Dancer

Dancer came about quietly one night before I went to bed. Growing up one of my favorite movies was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I really love the scene where Ferris is singing Twist and Shout by the Beatles on a parade float. There’s a four part harmony in that song that builds with so much excitement and energy and the movie does such a good job of representing that excitement with a literal parade. That’s where I think the songs opening moment came from sub consciously. At first I really only wrote the first verse and chorus. I reflected on the lyrics and started to imagine this character, the Dancer. I imagined a person who had left home to try and carve out a place for themselves in this world. They found themselves in a place where they were appreciated for what they do, not who they are. Something that I have felt in many ways in my life. It’s not a stretch to imagine “do these people actually like me or do they just think it’s cool that I play music?” At times it has felt like a burden, the need to express myself through music. Don’t get me wrong, I really do love it but I love it so much that I don’t really feel like myself without it. It’s become a huge part of my identity and sometimes I wish I could just be Scott but that’s not really possible. I’m always clicking my teeth in some rhythmic pattern or fidgeting with my left hand making chord shapes. I find myself constantly moving my body to an internal clock that feels inherently musical. I imagined the Dancer character didn’t come from a lot of love. Over the past few years I’ve taken a few trips out to the California desert, Death Valley and Joshua Tree to be specific and I’ve really fallen in love with that part of the country. I thought maybe Dancer grew up in the desert, a barren place where you really have to look for life. She had left hoping to escape and find herself in a place beaming with life. Maybe her parents had passed on and left her the house she had grown up in back in the desert. She had never found true love or acceptance in her journey because she wasn’t really running towards something, she was running away. She decides to move back home to the house she inherited and it’s not clear if she’ll face her demons or succumb to them.