A Lack Of You

Heavily inspired by the classic "Somewhere Out There" theme from Fievel: An American Tail

from the album Geography and Other Problems

Your Nights, My Days

Written about the street of the same name in Paris, France. 

from the album Geography and Other Problems

Blvd. Beaumarchais

Juan Lopez - bass, trumpet
Erik Sunding - drums
Normandie Wilson - piano, vibraphone, vocals

from the album Geography and Other Problems

Before I Go

The first song from a series of piano compositions/improvisations inspired by a May trip to the Pacific Northwest. 

Rhododendrons started as an improvisation and then quickly morphed into a more codified song. Enjoy.

Recorded and mixed at Rarefied Recording, San Diego, California

Rhodedendrons

New song from upcoming new album, "Until the Whole of My Heart is Yours" ! 

Recorded at Rarefied Recording in San Diego, California

Be Careful With Your Man

Oh my! It's time to Think Pink! 

Based on a true story... 

She walks towards me in a colorless concrete bar, dressed in pink. Head­to­-toe pink. Pink hat, pink scarf, pink coat, pink purse. I believe at the moment I'm wearing pink lipstick as well, and we begin talking about... the color pink. 

She's, of course, effortlessly French, utterly Parisian, and her lips quiver, her mouth manipulates sound and tissue in the way that only native French speakers can, kissing the words out of her pink ­lipstick-covered lips. 

I've never spoken to this woman in my life, and within minutes, she's telling me about her lover, a married man. She speaks of him in an indifferent fashion, but her pout gives her feelings away. “I know he'll never leave his wife...” her words trail off into my drunkenness. I look at this beautiful woman, dressed in pink, and can't understand how anyone wouldn't take her into their arms and love her relentlessly. 

At this point in the night, I'm extremely drunk, so I stumble across the street and open up the apartment window that offers a street­ level view of the bar. I plop myself down on the floor with my midi keyboard and write this song as my thoughts drift to all the people in my life who never loved me, and all the time I wasted on them...

lyrics

Some might say I'm past my prime, 
I feel I'm in my finest time 
But before I turn to shale, 
I'll leave you with a cautionary tale 

I used to love someone who only made me blue 
And I know for a girl who's dressed in pink, that simply will not do 

He left me sad, took all that I had 
and never was he true 

Do you even know all of the heartache that you'll go through, 
When you waste your time on someone who doesn't love you? 

You're young, and so it seems like fun to have a secret paramour 
You're also strong, and it's been said that youth is what mistakes are for 

But youth won't save you from a drunken bout of crying 
on your kitchen floor 

Your mascara will run, your lipstick too 
and your pink outlook will turn to blue 

Do you even know all of the heartache that you'll go through, 
When you waste your time on someone who doesn't love you? 

Do you even know all of the heartache that you'll go through, 
When you waste your time on someone who doesn't love you? 

So please learn from my mistakes, my dear, I implore you 
'cause I've been there, and I've been back, 
even though I know it's not my place to tell you what to do 

I don't want your pink to fade to a lonely shade of blue 

Or maybe I'll help drown your sorrows with a kiss or two 

Do you even know all of the heartache that you'll go through, 
When you waste your time on someone who doesn't love you? 

Do you even know all of the heartache that you'll go through, 
When you waste your time on someone who doesn't love you? 

Do you even know all of the heartache that you'll go through, 
When you waste your time on someone who doesn't love you?
credits
released 08 June 2015 
David Fleminger - bass 
Richard Larson - drums 
Normandie Wilson - piano, vocals, vibraphone 

Recorded at Rarefied Recording in North Park, San Diego 
and 60 Cycle Hummingbird, San Diego 

Mixed & mastered by David Fleminger 
Produced by David Fleminger & Normandie Wilson

Dressed in Pink

First track from my new full length album "Normandie Wilson Is Tired of Being Nice."

Recorded at Rarefied Recording, San Diego, CA
and 60Cycle Hummingbird, San Diego, CA

David Fleminger: bass
Richard "T-Bone" Larson: drums
Normandie Wilson: piano, vocals

music & lyrics by Normandie Wilson
produced by Normandie WIlson & David Fleminger

Pre-order the new album here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/new-album-pre-orders-album-re-pressing/x/141737#/story


Thank You

from Geography and Other Problems

You don't get mad at a basketball 
when it bounces from the ground
And every morning, all over the world,
no one's surprised that the sun keeps coming around
I know you know about chemistry, 
so there's no way you're gonna disagree with me
You've started a reaction that's hard to ignore,
oh, please, don't let me fall to the floor

Don't use my words against me 
Don't use my words against me
or I'll be lonely as I've ever been,
always dreading the why and avoiding the when

So if you want to meet me at a small cafe,
my dear, I'll always be on time
I swear up, down, and sideways on a stack of bibles,
I'll let you know if I'm running just a bit behind

Believe me, if you leave me, I'll go back to the ways
that got me through all those gloomy days
Lonely as I ever was, doing the things that I say that I'll do,  just because

Don't use my words against me
Don't use my words against me
Don't use my words against me
Don't use my words against me

Believe me, if you leave me, we'll go back the ways
that got us through all those gloomy days
but we'll be lonely as we ever were,
that's the only fact that I can attest to for sure

Don't Use My Words Against Me

New song from new album, Geography and Other Problems! 

