THE
UNPERSON / The songs
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Lyrics and notes:
1. Refuge
For I find a pleasure in my seeing
The pleasure in seeing blue and green, red and black
For I find a pleasure in my hearing
The pleasure in hearing all that breathes - I will remain here
For I find a pleasure in my moving
The pleasure in moving closer, closer and farther
For I find a pleasure in my heart beating
The pleasure in taking lives and subsisting upon them
For I find a pleasure in my healing
The pleasure in healing wounds - I will live this through
2006 © The unperson
[Note] One of the oldest songs of the album. Much of the instrumental arrangement, including the vocal melody, was written when I was about 18. The guitar was tracked at Coldleaf Music Studio in Queens, the vocals at Capturesound Studio in Brooklyn, New York in 2005.
2. I am ill
I am ill - I don't hope nor do I dream in stead I reserve the power to kill
I am ill - I'm not cured nor am I clensed in stead I walk free as I bleed
A faith so blind in a mind so frail
How little it takes to make a human being break
Keep trying to prove yourself, entertain, serve, wag your tail
This is your place as long as you're willing to take
I am ill - I don't hope nor do I dream better off alone and free
I am ill - I dress warm in a cold place where servitude is remembered as love
No need to justify yourself in this contradictory bind define life as you please
If it took a year to wake up you must've needed to sleep well
If you spent a decade in fear you must've learned to beware
If you've lived a lifetime without believing in yourself
You've withstood the lies that fooled this entire world
My existance is a triumph of the weak
My existance is the reason and the proof
2006 © The unperson
[Note] This song was the first to start and the last to finish in the mixing process. The guitars and the bass were laid down by myself, tracked and re-tracked at Coldleaf Studio in the span of several months. The drum tracks were also heavily edited in the studio. The last of the additional guitar part was recorded a day before the last mixing session (February, 2006). The drums were tracked in the spring of 2005, the lead vocal in the summer of 2005 at Capturesound Studio.
3. Precious bugs
Lowers her head with the shame of the boring
She'd decided not to talk about herself anymore
Awkward girls whore the life story
Educated minds have heard it all before
A self-reference so obvious
Words 'soul' and 'spirit' bared
Whispered stories of a grandmother
Try and grasp it, turns to air
So she falls on her back, so her
eyes can touch the ceiling
Where the skeleton's bones, stuck to the wood
one by one come downward wheeling
The stories that can haunt the secret spaces
For a decade and a half, placed in the mind
Demons that live behind heaters and mirrors
There's a greater monster that I can find
This is an enemy that I share
with three quarters of the human race
She collects each piece of my inferiority
keeps them pinned like precious bugs inside a case
(Words written by Vanessa Rijo)
2006 © The unperson & Vanessa Rijo
[Note] My friend wrote the lyric. The bass lines were a collaborative effort by Paul and myself; the verses and the ending were paul's, the chorus part was mine. I am also exceptionally happy with the drum tracks Ron laid down, and as the producer I am proud of the artistic inputs by all of us - Kate, Paul, Ron, myself and Vanessa. The guitars and bass were tracked at Coldleaf Studio, the drums and the lead vocal were tracked at Capturesound in 2005.
4. Looney on the ceiling
A looney on the ceiling a stifled mess a silent scream
A looney on the ceiling a masterpiece of a gone man
In the days of youth and glory, he sings
For my obedience or defiance I was loved
In those days I'd live for love, I'd live just for love
Oh what a nice way to go
Oh what a nice way to go
Why did I want so badly a place in humanity?
Concept over content, endless rows of white corpses
A ghost from the far time now rises
and cries for who he was and who he could've been
Ever longing for his audience - but do you realize? you failed to exist
Oh what a nice way to go
Oh what a nice way to go
2006 © The unperson
[Note] It was originally intended to be a simply acoustic + drums + vocals piece. Paul suggested that he wanted to try and come up with a bass line, I said go for it, and he did. Although the actual take that is on the Cd was played by myself (the original take was sadly unusable due to an engineering mistake on my part), the part was written entirely by Paul. I think he made the song 10 times better than otherwise. The guitars and bass were tracked at Coldleaf Studio, the drums and the lead vocal were tracked at Capturesound in 2005.
