Wake

Make It Through

In Spite Of It All

An EP in collaboration with Rudy Haeusermann, whom I met through following the Trace (The Sane). Pop 'til you drop.

Hey God

Together Apart was another song originally from the Acoustic Sessions album. The song was written in 2002, and it's been performed in various forms at past Steven Kim Band concerts. To tell you the truth, I don't remember what the song is about.


Courage for the future
To find ourselves
What keeps us together
What tears us apart
To share in oppression
To love is to gain
What keeps us together
Won't tear us apart

Ran into the future
Running from the past
Into her arms I fell
Forty times I knelt
Begging her to please
Give it to someone else

Throwing condemnation
Kicking the fallen
Who will keep us together
When you tear us apart
Looking through a plank
The speck in her eye
He keeps us together
But we tear it apart

Ran into the future
Running from the past
Into her arms I fell
Forty times I knelt
Begging her to please
Give it to someone else

Love will come
On that final day
And make us one
Sun to sun
We're prepared for
What we'll become
And we're dying for
Nothing more
Than empty wars
It's a crown of thorns

Ran into the future
Running from the past
Into her arms I fell
Forty times I knelt
Begging her to please
Give it to someone else


The two recorded versions are very different, and in both versions my favorite parts are the bridge. In Acoustic Sessions, Ken and I took a very western, almost Spanish approach to the song, which is especially pronounced in the bridge. When Ken was gonna lay down the solo, I described to him a moment where the character, having long run away from his demons, decides to turn around and face them. It's a final charge in slow motion. I think he dies.

The VAIN version was decidedly more rock. We added a bridge section (well, lyrics and a lead-out). We simply took to fun with this song and came out with a high energy 80s hard rock homage.

Together Apart

Far From Home was written earlier this year, around April. Ken had written a series of chord progressions as an exercise in voice leading. We got together, ate some food and sat to write the melody for it. Some of it survived to the final version, but as usual the band tore it apart and reassembled it to be what we recorded.


Live a life
Chasing the wind
Building castles that house
A heartache

Live or die
It all feels the same
In the end you will find
All was in vain

Truths and lies
Speak to me
What they find
Teach a memory
Of a life
Far from home

It never dies
The need or the shame
All these treasures you hold
In dust they remain

Truths and lies
Speak to me
What they find
Teach a memory
Of a life
Far from home

God and man are calling out to me
Calling out to reach a part of me
So in need of peace and love
God and man are calling out to me

Free
But they tell me to be
Be all I can be
Make all that I can make
Build all that I can build tall

That God and man call to me
As to reach, reach a part of me
In need to see
Truths and lies
Teach a memory of life
Far from home

Truths and lies
Teach a memory
Of a life that's
Far from home


I wrote the lyrics soon after, after some heavy thinking I'd been working through. It was basically a meaning of life question, to which I found the bulk of my answers in the book of Ecclesiastes. This guy, Solomon, a king, decides to expend the resources he has toward this same question. After having entertained everything a man could possibly desire:

- a harem, check.
- built vineyards and castles, check.
- wealthier than anyone in history, check.

..and came to this conclusion: it's all meaningless. And whatever you accomplish, gets erased and wasted and trumped eventually anyway. Which got me thinking. Are we here to accomplish anything? Does God need us to carry out his work? Who are we to say we offer our endeavors to God? So I came to my version of this conclusion, which is we're here to grow. Learn, become better people, through our successes and despite our failures. And in the end the purpose of this growth is to understand God better. We are not here living our lives for this life; it is for the next. That is the jist of the chorus ("Truth and Lies..")

The bridge ("God and man...") along with the following verse ("Free..") is my criticism of the church today. Its emphasis on ministry (doing something for God) seems dangerously contorted without the right foundation. The message that we must accomplish for God seems to put right back on us a weight that was lifted by Christ. It's a root cause, I believe, of the lack of long-term success in the church today.

...

The song was originally written in 6/8 time, and we tried many variations on the feel. A radiohead version, a rock ballad version, even a Tony Bennett version. The song at one point switched back and forth between 4/4 and 6/8 as it moved from verse to chorus and back. Eventually, we felt that once the song launches it shouldn't return (a formula used in many Jack songs) and settled on the recorded arrangement.

This song sets me free. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed being a part of creating this song.

