Young Pretty: Part Three.

Months went by, and I went about writing songs with my band (Alex, Paul, etc.)

I was losing paul, so I wrote songs that I thought would win him over.

'Thinking Cap' 'Job Application' and 'Poliholitics'

These songs were more prog-rock, funky, bluesy, jam-tastic.

These songs paled in comparison to Young Pretty; musically and lyrically.

Eventually, I lost Paul, despite my best efforts.

He quit the band, long before I fired him, but the final nail in the coffin happened when he decided to go to Magic Mountain on the day that we had agreed and set a practice. I called, left a voicemail with a defeated voice saying, "Paul, you're fired."

I then retreated from those funk songs and decided to write more sensitive material. I wrote 'Priceless' 'Never Again' 'Wasted' and a few others that escape me at the moment, some fragmented songs that never developed beyond those days.

One day aimlessly wasting away time on the internet, 'She' entered my thoughts.

I decided to search her name via google (evil search engine!).

The results loaded, and I clicked on one that led to a myspace page (thank you, search engine!) so I friend requested her. She accepted, and left a message.

"Do I know you from Up North?"

I answered 'We met up during Christmas time'.

We began a correspondence, via myspace, via e-mail, via ichat.

I enjoyed every little letter of every little word that she sent.

I was smitten beyond smit's sake.

I had a full-on crush. I was infatuated.

We maintained a constant correspondence, and she would tell me of a man she was smitten by, we caught up and talked about music, politics, etc. they were most lovely conversations. We swapped phone numbers. We would continue chatting via aim. e-mail. All the while i was in summer school I was enraptured by her. I would get butterflies in my stomach, my lungs would get short of breath. I had a feeling of euphoria while we were talking about price fixing and tax burdens. I found inspiration; I wrote more songs about her. She opened up about certain personal issues, as did I; Not to compete--merely to state mine were more revealing. It must've been most distressing. I had my share of personal demons, and I let her know I had them.

One night, I decided to call her. I'm unaware as to whether or not I let her know, one thing I was made aware of... she would not answer at that time.

Like an mature man, I took the high road.

I took it personally.

I assaulted her with anger and jealousy and rage.

Bad idea.

Though her and I have remained friends, how I treated her through this period, no doubt left an indelible impression.

I was wrong.

I was immature.

I was not being Christian about it.

Though I apologized, and though she forgave, it unfortunately would happen time and again, due to my reckless reasonings and paranoia.

It was my fault, every time.

However,

Through this period of having good talks, bad ideas, and some things in between, came an overflow of creativity. Songs to write about the highest highs, the lowest lows, and the middle ground of compromises and cooling off. I came up with 'That's Why' 'Surreal is so Real' 'Transparency' 'Color of the Heart' 'Closer Away' 'If I Could' the concepts of 'She's Everything' 'Spending Time' 'Looking Back'. I was going to a Songwriting Workshop at Berklee College of Music in a few weeks. I hoped to make progress. But first, some background on 'Extraordinary'.

After the talent show, Mr. Singer-Songwriter and I decided that it would be great for us to combine forces, and be in a band together. We would cement it by writing songs together, eventually growing out of our solo tunes and committing to our collaborations (I was thinking a la Lennon/McCartney).

Our first songwriting session was very productive.

It gave us 'Extraordinary'.

I am a Christian, I believe that God sent His Son, Jesus, perfect and blameless and undeserving to pay the debt, to pay for our sins in order for us to have salvation. Confession of sins, Making Christ the Lord of your life, is the only way to have eternal life. I wanted Extraordinary to be ambiguous, lyrically, you could apply it to how you perceive a woman, or how you perceive God. Mr. Singer-Songwriter came up with the music for the intro, verse, and pre-chorus. He and I developed the music for the chorus. The lyrics were written solely by me. The music was to showcase our respective strengths. His high, high tenor through the verse, and my belting tenor through the chorus. We played the song along with a few of our other songs at a 'coffeehouse event' (His; White Noise--the talent show winning song, and Take Me Away. Mine were Priceless, Poliholitics, and Never Again). We finished the song within 4 hours.

We would only have one more songwriting session, and parted ways amicably after being together for only six weeks.