The song "How Can You Sleep?" has a long history for me. I've had versions of the song out on platforms like SoundCloud for over five years. The theme is pointing a sharp finger at police and authority in America that make the lives of some people of color a living hell. I originally wrote it at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. It might be too on-the-nose, but I stand by every word in it.

I'm not a huge fan of my voice. So when it came time to start putting my music out on major platforms I became an instrumentalist. So, two years ago I reworked it as a piano and cello instrumental and tacked it onto my Collisions In The Dark album. It has a very different feel as a piano/orchestra instrumental, but my heart has always been with the original intent.

Anyways, here it is.

How Can You Sleep?
By Gizz Van Buskirk
words and music by Mike Damrath

How can you sleep?
When you know you’re the reason they can’t 
Leave their door 
Wondering what they’ll will be mistaken for

How can you sleep?
Safe secure inside your simple world
Aware of the storm
So scared to risk your sure and shady platform

Creating and instilling fear
Blue lights in the rear view mirror
Bright knuckles on a steering wheel 
A sister’s sight of a mother’s tear


How can you sleep?
Wise your hide has eased you on your way
Can't you see
A higher tide takes all her ships to sea


How can you sleep?
Tell me how can you sleep?
How can you sleep?
I’m wondering how you can sleep?

How Can You Sleep?

she's got an easy smile
she's got an easy way
a sadness, gentle and kind
like an old familiar friend

like water

she's a great companion
always there by your side
she's got an old soul
the kind you like to know

like water

hmm, and you want her
like water

she will pick you up
when you're feeling down
and she understands
when you're not around

like water

Different Way

Verse 1:
Looking out the window
Thinking what should I do
Time is of the essence
Till it’s gone and so are you

You’re looking for a mission
Need to save everything
A walking contradiction
Cause you push me away

Pre-chorus:
Oh what is the deal? I need someone who is real
Something I can feel
Oh why are you still searching for a thrill
Can you just be still

Chorus:
You keep running away
You keep running away
Will you ever settle down and stay 
I hope you stay

Verse 2:
Looking to the future
Thinking how things should be
The things that truly matter
Are the ones who stay with me

Running round in circles 
Trying hard to figure out
What it is you’re feeling
That you keep pushing down

Pre-chorus:
Oh what is the deal? I need someone who is real
Something I can feel
Oh why are you still searching for a thrill
Can you just be still

Chorus:
You keep running away
You keep running away
Will you ever settle down and stay 

You keep running away
You keep running away
You keep running away
You keep running away


You Keep Running Away

Along the rainbow we go into the snow
Beautiful, it is, to watch a cabbage grow
Cryptic usernames, they keep me on my toes
Sparkly little fluffs I pump at the show
Brace for impact as we make this roux
Messy in the dark is fudge on pantyhose
Laymen's terms and pleasantries and vital prose
Exotic crumpet dancers hold crossbows
Fast or slow I don't mind the tempos
Alienation from the Scarecrows.

Written, recorded, performed and mixed by Naïve Composer.

Alienation from the Scarecrows

a pleasure to work with these musicians

a Dubrae Production, artwork

SK Melody, Lyrics
Mitch Brody, Guitar and Bass
Marco Barlie, Bass
Mark Bergner, Keyboards

Angels

The Antidote

Cloudy sunday. Cars slowly passing outside the window...Will be a good day...it is time for a rest. 29.06.2025 - Pomerania

Cloudy sunday.

Freedom In The Breeze

Starting from Tadoussac - 2025

There is one difference between real creativity and artificial guess work. FEELING

That's what this song aims to achieve is spell that out. I'm pretending to be Obi Wan Kenobi telling all the prompters Jedi Master style why they are poisoning themselves and the younglings of planet Earth. I couldn't give a shit what that comes across like. what's more important to me is to have inspirational opposites to the poison being delivered to little humans that haven't figured themselves out yet or haven't figured out how to be creative. So meet Jedi vocal! Fuck the prompters... you'll all get sick of your own with smell soon and you'll soon realize the only fucking way to make art is to FEEL it. That's the life force and the best most powerful FEELINGS come from love and linking love or your Heart to ART. So stop insulting what inspired us all up to this point and feel it. Just because your brains are being poisoned with constant advertisements telling you AI is the answer to everything doesn't make it true... It will have lots of answers for society but if we are not careful it will destroy your individualism if it hasn't already. So wake the fuck up... Our children are worth more then that shallowness

I'm starting to lean towards spirituality existing in our DNA. Maybe it's the potential energy we all have and maybe that's where the spirits past lie in wait for us to still inspire us. it's the most scientific place my head has ever being tying modern scientific reality to the spiritual feelings we all have of we open ourselves up to that or if we want to keep a valid connection open to the inspiring people that have left us


Feel the force
The force is feeling
Deoxyribonucleic acid preening
Seeds of our souls
Double helix kneading
Serve now free will
Sound has artist scening

Feeling the force
That force of feeling
Fluidity flouts the highground of meaning
Feathered truth now bows to new
Only fools get stuck with what they knew

Feel the force
This force is feeling
Coded roots
Spiritual peeling
Potential of past
Will see's free
Curation of conscious force field seed

Feel the air
The force of breathing

Feel the force
The force is feeling
Deoxyribonucleic acid preening
Seeds of our souls
Double helix kneading
Serve now free will
Sound has artist scening

Feeling the force
The force of feeling
Fluidity flouts the highground of meaning
Feathered truth now bows to new
Only fools get stuck with what they knew

Feel the force
The force of feeling
Coded roots
Spiritual peeling
Potential past
Will see's free
Curation of conscious force feel seed


🧘🏿‍♀️ Path of Feeling 🧘🏿‍♀️

Gizz Van Buskirk (pronounced ˈgiz væn bʌskɜːʳk) is the electronic music recording project of  Mike Damrath, from Richmond, Virginia, USA. Originally raised northern New Jersey and then in the mountains of upstate New York. He was influenced by a steady diet of British first and new wave rock, with heaping helpings of The Beatles, Queen, Gary Numan, John Foxx, Jean-Michel Jarre, Roland Orzabal, and Thomas Dolby. Mike played drums and sax for a number of bands over the years including Fail East, Fevered Train, and the Screaming Attack Shrimp before striking out on his own under the name Gizz Van Buskirk.

How Can You Sleep?

Gizz Van Buskirk

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