokehold
Begin to let go?
All of this darkness is
All that I know.

You can't claw the walls when you're
Down in a hole.
You just make it wider,
You just start to lose control.

Wide open spaces.
I can't wait to rest
In a bed of black roses.
You'll feel it when you know it.

Verse 2:
Run like the ocean
Is rising again.
Drunk on the brine
From the water I tread.

You know that the good things
All come to an end,
So float in the moment,
With all of that stolen silence.

I don't see the difference
Of pleasure and pain,
The good and the bad,
Always end up the same.

Like a poor little moth
That's been swallowed by flame,
You go where the glow is,
When you know it's dying.

So close you can taste it,
A place without heartache,
When you live it and bleed it.
You'll know it when you see it.

Bridge:
No, it won't be long
Before all these songs I've sung
Are forgotten and gone;
A stone on the pond,
Skipping to the other side.

No, I won't tempt fate,
But out through the garden gate,
Is where I choose to be alive.

You'll feel it when you know it.

You'll Feel It When You Know It

Sixth Fawm track. My wonderful girlfriend, in all of her infinite wisdom, asked me to make a "Sexy Song" for Valentine's Day. Now, I don't think I have an ounce or two of sexiness in me or my lame little songs, but this is an attempt at...that. So I hope she likes this, cuz otherwise I just made a fool of myself for nothing! :D

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
All I know is that you
Got me to shed my skin,
Now I wake up knowing
Something new to believe.

On the surface,
I was drunk in a daze,
But you saved me
With what's underneath.

There's a shiver crawling
Up through the base of my spine,
Like a river runnning
To the warmth of your touch.

I wash away into
The ocean in your eyes, 
And baby,
It's never enough.

Pre-Chorus:
Oh I know it's 
Never right to be selfish,
But I don't want
This ever to end.

A moment with you
Feels like a lifetime,
And I'd do it over 
And over again.

Chorus:
I'm coming undone,
You're holding my strings
Frayed by the fall.

Can I show you what you do to me
With your back to the wall?
I don't wanna sleep,
I just wanna lay here.

You got me coming undone.

Verse 2:
I'm just a fool when all the
Music makes you move the way you do,
The sound evaporates
And the world is a blur.

I fog the mirror
So it's clearer what I wrote,
"Trust me, it'll always be her."

I've got your named etched on the
Edges near the stitching in my heart,
So you know I'll never be
Your greatest mistake.

Part by part,
You give me reason to be breathing,
And oh,
You make my body ache.

Pre-Chorus 2:
Oh, I want you just to be selfish,
I never wanna leave this bed.
Yeah, you're spinning little spirals above me,
Pirouettes inside my head.

Chorus 2:
I'm coming undone,
You're holding my strings,
Frayed by the fall.

Can I show you what you do to me,
With your back to the wall?
I don't wanna sleep,
I don't ever wanna leave.

Never wanna let go,
Until I'm losing control.
Running out of air,
Aching for more,

Can you show me what you wanna do,
With my back on the floor?
Coming up for breath,
Then going back for more.

You got me coming undone.

Undone

The Love Song for February Album Writing Month! Seventh track for the project, I wanted to drop this on Valentine's day for my girl. Sentimental and sickly sweet and vulnerable and honest and stuff.

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
More or less a decade,
That I lost to my depression,
The bitter parts of me collapsed
To time and introspection.

I made mistakes and then I made
A bed down on the floor.
I opened up my scars and
Closed the door.

I cut you out and pushed away,
The people that could help me,
Figured I would save the pain and
Let them all down gently.

I'll keep the story short,
But in the end I always knew,
The one who waited for me,
Was you.

Pre-Chorus:
Yeah, you always bring me back,
To parking lots and cold parades.
Playing Daylight at your bedside,
Taking graveyard shifts at midnight.

Those sad and lonely kids,
Just sharing sad and lonely spaces.

Chorus:
Don't you know
You're good enough?
Cuz, babe these days, without you,
I'm missing all your pieces.

It's all I want,
To fall back in bed beside you.
I'll, once again, remind you,

That every single song
I try to write
Just ends up being about you,
And all my goddamn feelings,

But I never run,
If we can hide.
If we can hide.

Verse 2:
People say to stay in touch,
When they end their conversations,
As if pain can't find a way to write
The words to Good Vibrations.

You fake it in your smile,
And then you fake it in your heart,
And before you know it,
This is where you are.

