I had a seed of an idea for this song in June of last year. I came back from seeing "Sloan," a local rock band that had been playing together since 1992. I went with a friend who, in most cases, I have a pretty superficial relationship with, we typically communicate by hurling references at one another from our shared pool of favourite media/pop culture. But every so often when we really talk, we'll get into some deep stuff. She was very keen on going to some shows that summer and was up for checking out this band that we were both familiar with but only passively. On the way to the show we talked about past relationships, the perils of dating in your mid-30s and the benefits of therapy among other things. All roads inevitably lead to this idea that in life, love and the pursuit of happiness, nothing is black and white. It's all grey. I made some quip that "I live in the grey," and then half-jokingly commented that it could be a song. "That could be a Sloan song!" I started writing it that night, and then shelved it for a few months before coming back to it over the last few weeks. I tried to write it in Sloan's melodic rock style. Usually, I can only muster up time for a quick acoustic demo and I anticipate that will happen a bunch more this year. I was able to put a lot more time/effort into this one, but it's still far from perfect. The mix is rough, some of the vocals could use some work, some of the lyrics may need adjusting and there's probably a few things I can add to it...but damn it if I wasn't very proud of putting together an actual "full" song for the first time in a long time in this challenge (software drums but I'm playing/singing everything else and the bass is a pitched down electric guitar run through a bass model in Logic).

I Live In The Grey (January 2024)

Acoustic pop with some folksy elements, a little soul and everything in between. Think of it as a delicious musical gumbo.

I Live In The Grey (January 2024)

Joe Chammas