December Newsletter: Silent Film

“Silent Film”

My new single Silent Film is out today!! And Bandcamp is waiving its revenue share TODAY (Dec 2), so today is a fantastic day to buy music or merch.

The backstory... (Reading time: 2 minutes.)

I wrote this song in January 2020 after Gabby, our African Grey parrot, passed away unexpectedly. It was my first night home alone since she’d died; Adam had missed the previous two nights of work, so he needed to go in.

Normally, when Adam was gone, the apartment would still be full of Gabby’s noises. We called her our foley artist. If I was in the kitchen and knocked a spoon a few times on the side of a bowl, Gabby would call out, “Hello!” as if someone was at the door. When I picked up a glass, she’d make a water noise, and when I set it down, she’d go clunk. If I dropped something, she’d say, “Whoops!” If I started eating a snack, she’d make a lip-smacking noise and coo, “C’mere! C’mere!” And every night at 8 o’clock on the dot, she’d loudly announce, “It’s time to go to bed! Goodnight! Get ready to go to bed!”

So even with my Senegal parrot Georgie there to keep me company, the change was drastic. She’d been with us for six years, and suddenly her enormous — often annoying, often endearing — presence was gone.

I tried to distract myself from my grief with a TV show but only lasted about 10 minutes. There was no getting around it, only getting through it.

I never write songs in a single sitting, but that’s what I did with this one. I sat at the piano with my notebook and worked on it until it was finished. The song begins by capturing my feelings from the frantic confusion surrounding her last moments, and goes no further in the grieving process than that lonely night of songwriting.  I wrote it about Gabby, but I was also thinking about how it would feel to lose Adam.

As sad as the song is, writing it really helped me. It got some of my feelings out and gave them a place to live.

Recording this song has been a real labor of love, and I'm grateful to finally see it go out into the world. It features the most gorgeous strings by Yoed Nir and gentle percussion by Mathias Kunzli.

Mixing and mastering is by Thaddeus Moore of Liquid Mastering. The artwork is by Rebecca DeMoss, with graphic design by Chad Lowe. If you'd like a Silent Film bookmark or sticker, just let me know where to send it. A music video is forthcoming!

Speaking of music videos, we filmed the Varied Thrush music video last week and I'm SO excited about how it's turning out. I've been dreaming about making this video for three or four years, and the result (thanks to director Dawn Jones Redstone and an incredible team) is everything I hoped for and more. Look out for the release in early 2023.

As always, thank you for listening and helping me get my music out there. ❤️ Without you it's just me recording stuff in my closet!

Love,
Stephan
a.k.a. Sparkbird