Ta-da!
Today
The headache finally goes away
The headache finally goes
Ta-da!
Today
I feel the harmony between
My heart and body and my brain
Everything will be okay

And if you ask what bird I want to be
I'll say a blue jay
If you ask what time I want to leave
I'll change the conversation
If you lean in close and kiss me
I won't mind
I’ll probably respond in kind

Ta-da!
Today
I find the energy to play
I find the energy
Ta-da!
Today
I hear a friendly melody
In every enemy refrain
Everything will be okay
Everything will be okay

Ta-da!
Today
I see the light across the bay
Ta-da!
Today
A sudden symphony
is somewhere out there trumpeting my name
Everything will be okay

And if you ask what bird I want to be
I'll say a blue jay
If you ask what time I want to leave
I'll change the conversation
If you lean in close and kiss me
I won't mind
I’ll probably respond in kind
I’ll probably respond in kind
I’ll probably respond in kind
I’ll probably respond in kind.


credits

released January 7, 2022
Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Arrangement by Stephan Nance

Piano/vocals - Stephan Nance
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Electric bass - Jeni Magana
Trumpet - Jackie Coleman

Mixing & mastering by Thaddeus Moore, Liquid Mixing & Mastering

Recorded in Portland, Los Angeles, and New York

Artwork by Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design by Chad Lowe

Blue Jay

Waterfall

Rule #15 - Four Aces

Rule #21 - Momento Mori

Rough time of year
Does it get to you too
When it rains and it rains
And your shoes never dry

I stay inside with my
Veins full of glue
And I stick to a screen
Till my battery dies

I don’t need to be rich
Only so wealthy as to pay for my food
I don’t need to be huge
Only so big as to ever be noticed

Rough time of year
Do you sit through it too
With that envy so strong
That you can’t even move

I must confess
An embarrassing truth
Almost nothing can hurt me
Like thinking of you

You’ve got a beautiful home
Bestselling novel and effortless style
You enchant the people around you
They swoon when you show even the hint of a smile

Rough time of year
Does it darken the doors
To the lofty salons
Of the luminaries

I wouldn’t know
I wouldn’t know
I only know
Weeks of godawful overcast days
Abstinence from sun on the skin
Drifting deeper and deeper into quarantine
Until my own company begins to wear thin

Envy

Lyrics:

Sparks fly 
Every time I
Identify a species I have
Hitherto never 
Seen in the field 
Seen in the feather 
Sparkbird 
Destiny drew us together 
Every smile line on my face 
Can be retraced 
Down to the split second 
Down to the split place 

Is it magical thinking 
Or is it magical realism 
Or is it neither here nor there? 
Every time I check my wrist 
It's another brand new freckle 
Past another brand new hair 
I'm growing up, up, up 
Against my will, will 
Will you finally resurrect 
The time I've killed? 
Will you finally resurrect 
The time I've killed, killed, killed? 

Sparks fly 
Every time I visit this park 
I envision the phantom 
Of a giddy little cartoon me 
Jittering on the electrifying
Cusp of discovery 
Before and after the storm 
All I wanted was to be seen
And to see

Some signs of a world still
Turning, turning, turning 
Some signs of a world still
Forming, forming, forming 
Rebirth of a dream still
Burning, burning, burning

Is it magical thinking 
Or is it magical realism 
Or is it neither here nor there? 
Every time I check my wrist 
It's another brand new freckle 
Past another brand new hair 
I'm growing up, up, up 
Against my will, will 
Will you finally resurrect 
The time I've killed? 
Will you finally resurrect 
The time I've killed, killed, killed? 

