Here I Am

Written in Taiwan in September of 2015. Lyrical additions by the wondrous Noelle Zuelke & Gioia Berlin.

Typhoon

Bigger

Jungle Song

Off of the album 'In Sevens' by Kora Feder (to be released April 2, 2019)

Music and lyrics (c) 2019 Kora Feder. All rights reserved.

Produced by Rich Brotherton in Austin, TX
Design by Tiny Little Hammers

Vocals and guitar - Kora 
Accordion - Kathy Brotherton

He Wants To Live Forever

I feel like a person who tries to keep the peace but is overwhelmed by the injustice around me and therefore cannot do it. Like how I picture John the Baptist. And everyone tried to define him, but everyone was wrong:

John the Baptist
Friend of Jesus
Polymath
And tortured soul

I could not be
What a priest is
Free peg in a 
Repressed hole

Not a preacher
Not a healer
Though I could fool your
Average joe

Not a prophet
Calling either
What am I? They ask
I don’t know

Like the weeping
Jeremiah
There’s a fire
In my bones

But it is not some
Holy desire
Just the me that’s written
In stone

In the nothing
In the desert
I hear a voice
That is my own

They don’t get it
It’s not that clever
But it’s water
For my old dry bones

Ladder builders
Bible guilders
Bend my meaning
Twist my words

Freedom killers
Temple fillers
Shepherding their
Dying herds

One says can you
Make this harder
The other says here
Hold my beer

You don’t have to 
Take this farther
Look around
The kingdom’s here

John the Baptist
Friend of Jesus
just want to be
left alone

But they can’t handle
My existence
My being me
Threatens their throne

So go ahead and
Take my head and
Put it on a 
Silver plate

Take the glory
Take my story
Tell it wrong
From age to age

You can never
Change a being
I am me
You are too late

John the Baptist

When I first tried to kiss my eventual wife 14 years ago, she leaned away. She said she was worried that if we kissed we would be like all the other couples. I told her, "don't you know that we're different?" As an enneagram four, she liked this, and was part of her falling in love with me. I wrote this song about that moment, and all the other moments that all show that we are a little different:

I tried to kiss you but you didn't want to, no
I thought you meant that you didn't intend to go
That you'd only go where the safe trusted people went
You didn't know the one thing that I know:
We're different

We didn't make it to getting a picket fence
You didn't fit in with repeat and wash and rinse
I couldn't give up my soul to pay the rent
We only know how to follow and feel the flow: 
we're different

We don't follow the yellow brick road
We don't walk down the road less traveled
The highway to heaven is just for show
We don't let ourselves wear those shackles

Others will stay where their grandparents settled down
But you’ll follow me and I’ll follow you around
Things have been hard, we’re broken, we’re bruised, we’re bent
Life is unsure but one thing we know is so: 
we're different

We don't follow the yellow brick road
We don't walk down the road less traveled
The highway to heaven is just for show
We don't let ourselves wear those shackles
We don't walk down the road at all
We are the river, we are the current
We can be infinite and small
We don't do it like them:
We're different

We don’t do it like them
We’re different
We don’t fit the system
We’re different
We turned our intention
We’re different
In a totally new direction
We’re different
We let go of the string
We’re different
We got new songs to sing
We’re different
You got me at your wing
We’re different
And together we’ll face everything
We’re different

We don't follow the yellow brick road
We don't walk down the road less traveled
The highway to heaven is just for show
We don't let ourselves wear those shackles
We don't walk down the road at all
We are the river, we are the current
We can be infinite and small
We don't do it like them:
We're different

We're Different

We’re Different

I learned recently that white noise on a tv or radio is from the background radiation of the universe interacting with the antenna. I also learned that the reason that children respond to the "shhh" sound when parents are calming them is because it mimics this background radiation that is constantly around us. I wrote these lyrics about how love is the background radiation of the universe.

A little later I noticed a repeat melody when listening to the sound machine that my kids use to go to sleep. I decided to use this melody to make a song, and put these lyrics to it:

Sometimes I wonder
if life can be wonderful
if we weren’t under 
this “punish or plunder”
And It is superfluous 
to him to her to us
To say it’s them or us 
who must be dolorous
I want to release 
that untrue belief
That to get relief 
we must be a thief
Stealing love from now 
building a temple mound
Only for those who vow 
to be like us somehow

Love is the background radiation
Love is the best foundation’s foundation
Love is the soft sound heard when conversation is through
Love is the H2 of the ocean
Love is your intuition in motion
Love is my daily new notions of you

when I fall for the
lie that it’s them or me
I keep that safe story
Deep in my memory
Or when I am in fear
I hold on to the dear
Heavenly palace near 
oceans so crystal clear
every perfect place 
has to keep in place
it cannot embrace 
Alternative faith
love is here now too
for me them and you
An expanding universe 
with many rooms

Love is the background radiation
Love is the best foundation’s foundation
Love is the soft sound heard when conversation is through
Love is the H2 of the ocean
Love is your intuition in motion
Love is my daily new notions of you

Cause we build these giant monuments to love
And we make the rules that guarantee connection from above
And we babble builders still don’t understand
That the love we search for isn’t far away, it’s in our hands


Love is the background radiation
Love is the best foundation’s foundation
Love is the soft sound heard when conversation is through
Love is the H2 of the ocean
Love is your intuition in motion
Love my daily new notions of you

Sound Machine

Sound machine

Six and a half

This is a song for my wife. It's about how we met. It's about our lives now. It's about how any moment with her is pure magic.

I’m all at sixes and sevens
And I’m minding my Ps and Qs
But you’re just an inch from my leg
In this stranger’s living room

My heart’s beating fast like a sinner
So I’m faithfully crossing my T’s
But I spot your eyes as they glimmer
And quickly cut over to me

I've never been so lost
I’ve never been so found
My defense is crashing down

Will we touch? Oh we might
You could brush me with your thigh
Oh I must get this right
If I just catch your eye
That’s me getting lucky
Tonight 

We’ve been in a fight for a week
Now I feel like we’re miles apart
You’ve never made me feel so weak
And I’ve never so broken your heart

We sit on this couch in the silence
Resentment filling the air
Some old part of me has to die if
I come all the way over there

I've never been so lost
I’ve never been so found
My defense is crashing down

Will we touch? Oh we might
I could brush your arm with mine
Oh I must get this right
If I just catch your eye
That’s me getting lucky
Tonight 

Some people say they were born
But you know I was born yesterday
The day I just held you rock steady
And did not wipe your tears away

I've never been so lost
I’ve never been so found
My defense is crashing down

I can touch like you like
Hear the rush of your sigh 
Oh I must get this right
See the lust in your eye
That’s me getting lucky
Tonight

Sixes and Sevens

You be you

Polymath. Jack of all trades. Empath. I have a vast array of life experiences. Each one has given me something to say about relationships, spirituality, the environment, and the interconnectedness of all things.

Starting a nonprofit, adopting three kiddos, living all over the world, earning multiple degrees, falling in love, losing and gaining spiritual beliefs; it's all bubbling out of me now in the art I create.

https://www.twine.fm/Dj6molar

Bigger

David Jones

Related tracks