All our talks were more than making
Quips about the weather,
All the bits and banter made each
Day a little better.

Letting the walls fall down a again,
It's easier with trust,
When the people we will always have
Are us.

Pre-Chorus 2:
Yeah, you always bring me back
To missing shortcuts just to wander.
Rolling dice and reading magazines,
Laughing at bad movie scenes.

Those lost and lucky kids,
Getting lost and lucky together.

Chorus:
Don't you know
You're good enough?
Cuz, babe these days, without you,
I'm missing all your pieces.

It's all I want,
To fall back in bed beside you.
I'll, once again, remind you,

That every single song
I try to write
Just ends up being about you,
And all my goddamn feelings,

But I never run,
If we can hide.
If we can hide.

Bridge:
Sittin' on the bridge
In the middle of the night,
When the party got a little too loud.

You'll never be a person
In the background,
No, you'll never be a
Face in the crowd.

It's hard to just be honest
When your head's a big mess,
But I never thought
My love could ever last long.

But then, I never had a person
In my life who ever made me wanna
Write a bunch of sappy
Little love songs.

Slippin' on the ice on
New Year's Eve,
Singin' in the Rain,
On a signpost.

Billy Joe struggling
On the chorus,
Better let the crowd
Sing the part with the high note.

I never had a friend who made
Me fall so far,
Never had a lover
Make me laugh hard.

Don't you know that all the
Little pieces of you,
They fit into the
Shape of my heart.

All your pieces.

All Your Pieces

8th track for February Album Month, a song I feel would be a good moody intermission in the middle of this future album. 

Lyrics:

The room is lined with
Painted faces. (staring)
A dozen empty eyes
Staring
At you.

Do not look back at them.
Do not let them know.
Do not let this get to you.
Do not let this keep you up,
Again.

Out in the hallway,
There is nothing.
An absence of light.
A tangle of memories.
A knot that will never be untied.

Is that a figure,
Clawing it's way in?
Or is that a sea of emptiness,
Where your world used to be?

Do not disconnect.
Do not slide away.
Do not forget who you are.

This is your so-called vision.
This is your creativity.
This is what they praised you for,
When you were just the quiet kid.
Only speaking when spoken to.
Only choosing when asked.
Only moving when the water hits your ankles.

This is an unquiet mind.
This is every single night.
This is all you know.
This is all
Through the Gap in the Doorway.

Gap In The Doorway [Insomniac]

A short and sweet track about nostalgia and growing up, changing tastes, and coming back to the things you loved in your youth. While Blink-182 is far from my favorite band, I have fondness for some of their albums and getting me through the usual: heartaches, loneliness, alienation. The usual. So this is an homage to a bunch of their songs (some I'm certain I put into this without thinking), with my own style put in (i.e., the inability to play the main instrument that pop-punk is lead by lol)

Lyrics:

Verse 1:

I took it down when my
Walls were adjusted,
Threw it out when the
Jewel case busted,

And now the holes from 
The tacks are
All I got left.

I think I found it in a
Bin at the thrift place,
Track 7 was the song that
Made my lungs ache.

Just a kid screaming
Out all the things unsaid.

Pre-Chorus 1:

I know that we've all grown up,
But the music will take us there,
To night-driving with windows down,
Breathing the summer air.

Chorus:

You know that if you
Blink right now,
Then the moment is lost;
A blurry little photo
Of a second you caught.

Welcome to the part,
Where you can't ever trace
The chord back to the thought.

Blink, once again,
And it goes even faster.
Another year down,
Another disaster.

Three little words,
For the time that flies:
"Where are you?"

Verse 2:

Now, on the radio,
When those songs start to play,
I fight the urge to say
"It ain't like the old days",

Just like my parents did on
Saturday nights,
With Genesis and Air Supply.

I really doubt
It's truly all about the music,
It's about your youth and how
You never wanna lose it.

The things you loved
When you were young
Make you feel so alive.

Pre-Chorus 2:

I know that we've all moved on,
But the melody brings us home,
To running wild without a thought,
Through fields and backroads.

Chorus:

You know that if you
Blink right now,
Then the moment is lost;
A blurry little photo
Of a second you caught.

Welcome to the part,
Where you can't ever trace
The chord back to the thought.

Blink, once again,
And it goes even faster.
Another year down,
Another disaster.

Three little words,
For the time that flies:
"Where are you?