Sparkbird 
Sparkbird

Credits:

Music and lyrics by Stephan Nance
Produced by Josh Frigo
Co-produced by Stephan Nance
Woodwinds and strings arrangement - Josh Plotner
Keyboard and vocals - Stephan Nance
Guitar, backing vocals - Josh Frigo
Upright bass - Jeni Magana
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Alto flute, English horn - Josh Plotner
Violin, viola, cello - Yoed Nir
Lead vocals recorded at The Map Room
Woodwinds recorded at Josh Plotner's studios
Strings recorded at Yoed Nir's Studios
Engineer (lead vocals) - Adam Sweeney
Vocal coaching - Nevada Jones and Adam Sweeney
Mixed by Josh Frigo
Mastered by Alex Dobbert
Artwork - Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design - Chad Lowe

Sparkbird

Lyrics:

Toeing a trench
In the mulch between
Your patch and mine
I stubbed myself on a treacherous thistle
And I cried out
If it were merely
A matter of a stray thorny bristle
A barrier screen could be laid
And I wouldn't miss you

We could go the distance
Were there more disease resistance
On your part
Nothing lasts forever
When you never
Let it start

Every day I pass this way
I expect to find you
Waiting for me
Beneath the branches
Of the buckeye tree
Waving a palmetto frond
Siphoning orange juice
With a barber pole-ish wand

Red horsechestnut?
Clever disguise
I, of course, guessed, but
Said you'd never naturalize

Species zag as seasons zig
Tough to keep plants in one place
Any chance they get, they diaspore
Or else transmutate
Traipsing looping garden paths
Chasing floodplain Tupelo
Tracing roots to Ponderosa
Tangling with a Strangler fig

Now in an old growth Bald-cypress stand
Knees locked in the strand swamp
Black- and yellow-crowned Night Herons
Abound in colonies
Conferring on me collective memory
My eyelids flutter
Orbits fill with water
Hemlock in my hammock
Limbs thrash, I spit and sputter
Alligator drags me under
Into the solution hole

To protect me from
Elements of fantasy
That thrive in shady reality
To offer respite from
The demands of gardening
To show me
Trees are just the fruit
Of an even bigger tree


Credits:

Produced by Josh Frigo
Co-produced by Stephan Nance
Stephan Nance - keyboard, vocals, backing vocals
Josh Frigo - banjo, guitar, backing vocals
Mathias Kunzli - percussion, drums
Josh Plotner - flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, bass clarinet
Yoed Nir- violin, viola, cello
Percussion arrangement by Mathias Kunzli
String arrangement by Yoed Nir
Strings recorded at Yoed Nir's Studios
Woodwinds arrangement by Josh Plotner
Woodwinds recorded at Josh Plotner's Studios
Lead vocals engineered by Adam Sweeney at Opal Recording Studio in Portland, Oregon
Vocal coaching by Nevada Jones and Adam Sweeney
Mixed by Josh Frigo
Mastered by Alex Dobbert
Artwork by Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design by Chad Lowe

Arboretum

Lyrics:

I know what you think of me
I know what you say
I know you’re only here
To poke and prod and analyze me

And you’re all wide-eyed and wondering
Why’d I leave, why’d I stay
Why’d I evolve beyond the point
Where you could recognize me

But I’m not so different
And so what if I am
Maybe I’ve changed
But I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange

I saw you from the pebble beach
With your spyglass in your hand
As you cursed into the spray
I am not ashamed to say
I prayed you’d never reach land

But I can’t say I’m astounded
You would track me down and come around
‘Cause it’s you and I always knew
It would never cross your mind
I might not want to be found

I’m not so different
And so what if I am
Maybe I’ve changed
But I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange

You know what I think of you
You know what I keep inside my walls
You know it all
And you know I’ve never been too good at standing tall

So call me inaccessible
And say that I left ‘cause I couldn’t deal
But I feel what I feel
And I had to leave it all behind so I could heal

I’m not so different
And so what if I am
Maybe I’ve changed
But I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange
I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange

credits:

Music and lyrics - Stephan Nance
Piano/vocals/backing vocals - Stephan Nance
Programming/bass guitar/cello/banjo/keys - Josh Frigo
Backing vocals - Annie Elise
Violin/viola - Collins McLaughlin
Drums - Jon Truman
Vocal recording engineer - Zhengxi Zhang
Vocal production - Annie Elise
Mixing - Josh Frigo
Mastering - Alex Dobbert
Artwork - Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design - Chad Lowe

Atlantisia

Violet

Look Away

Released on October 28th, 2008. Written by Thomas & Paul Dutton. Produced & Mixed by Casey Bates.

The Exit (ft. Brendon Urie & Dan Young)

Can You Keep Up

The Crane Wives - Take Me To War

indie chamber pop (bardcore)
pronouns: they/them