The Sleeper Pins

I'm Going To Write A Song If It Kills Me

• MP3 download whole song, hi-fi
• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

This song is track 1 on The Sleeper Pins album, "Keep It Coming Like A Miracle".

And fittingly, writing this song opened the gates for the rest of the lyrics of the album to come flooding out of me.  I had a bit of writer's block for awhile, and what writer doesn't from time to time?  If you take any writing course the subject of writer's block will inevitably come up, and most will say that if you have writer's block you should simply write about having writer's block.  This will get your pen moving and your brain working and hopefully cure itself.  So that's what I did.  I wrote a song about having writer's block. And it worked!  

After finishing any song I often have this feeling of loss because I don't know where the next song is going to come from.  There is a fear of not being able to write anymore and a subsequent need to pull words out of thin air in order to create the next one.  It doesn't matter what it is about, just that it somehow matters and keeps you writing.  Keeps you being a musician. This fear wound up being the title of the whole album in a way, for I had come across a poem by Charles Bukowski called, "O, We Are The Outcasts" in which he talks about this very thing.  He writes, "keep it coming like a miracle" in reference to words and poems and their creation that can make a person a "writer" or "poet" or whatever else gets you notoriety.  He's actually calling the craft of writing and most of the people that do it full of bullshit in the poem, haha, but he loves it and so do I. Bukowski, love him or hate him, drops a decent nugget of wisdom now and then.

This song was originally going to be longer, with an added verse basically repeating the first one.  But once we got it in the studio we ran into some kind of roadblock and I had the idea of simply shortening it and making it come to a dead stop.  I looked over the lyrics and knew I had nothing else to say and that they had already served their purpose, so why bother dragging it out?  It's called song efficiency, folks :)  Fans have told me this song is the catchiest on the whole album, (who doesn't like hand claps?!) and they actually wish it DID go on longer, but I love playing this tune live and the band just coming to that dead stop all together.  Leave 'em wanting more...

Just call me determined

I'm going to write a song if it kills me

I'm sinking and hurting

I'm going to write a song if it kills me

Your blank white pages won't scare me away

Your blank white pages won't scare me today

I could go from zero to hero in 3 minutes flat...

Songs For Black Swans

• MP3 download whole song, hi-fi
• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

This song is track number 2 on The Sleeper Pins album "Keep it Coming like a Miracle".  

This song started as a few lines in a notebook revolving around the concept of "the underdog".  I'm usually a fan of underdogs, in whatever realm you want to put one in.  Everyone likes underdogs from time to time; probably going back to hearing the story of David and Goliath as a kid.  I already had the descending notes part on the guitar for the verses and the chorus chords.  However, I didn't have lyrics for the chorus yet.  I knew this song was going to be good and I was already digging it and enjoyed messing around with it.  I particularly liked some of the imagery in the verses, the "shut down landing strip," and the "lightning rod for bad luck in my brain" and whatnot. 

One day I was hanging out by a small lake in Minnesota and happened to see a swan floating on the water.  It was so brilliant and white and impossible not to look at.  I was reminded of the time I was in a park and happened to see a few albino squirrels and how cool that was.  I've never seen any since.  The question popped up in my mind: I wonder if there are any black swans?  Later that same day I was watching something on TV and a commercial for a type of wine came on.  The wine company was (you guessed it) Black Swan, and during the commercial there were shots of black swans swimming around.  They did exist!  I couldn't believe the serendipity of it all, and knew this was important.  I began thinking about the black swans being the unsung heroes of the swan population and this reminded me of the song I was working on about underdogs.  I began toying with lyrics for the chorus, and the rest is history.  The chorus worked out, and I added the line "Like us" at the end of the song to tie it in with us as a band being underdogs in the music scene, and humans being underdogs to the fruition of their own hopes and dreams in general.  I have a few bottles of Black Swan wine on top of the cabinets in my kitchen right now that never fail to remind me of that day I was just hanging out enjoying the weather and wound up finishing a song.

"Songs for Black Swans" has since become one of our most popular tracks, and never fails to get a reaction at a live show.  I've had many strangers compliment me on it, and even go so far to say that it is a message for minorities and racial injustice.  Whatever your interpretation is I hope you like it!  

