All That

I’ve written a lot of love songs, some pure fantasy, others flush with new discovery, even a few bitter ones (every writer has to have a breakup song or two!); but over the years, every new relationship spawned more attempts at capturing that perfect feeling of love in music. By the time I met Brandy, I honestly didn’t think I had any more in me. Previous girlfriends had either used up all the inspiration, or sometimes faded away as an infatuation if I found I couldn’t write a good song about them – no pressure or anything! Brandy and I hit it off like no other, and we spent some amazing times in that first magical year. I did try early on to write a couple songs that fell flat, and told myself this was no real measure of my love for her (maybe I had just done all I could with that genre). However, I soon hit a serious stretch of productive songwriting inspired by our love, and this song stands out among the dozen or so I wrote. We’d already had “lots of perfect moments” even then, months in, but we both had a strong feeling there’d be many, many more. And there have been! The words flowed, out of clichés slightly twisted and repurposed (“Maybe” rhyming “Baby” – but not the usual “Baby”), and over time I honed and crafted the whole song to a degree I don’t think I have accomplished too often. This might be my favorite love song, which is saying a lot for someone who thought he’d exhausted the form years earlier!