Blink

The inspiration for this song comes from a quote that I think about a lot, from the 2019 videogame Disco Elysium:

"Congrats – you're sober. It will take a while for your body to remember how to metabolize anything that isn't sugar from alcohol, so you're going to be pretty ravenous soon. Eat plenty. You can expect your coordination and balance to improve in a couple of weeks. In two months, you might start sleeping like a normal person. Full recovery will take years, though. It’ll be depressing. And it’ll be boring. Don’t expect any further rewards or handclaps. This is how normal people are all the time."

I don't know, it's something that continues to speak to me every day, how some people are destined to fight tooth and nail just to do the thing "normal people" (whatever that means) do.

Beyond that, I had a tough time coming up with a name for this. It was initially Sober, but to me that wasn't enough; it's not about fighting sobriety, it's about fighting your nature, whether your chemical of choice is a literal chemical, dopamine, sadness, etc. 

Then I went through names from the game itself that felt too obtuse; Wasteland of Reality. Jamais Vu. Cleaning Out The Rooms. I settled on Pay Phone, and people who have played Disco Elysium will understand why. Anyways, rant over!

Lyrics:

Verse 1:

I never learn.
How many times
Have I even tried?

Who will 
Take my place
When I return?

Young,
And wide awake,
And starry-eyed;

Afraid of no one,
Hungry for nothing.

Verse 2:

It's in my veins,
A sweet and cherry red,
And I want it out.

It fills my head 
With static,
And it fucking aches,

And if I feed it
Even once,
It'll hold me down.

A sad and
Sorry affair,
But so it goes.

Reality feels
So wrong,
When you're all alone,

And you're 
Pressing the numbers from memory
On the pay phone.

I'm cleaning
Out the rooms,
Cuz they're all I know.

Addicted to misery,
Left with
Nothing to show.

Chorus:

I think I heard
Forever is a long, long time,
And loneliness is
Better as a concept,

But I know they put
The Devil in the details, kid,
Cuz all I got for trying
Was a complex.

And I'll still be 
Fucking sober till the day I die,
Cut myself dancing 
On the straight edge.

I promise, in the moment
I will live my life,
But only if
Forever isn't like this.

The hardest part is falling.

Payphone

Pay Phone

11th track for February Album Writing Month, the first part of a two-parter that, when it comes to to the future album, are going to bleed into one another. This is about change, growing up and out of bad habits, and moving on from self-loathing. Fun!

Lyrics:

Intro:

The Night Before.
Insomniac.
If a tree falls in a forest,
And all that.

Verse 1:

Little birds,
Bending Branches.
Northern lights,
Starry dancers.

Shuffling
Through Haunted Houses.
Counting sheep,
I lost track in the thousands.

Everything has lead to this,
And then it's gonna be behind me.
Waiting in the clearing,
To freeze or fade away, starving.
The key will change.

Verse 2:

Velvet gloves,
Scarlet letters.
Dial tones, 
For worse or better.

Another year older,
Another plan down the drain.
Another night reminiscing
About the pouring rain.

Tomorrow will be better,
But if it ends up the same,
It'll take the rest of your life
To catch up to the Good Old Days.

Tried to drown the voices,
But they kept coming back
To haunt you.

Did it hurt when you were thinking
That nobody was ever gonna
Want you?

But things will change.
But things will change.
But things will change.
But things will change.

The Night Before...

12th song for February Album Writing Month, second part of a two-parter with my other track "The Night Before..." Essentially a continuation of the themes, about growing and moving on and accepting that where you are isn't going be where you always are. A little more hopeful, a little prettier, but still a little off.

Lyrics:

Verse 1:

Far
Away from the lights,
Away from the noises,
Is a quiet little town.

There,
In the back of a car,
From the passenger mirror,
Is a tree falling down.

Let go,
It's done and dusted,
And though it lingers,
It's just the shape of where you've been.

Come home someday,
Worn and rusted,
And trace the scripture back to the source,
With dirty fingers.
And everything changes.

Verse 2:

Daydreams,
Of growing too old, too fast,
With the hound on my heels, at last,
Yeah, they're pulling me astray.

One day,
When I'm dead and I'm gone,
All the things that I've known, all that I've done,
Will be lost to the waves.

I'm up
For a few more hours,
Til the hum of the silence
Is all that I hear.

I'm done
With pity and mercy;
When the sun also rises,
I'll kill it with kindness.

And everything changes.
And everything changes.
And everything changes.
And everything changes.