As useless as a firetruck in the rain

Stock footage nightmares play for days and days

As lonely as a shutdown landing strip

I never learned to make a good paper airplane

This is a song for black swans

This is a song for black swans

A lightning rod for bad luck is in my brain

Everything I love is on a moving train

Pick up your feet, prick up your ears my friend

There's always room for underdogs in the end

This is a song for black swans

This is a song for black swans

Hope and faith will carry you all the way

Hope and faith will carry you all the way

This is a song for black swans

This is a song for black swans

Like us

Looking At What Is Anything But A Full Moon

• MP3 download whole song, hi-fi
• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

This song can be found on our debut album, "The Sleeper Pins."

No big story on this one.  Just a picture of a time of reflection.  Ever go outside in the middle of a December night while the snow is quietly falling?  Peaceful and amazing.  The amount of light a full moon gives off is incredible.  And you can almost hear each snowflake around you hitting the ground.  

I was thinking about a lot of things.

 A person walking up to the house of someone they know to knock on the door; but then changing their mind for whatever reason and turning away.  How there would be perfect footsteps imprinted in the drifts of snow (coming and going).  And what the person in that house would think about those footprint the next morning when they saw them. 

How tons of people have stared at the moon and just thought about space and the universe and the earth and wondered what our place is in it and wished they had the answer.  How cool is it that eventually we as humans figured out a way to get up to the moon?!  How much ingenuity and bravery it took!  And the fact that the earth and the moon are so far apart yet they impact each other significantly everyday.  It touches us, and we have touched it and left footprints on its surface.

That at the same time, somewhere in the world, there had to be some more people doing exactly what I was doing that night--coming home late from somewhere and noticing how calm, peaceful, and pretty the world can be in the moonlight in December when most others are sleeping.  That somehow we are all connected.  That while everything else around us changes, there are a few constants left that we can count on to be there.

 Silent sliver in the sky

Without a word you change the tide

Cold wind by your night light

Snowflakes fall on every side

I wanna see it all, I wanna know

As sure as I leave perfect footprints in the snow

Walking far away from you

Walking far away from you

We cannot admit defeat

Nothing left but hope to keep

Craters touched by human hands

Moonbeams reach to where I stand

I wanna see it all I wanna know

As sure as I leave perfect footprints in the snow

Walking far away from you

Walking far away from you 

Titanic, Arise!

• MP3 download whole song, hi-fi
• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

This song is track number 6 on The Sleeper Pin album, "Keep It Coming Like A Miracle" on Emperor Penguin Records.

Some coworkers of mine were having a board game party night, and I don't remember the name of this particular game.  Basically a multiple choice question would be asked about a particular person playing and you had to try to guess the answer you thought everyone else would guess about them as well.  In other words, it didn't matter if you knew exactly the right answer; it mattered that you guessed the same way the majority of the other players guessed as well--that is how you earned points.

Anyway, a question was asked about me.  It was:  "If Tyson were a disaster of some kind, what would he be?"  The options were a volcano erupting, a tornado, an earthquake, or the Titanic sinking.  Anyone that really knows me would guess either the volcano or the Titanic.  I myself would pick the Titanic (and so did most everyone else).  It was funny at the time, but as I drove home after the party I was thinking about it in a few different ways.  Me as a big ship, plodding along, seemingly reliable and steady, counted on to follow through with endeavors and reach personal goals/destinations.  But then realizing the possibility of hitting a snag that could derail me in any number of ways and fall apart.  I let it brew for a week or so.  

I was going through some pictures of me as a kid, and found a few that I barely remembered being taken.  One was me in the backyard of my Grandma's house in Bismarck, ND, about age 8, holding a big fish I had caught by myself.  I looked really happy and proud and it brought back a lot of fond memories of being with my grandparents and happy times.  The other picture was of me on Easter Sunday, probably around age 5 or 6.  I had just finished an Easter egg hunt and opened one of the plastic eggs I had found.  Inside was a matchbox car.  For some reason I was truly surprised by this, and happy to have it.  The picture was captured at just the right moment to show the surprise, joy, and excitement on my face.  I looked at it for a long time, trying to remember what it was like to live life in a state of worry-free happiness; without anxiety about things and able to be surprised by people in a good way.  I thought about how nice it would be to recapture some of that innocence and pure joy and remember what it was like to just play outside all day. I looked at the person I had become since then and wanted to be more like who I used to be when I was a kid.  I wondered what it would take to get some of that back.  It struck me that to dig back into my soul and personality that far and truly bring back that kid in me would be like raising the Titanic from the bottom of the ocean floor.  Once I realized that, and thought again about the board game with my coworkers, this song wrote itself.