5. Memory hole
(Instrumental)
2006 © The unperson
[Note] I'd had the bits and pieces of this song in my song book for probably 10 years, before I finally bothered to put them together. I don't like the term 'filler', but I felt I needed a 'breather' (much like 'Bron-yr-aur' on 'Physical graffiti'), hense this little guitar piece. I dusted off my nylon-string guitar for this. I'm not much of a finger-picker, so this is pretty much the best I could do. It was tracked in the fall of 2005 at Coldleaf Studio.
6. Queen's decade
My eyes see everything in red
You trace the paths that led me here
Full of holes yet so close to home
A ghost and the burning black sky above
My eyes see shadows in the mirror
I appear only in the pale moonlight
A terminal drag of my sickness
echoes on the streets every time i stop
I stare at the drain gleaming underneath
waiting to swallow me whole
Now i am ready to go home
My eyes slowly began to dim
as the world became ever smaller
The last photograph of me smiling
It was so easy to let go
I close my eyes when I fall asleep
out of habit, not necessity
Now i am ready to go home
My eyes awake through the night flight
Another ghost and the black sky below
We made no lasting impression
A thought almost induced me to smile
Ten years have gone and now I realize
you bought a house by trees and a stream
to grow old, to rear your child
2006 © The unperson
[Note] This song was especially a personal one for me, and I had the pressure to get this right no matter what. Paul was tremendously supportive in getting the right bass line for the song, but Kate's performance takes the cake; I am grateful that she understood how much this particular song meant for me. The guitars were tracked at Coldleaf studio, the bass, the drums and the lead vocal were tracked at Capturesound in 2005.
7. Before the storm
I'm your friend, on my part at least
For once I'm glad you aren't here with me
This is my dream but it's about to end
For once I'm glad you aren't here with me
I feel amused to see the rain out turning into a storm
Even if I've failed to change the world will change me in my stead
At 3 am my honesty wakes
and I begin to hear maggots breed
Face after face they begin to appear
and expose my fallacy that I live by day
My friend I never knew your name even though you always ruled my world
You know i am a good man - as I've always been
2006 © The unperson
[Note] Originally the programmed drum track was supposed to be replaced by the real thing, but it was actually Ron himself who suggested that I leave it. I am glad for that decisioin. The session went fairly painlessly, despite that the song has a lot of parts and components. The bass on this song was played by me. The guitars were tracked at Coldleaf Studio, the drums and the lead vocal were tracked at Capturesound in 2005.
8. Cheap plastic
Just another cheap plastic toy
But it carried the weight of the world
Just another conterfeit doll
But it carried the weight of the world
Just another tear in a child's eye
But it carried the weight of the world
Just another cheap plastic toy
But it carried the weight of the world
2006 © The unperson
[Note] There are 3 vocal tracks and what you hear is essentially Kate's first 3 rehearsal takes; it was one magical moment during the whole process of the production, as she laid down the harmony, track by track, and pretty much completed the song right before my eyes. Everything was tracked at Coldleaf Studio in 2005
9. Understatement
Silver and gold you find but answers you do not
Whoever told you a void must be filled
oh no - just leave it unfilled
Friends and lovers you find reasons why you do not
Whoever taught you life must be understood
oh no - just keep this world alone to yourself
(It will remain incomplete)
The plain on which I was born where they used to bury the dead
A great bliss I witnessed in the sun my eternal sea of green grass
It will remain incomplete
as we remain incomplete
2006 © The unperson
[Note] The bass line is Paul's. Ron's drums are also one of my favorites. It ended up slightly more unconventional due to the changes I made on the choruses - or rather, the elimination of the choruses. I was not 100% confident with the song, but in the end many people seemed to like it. The guitars and the bass were tracked at Coldleaf Studio, the drums and the lead vocal were tracked at Capturesound in 2005.
10. Safety breach
Make me feel ashamed to be so clever
I'm still afraid to stand so near
Safety breach - just d, g and a
Shine on ever so brightly but so far
Everything I tried not to remember
Safety breach - just d, g and a
Safety breach - just d, g and a
It may be too late now but I'll start over
No choice but to walk out of my door
Find a place to stay
Find another place for me to stay
2006 © The unperson
[Note] There was another song prepared for the album closer (Ron even recorded the drums for it), but I decided to use this song instead. I wrote the lyrics, then the music and recorded the entire thing in no more than 48 hours, which must have been a record time for me. It was recorded in my bedroom, and then brought to Capturesound for the mixing in the winter of 2005.
© All songs are copyrighted by the US Copyright Office.