Since you left my side, 
every day is grey without you 
I try to smile, but my 
world might as well stop without you 
My friends speak soft and slow: 
“I've never seen her look quite this low, and I'm worried so” 

On sunny streets, in Technicolor, 
She turns away from the call of her lover 
Her head hangs low, and everybody knows 
She walks in sadness 

Sedan du försvann 
är alla färger bleka 
Jag minns hur vi brann 
men himlen är grå när himlen tvekar 

They walk together to the beat of the same song, 
Oh, but meanwhile 

On sunny streets, in Technicolor, 
She turns away from the call of her lover 
Her head hangs low, and everybody knows 
She walks in sadness 
On muted streets, under cloudy skies, 
He stops to pause for a minute, but he's not crying – no - 
it was just a sigh 
He walks in sadness 

I walk in sadness

Meanwhile

Mod Piano, Vol. 1

This is mostly a gift for my mother and grandmother, who are always begging me to release piano-only songs. 

I write frequently, lately not as frequently as I'd like, but songwriting is a major part of my life experience. And as any songwriter knows, you have to write a lot of little songs and a lot of songs that aren't A sides in order to create your greatest songs. These songs are not table scraps by any means; they're little stories without words, little snippets from my life that I am very happy and grateful to share with you. Many of my songs have too much of a story behind them. I often write page after page after page of lyrics and end up having to cram them into 3 or 4 minutes. And then sometimes I start writing a song and I realize that it doesn't need to have lyrics. Yet I often want to explain the story behind the song. 

So here are some little musical stories for you to enjoy...  


Bird Song #2

I was in Toulouse, France staying at the flat of my friend Camille, who plays in a great pop band called Alone With Everybody. (We met in 2010 when he went on tour in the USA) He let me stay in his flat while I was in Toulouse for a couple days in May 2012. I was sitting at his keyboard, just practicing and getting some musical vibes out when I heard a bird singing just outside the window. The bird's song was so beautiful that I just sort of started playing with the bird, and on the first demo recording of this song, you can clearly hear its call. It was a lovely moment and I'm happy a beautiful song came out of it. In fact, whenever I think about this little bird, my heart is very joyful. I have a big smile on my face right now.  I wrote another piano-only song on my first release called “The Birds Are Singing,” hence the title, “Bird Song #2.” 

Good Things

I am often inspired by words and combinations of words, and this phrase kept coming to me at a time in my life where I was full of joyful and hopeful energy, excited for the future. The old-timey, cheerful vibe came pretty naturally. Working lyrics went something like: “Good things are coming, baby / but we'll have to wait and see / all the good things / that are coming to you and me”

All My Tears

Written during a darker time during the 'Great Fruitful Songwriting Period' of 2008-2009. Working lyrics were “All the tears that I cried / over every inch of you / wasted every single one”

A Little Faster

I wrote this song after accidentally brushing hands with someone at a work meeting many years ago in San Francisco. The version with lyrics appeared on my first EP I put out in 2007.




I Was Just Waiting For You To Call Me Back

As it says. I called a friend and he said he'd call me back in a little bit. So I wrote this song while I was waiting for him to call me back. No big story here.

Take Care Of The Tree

I gave a tree as a housewarming gift to a lover, and even helped him plant it in the backyard, which involved a lot more digging than we expected. It was a complicated time for me, and I expended a great deal of mental energy worrying about the future of the relationship. I began to feel extremely attached to the tree, however, and I found myself spending even more time and energy worrying about not only the future of the relationship, but also about the future of the grapefruit tree that we had planted together. It had been rescued from a Home Depot by my neighbor and nursed back to health. He sold it to me for $10 after telling me the dramatic tale of how he convinced the store to give him several of the trees since they were not taking care of them properly. I was concerned about the tree, and I wondered what would become of it if, or when, the relationship ended. I wrote this song while thinking about many of the complex issues at play in the relationship as it stood. And it became about the tree, mostly, with working lyrics, “What it will be, will be / just promise me / you'll take care of the tree.”

UPDATE: The tree is doing fine, although it has not yet put out any flowers or fruit yet. It hasn't grown too much in the past few years, but I don't know how fast grapefruit trees are supposed to grow. If anyone has any advice about citrus trees, please let me know. 

Tell Me More (intro)

I wrote a very short song called “Tell Me More” for my EP “Glitter Patter” that I put out back in 2007. When I was producing the song I played around with everything I had in my apartment at the time, including pop bottle caps and the sound of the fizz in soda water. I had always envisioned the song as being much longer and part of a song cycle, but I never explored the arc of the song to its fullest extent. This is the piano part I came up with for the intro. There were some working lyrics but they are truly awful and will not be published here. I like the rawness of this recording, which was actually done in 2007 in my downtown LA loft on Spring Street. 

Carnations

I will definitely revisit this song with lyrics and a fuller arrangement. I played around with the delay effects on the piano as it stood and just loved the way it sounded. Enjoy this demo mix, inspired most likely by one of my favorite artists, German choreographer Pina Bausch. (I don't totally remember) 


Theme From “Together Again”

[story redacted]


Bird Song #2

Good Things

A Little Faster

Carnations

martini-sipping, diamond wearing swing pop. influences: Burt Bacharach, Laura Nyro, Hal David, Brian Wilson, Carole King, Cole Porter. hobbies: looking good, feeling great

normandiewilson

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