I really love how this song turned out and what it is all about.  The chord changes really stir up something in me, and it's hard and heavy.  When we went into the studio to record what would become "Keep it Coming Like a Miracle," this song was the newest one, and Justin didn't even have a drum part for it yet but we knew we wanted to do it.  Justin put on his creative hat, came up with this drum part that day, recorded it, and I love it.  Also, Aaron has a blistering cello solo that I really pushed him to bring out in the studio.  He recorded a couple that were really good, but I knew he had something else in him.  I told him to "bring the fire!" on the last take.  He did, and that is what you hear on the recording.

Used to be brave

Now I think about the grave

And I would walk to the ends of the Earth just to be myself

At the bottom of the sea

There's a ship just like me

And it would sail all the seven seas just to be itself

When I was a kid I was the king

Not afraid of anything

A shaky heart and a nervous brain took that away from me

Labeled unsinkable

It was unthinkable

But the tip isn't all that you see

The danger is underneath

I just wanna bring myself back

Titanic, Arise!

Water is Warm

• MP3 download whole song, hi-fi
• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

This song is track number 8 on The Sleeper Pins album, "Keep It Coming Like A Miracle" on Emperor Penguin Records.

There isn't a whole lot of story about this song.  Basically, the song is a map.  You should feel like you are at one point, walk aways, and then reach a destination.  It's about figuring out a path.  And whether you take a beaten down trail or the road less traveled, sometimes you end up in a place where lots of other folks end up as well.  And you know what?  That can be all right if you are willing to see it a certain way.  If you don't, then keep on traveling.  That's ok, too!  I still am.  For me, that's what this song is about.  It's not what it has to be about for you, though.

A few other things about this song worth saying:

It is one of the rare songs that was created out of a "jam" session.  I usually don't create or keep much, especially lyrically, from a jam session.  It's simply not how I work.  But this one did, and it stuck, and I'm happy for it and use it as proof that maybe I should jam more often!

It is a song that because of the chorus I dream of someday playing it in front of thousands of screaming fans.  Like a sea of people and faces all singing along at the same time at the top of their lungs.  Awesome.

Aaron, our cello player, sometimes calls this the best song ever written, and that he will kick anyone's ass that says otherwise.  Haha.  This is pressure I do not need!  I disagree with him, but I'm glad he likes it.  He also brought another fiery solo to this piece, and I think his bow sounds like a samurai blade. 

This is going somewhere; I don't know where

Now I know where we stand

I can start making the plans

Rather move ahead than fall way back

Push aside all this tall, tall, grass

The sand is old and marked by footsteps

I dip my toes in the water's edge

We are here, it ain't so bad.  We are here, it in't so bad

Come on in, the water's warm

The Light

• MP3 download whole song, hi-fi
• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

This song is track number 9 on The Sleeper Pins album, "Keep It Coming Like A Miracle" on Emperor Penguin Records.

"The Light" was written for and about my son Eli.  He had fallen asleep on the couch in the basement and I was sitting on the floor watching him sleep.  I was having one of those million moments when it just feels amazing to be a parent and that I would do anything for him to keep him safe and able to always fall asleep without worry.  That no matter what comes his way I will help him find his way through it.  That as long as I'm alive he can count on me to be there for him.  It's as simple as that.  There is no possible way to write about how deep this goes or to fully explain.

It pains me to say that I am now divorced from his mother and that I don't get to see him as often as I'd like.  But I've uprooted myself twice and moved to 2 different states to stay close to him and be a constant in his life.  He is old enough to know that this song is for him, and sometimes when he is with me he asks me to play it for him on my guitar before he goes to bed.  And I do and I can barely contain the smile on my face. 

Don't you worry

I am watching

You're so quiet

The dark is winning

I am stronger

Than I realize

I can beat it

I'm here all night

Don't you worry

I'm not leaving

I'll protect you

The dark is bleeding

You can sleep now

You're not alone

I've got the light

And I know how to use it

I know how to use it

To see you through