Far From Home

I don't remember when I wrote this song. I know its inspiration was watching my friends' parents, after the hardest parts of their marriage behind them (raising children), now deciding to divorce. I thought to myself, you're never too old. It's never too late to let down your guard. With marriage, there is no coasting. You have to keep trying.

I was thinking just the other day
We might not see this through
Our hearts are breaking our vows forsaken
The exit’s looking good

Though we’ve been naked in each other’s arms
We’re blinded in the dark
The skin is thinning, we’re just beginning
The flesh is tearing through

But oh it goes to show
You’re never too old to grow a little older
Forget what you told her
That you’ll see her through

It’s such a simple thing to say
You have your feelings too
But I’m protecting what you’re exaggerating to be true
You killing me with the things you do
I see the ways you move
On one hand passive, a fist aggressive comes breaking through and through

But oh it goes to show
You’re never too old to grow a little older
Forget what you told her
That you’ll see her through

But oh it goes
To show you’ll grow
But oh it goes to show
You’re never too old to grow a little older
Forget what you told her
That you’ll see her through

There is no bass on this recording for some strange reason. The guitar solo is by Rocco Matone, a friend of the band.

Never Too Old

This song is Work In Progress..

Yeah we're gonna fish for the stars in the sea
Gonna take you far and away
Find identity in a cause you believe
Take your place, Infinite Blue

You say you need some time
Before you give yourself
To something you don't believe
So you stay and wander

Yeah we're gonna fish for the stars in the sea
Gonna take you far and away
Find identity in a cause you believe
Take your place, Infinite Blue

You say you need to settle the life
Before you give yourself
To something so easily
So you stay and wander, wander

Yeah we're gonna fish for the stars in the sea
Yeah we're gonna fish for the stars in the sea
Yeah we're gonna fish for the stars in the sea
Yeah we're gonna fish for the stars in the sea
Take your place, Infinite Blue

Infinite Blue

Used to say that our day would come
To us while we're young
Night and day hard to brave we take
To claim what time has undone

All our dreams
To this day remain in us
Come down, deep inside
See what your fears will hide
And wake a gentle fire
A sleeping child

And run
While we're young
No need to prove
Something we'll never lose
While we're young
Yeah run
While we're young
Though still we may be
We are young in our dreams

Night and day hard to brave we take
To claim what time has undone

All our dreams
To this day remain in us
Come down, deep inside
See what your fears will hide
And wake a gentle fire
A sleeping child

And run
While we're young
No need to prove
Something we'll never lose
While we're young
Yeah run
While we're young
Though still we may be
We are young in our dreams

Come down deep and run
While we're young
No need to prove
Something we'll never lose
While we're young

Yeah run
While we're young
Though still we may be
We are young in our dreams

Yeah run
While we're young
No need to prove
Something we'll never lose
While we're young

Yeah run
While we're young
Though still we may be
We are young in our dreams

While We're Young

I wrote this song for my wife. One day she said, "how many years will it be before we're old together?". And that's how the song starts. Parts of the song had been germinating in my head for a little bit, then when I opened up a Logic session, I recorded it in about 4 hours.

I play the piano, acoustic guitar, and sing it. This is one of the last recordings I have of my old Yamaha upright piano, which had been in my family longer than I have. I learned music on that thing.

--

How many years do you think that it will be
'Till we've grown, together old, you and me?
I've never known anyone so unlike me
Someone to show me all the things I couldn't see

I'll give you fifty years
I'll want to give you fifty more
I promise things will never turn into a bore

'Till we're old
With flabs and folds
Together you and me
We'll never part
This beating heart
For you will never cease

How many years do you think is long enough
For me to find all the things in you I love
I can't seem to find an end to feelings you endear
Your hand to hold, the daily strolls, your voice to hear

I'll give you fifty years
I'll want to give you fifty more
I promise things will never turn into a bore

And after a hundred years
We'll gather all that we hold dear
And hold them near

'Till we're old
With flabs and folds
Together you and me
We'll never part
This beating heart
For you will never cease

How many years, do I feel, will be long enough
To know I've learned enough, on how to love
For me I'll hope and see

'Till we're old
With flabs and folds
Together you and me
We'll never part
This beating heart
For you will never cease

-- To my life partner

skim1420