...& Everything After

13th track for February Album Writing Month, an acapella track that sets the quiet tone for the final portion of the album.

Lyrics:

Fragile minds and fraying knots,
A sea of stars and curtain calls.
Lucid dreams and lesser thoughts,
The Voices carry through the wall.

Across the aisle from terminus,
A fallow fire like all before.
Reckless words and arguments,
The Voices carry through the door.

A lovely case of phantom limb,
When all you know is what you're not,
So tell yourself you'll feel again.
The Voices carry through the dark.

Through Great Goodbyes and scatterbrains,
They may relent, but they never leave.
A perfect time to drift away,
The Voices carry us to sleep.

The Voices

14th track for February Album Writing Month, a culmination of themes, ideas, and motifs. A love song, a sad song, a growth song, a hope song. Seems to be the theme this year.

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
For every rock thrown
At your window,
There's a hundred nights spent counting up
Love songs lost in limbo.

Where does the music go when it
Slips through my lips and into the air?
What does it mean
If nobody cares?

I had no drive,
And no ambition.
Not much has changed, but hey,
I have days that I waste with tunnel vision.

I'm so terrified of failing at the things that I love,
And if it's all my fault,
It means that I never should have tried,
At all.

Pre-Chorus 1:

I don't even see
The people on the streets
When I pass them by,
When they pass me by.

Doesn't even phase me,
We're living in a haze
Til the next life.

Chorus 1:

I was falling
When my wings came off.
I kissed the sun,
And missed the only time you

Called me,
When you needed me most.
I'm a parasite to 
Starve your host.

The night is young,
But so was I.
The days are cold,
And my throat is dry.

My voice is gone,
But little by little,
I'll get it back
In time.

Verse 2:

Through all the confusion,
Through the mouth of madness,
It was only the one time I turned to the
Bitter cold to cure my sadness.

But, The Night Before I planned on
Leaving through the garden gate,
That was the happiest
I've ever been.

Now I'm down a sister,
Down a father,
And I've lost some friends, but I never thought again,
That I shouldn't even bother.

Sure, I'm tired of writing through the lens
Of my sad, blue eyes,
But with them I can see you,
So I guess I'll be just fine.

Pre-Chorus 2:

Every single day,
Is a chance that I will take
To see this through,
To do what I can do.

Every single song
And all the things that I have done,
Were to get to you.

Chorus 2:

I'll be falling
When my wings come off,
I'll kiss the sun
And never miss the times that you

Call me,
When you need me the most.
You're the life that 
I have chosen.

The night is young,
And so are we,
Our bed is warm,
When the days are freezing.

My voice is gone,
But little by little,
It's coming back
To me.

The hardest part is falling.

Falling

The final track of my project for February Album Writing Month, the epilogue of the album that wraps everything up in as tidy of a bow as you can have while also creating the entire thing without a plan in a single month! 

This whole project has been crazy, but so worthwhile. Lets hope I can shed a little insomnia from this experience, but if not, at least I have a soundtrack to it now, right?

Lyrics:

Verse:

Pinned to the wall
As an outline,
Marked for the night
To own.

Skin burning blue
From the moonlight.
Don't let go
Of my Bag Of Bones.

Chorus:

Please don't
Leave me behind,
Because when you go,
Everything leaves with you,
Except for your ghost.

When the credits are rolling,
This dying art,
Is all that is mine,
And is all that I know.

Spoken Word:

You see it all,
Through the gap,
In the doorway.

A soft glow trickles in
From beneath the curtain.
Little birds sing in harmony.
Angels mark the path between
Snowbanks and backyards.

The coldest month.
Now one day longer.
One more night to get through.
To pace back and forth.
To hear voices.

To break down and fixate
On all that you've lost.
All that you could have done better.
All that you will never be.

Soon you will fall asleep,
And soon you will do it all over again.
Every day.
Every night.
Longer than the last.

Outro:
Everything ends.
But not everything leaves us.
Everything fades,
But not everything ages.
Sometimes I fall asleep,
And everything changes.

The hardest part
Is falling behind.
The hardest part,
Is falling behind.

Bag 'O Bones

Singer/songwriter from Canada. I have a few other pages (some I lost access to), but this one is for my main projects. I make no presumptions with genres, so I'll go with "Indie Rock Artist", which, yeah, is the most indie thing you can say. Music is Life, Happiness, Creativity, yada yada yada. Can't live without it. Hope you at least mildly enjoy what I love making!

Brandon Brooks

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