These songs were all candidates for my 2021 EP "miles + minutes."

The first three tracks on this EP - Little Bird, Lead On The Page, and Build You A Box were the only ones Christian Andrews (Producer) chose to move forward with.

The next 2 tracks - This Could Be Our Night and The Other Life - appeared on my 2022 EP "Stories From The Other Life" produced by Nate2timez.

The final track - Put Me In The Dirt - is a favorite demo of mine, full of mistakes, bad mic technique issues, but a whole lot of heart, IMO. I haven't done a finished recording of this song yet, but maybe someday...

All of these demos were made at home, using Garage Band on my iPhone, and possibly on a desktop version. Except Build You A Box, which was recorded in a single take at Christian Andrew's old house in St. Paul and This Could Be Our Night, which was recorded also in a single take during the tracking sessions for 2019's Losing Things album.

These songs expose my working process, and the breadth of my imagination, when it comes to what a song could sound like. I hope you enjoy the glimpse inside my noodle!

Cheers and be kind to one another,
Mark

The Other Life (DEMO)

This Could Be Our Night (DEMO)

Build You A Box (DEMO)

Lead On The Page (DEMO)

Little Bird (Demo)

Lyrics:

Time to Fly

What’d it mean when you cried?
Winona, said goodbye
Hold me tight to the sky
Now it’s time for you to fly (you to fly)

	Time to fly where it’s cold (way up high)
	I am young & my mother’s old
	You are lost in the middle of the road
	Dry them tears and open your arms up wide
	-baby, it’s time to fly

Summer’s end, colors turn
Back to school, my stomach turns
How you been, you alone?
Have you had the time to be missing home?

	Time to fly where it’s cold (way up high)
	I am young & my mother’s old
	You are lost in the middle of the road
	Dry them tears and open your arms up wide
	-baby, it’s time to fly

Where you sleep, where you shine
Down the river, down the line
Try your faces, dry your tears
You got a bed all the way back here (way back here)

	Time to fly where it’s cold (way up high)
	I am young & my mother’s old
	You are lost in the middle of the road
	Dry them tears and open your arms up wide
	-baby, it’s time to fly

Time To Fly

Cheap Oil is a modern protest song criticising the extraction & transport of oil from the Alberta tar sands and the North Dakota oil fields. We are short changing our future generations by way of pollution, resource depletion, and animal endangerment - ALL FOR cheaper gas prices now. All proceeds for this tune will go to Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, an anti pipeline org. in my hometown of Minneapolis, MN.
lyrics
Ooh, Trains at night, trains in the day and they don’t stop
Ooh, Bringing me sweet relief by the penny at the gas pump

We’re making a big mistake
To take all that we can take
Our spinning Mother’s back is gonna break - for Cheap Oil

Ooh, We’re pouring it out by the barrel in the green fields
Ooh, Mile by mile we’re snuffing out life around the steel wheels

There’s a fire in the vast wetland
Where the trestles cross the land
& we’ve all gone to sleep in our beds with blood on our hands - Cheap oil
(Chorus)
Cheap oil, cheap oil
We’re barking up the wrong tree, brother (2x)
We pay and we pay just to roll along today
We give it all away, How’re our babies gonna pay
For this cheap oil?

Ooh, in the middle of the night I hear the rumble of the long train
Ooh, a job’s a job and a man’s gotta eat but it’s not the same

We’re stealing from future mouths
while the pipeline gouges South
our children’s children turn as we curse the soil - Cheap oil

Our future children cry
as the birds fall from the sky
and the tanker trucks roll by full of tar sands spoil -
God damn this Cheap Oil

Cheap Oil

Music & Lyrics by Mark Schirmacher
Production, Mix, Master & additional Instrumentation by Zachary Michael

The Simple Life

Music & Lyrics by Mark Schirmacher
Production, Mix & Master by Torgny Elgstrand

Temple

I hope you enjoy "Do You Remember The Summer," A Green Key Records label release. This massively upbeat, Indie-folk romp is driving, nearly out of control, happy as a freaking clam, and an unabashed ODE to summers past. I asked my sister Julie for her favorite summer memories and Torgny Elgstrand (producer) turned it into an Indie/Punk Rock ROAR OF JOY w/drums, bass, layered vocals, and an overdriven, exuberant production that proclaims SUMMER IS HERE!

"Do You Remember The Summer" is summer music for the soul. We only have a short summer in Minnesota, due to our relative location on the planet, so when it comes, we get into it. This song can go with you to the beach, the summer roadtrip, or the checkout counter at the grocery store. Or it can get tucked into your fleece vest or wrapped up in your winter clothes when the weather turns so you can...'remember the summer'.


lyrics
Do you remember the summer?
pInk flip flops, hummingbird floats at the feeder
Do you remember the summer?
warm forecast, twilight lasts forever
walk in the woods, mosquitos think that we taste good
(they can bite me)

Do you remember the summer?
leaving the house, no jacket required
daylight never ends, we're hanging on the boat with friends
(well, they got money)

Summergirl thinks that tan lines matter
she’s on the roof, she's trying to get closer to the Sun
it's hot, it’s very very hot, even though it’s 93 million miles away...

Do you remember the summer?
feet in the sand, sunshine breathin' on the land
Do you remember the summer?
sunscreen smell trapped in your shirts ‘til the Fall
sleeping is the bomb
walk around the lake with your mom
(until she's gone)

Summergirl thinks that tan lines matter
she’s on the roof, she's trying to get closer to the Sun
it's hot, it’s very very hot, even though it’s 93 million miles away...

Do you remember the summer?
Do you remember the summer?
(yeah)
Do you remember the summer?
(yeah)
Do you remember the summer?
Do you remember the summer?
(yeah)
Do you remember the summer?
Do you remember the summer?
(yeah)
Do you remember the summer?

credits
releases June 20, 2024
Music & Lyrics by Mark Schirmacher
Production, Mix & Master by Torgny Elgstrand
Album Art by Solar Cover Art, a T.E. subsidiary

Do You Remember The Summer?

From the album Losing Things, released September 13, 2019.

Losing Things

4 Walls

These are songs that I developed in a very lo-fi fashion to show what they sound like in my head. They could still go in many different directions - more acoustic, more produced - I'm open to ideas. But what you're hearing here are my unabashed concepts for these little tunes. 
ENJOY- and thanks for connecting with me & my music!
Mark

Build You A Box Mark Demo

4 - Put Me In The Dirt (DEMO)

Hi!
I'm an American Singer-Songwriter, Producer, multi-genre artist, and multi-instrumentalist. I write & perform my solo material as Mark Schirmacher, and also collaborate heavily with artists from all around the world as the LoFi artist, Low Key Trampoline. 

To collaborate or book a performance, email me at:
info@markschirmacher.com

Have an amazing day!

Mark Schirmacher

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