THE STORY OF A NEW "XAKESTARX" SONG!
First of all, I hope Xakestar can forgive me for creating the project title "Xakestarx", which is a combination of the band's name and my name and it's better to use that shortened version of our names than Marek Starx & Xakestar in a blog title. Don't you think so? :)
Anyway, I wanted to write about "I'M NOT THEM" and shed some light on the process of evolution of that song, so...
I wrote "I'm Not Them" exactly on July, 18th, 2016 after 2 months of not writing a single song. I admit I felt a little bit tired after I finalized my "Peaceful Storms" album/collection or however you call it. My song "Sunrise" was a nice ending to the "Peaceful Storms" era and I just had to take a break from writing and creating and enjoy the result of my almost 3-year work. I'm proud of "Peaceful Storms", every single song means very much to me.
And so... after that long break (for me, two months is like forever), I don't remember how, I just found myself playing my guitar, trying to come out with something unusual, with a combination of chords that I don't use very often. And sometimes I don't even know what chords I'm playing, they're just strange. And that's exactly what I needed and wanted that day. July, 18th.
The melody sounded dark and gloomy and I don't know why it just reminded me of Nirvana's music. I was like "OK, I'm on the good way"! Ha! And then the words start to appear while playing the guitar. It happens to me that I write lyrics simultaneously with music. Music evokes words and words evoke music. A "Yin-Yang" principle.
So I started to sing a few lines starting with "Mornings are harder to take, in the mirror is that my face?" - that's how usually everyone's day start, isn't that? And the rest of the words just kept coming and I wrote down everything in my exercise book. That's where I write down all of my songs. The verses were done. I remembered that Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" uses some unusual chord combinations and so I told myself "why not try writing a chorus melody that has nothing to do with the melody of the verses?". Suddenly, I can hear the verses sound like being done for an alternative grunge song, while the chorus sounds like being written for a pop song. I thought to myself "that's a great combination and they even complement each other so well, though they're different!"
To write a song like "I'm Not Them" was always on my plan list, but as you can see, I had to take my time to write a song like that and wait for the right time. To sum up everything, "I'm Not Them" is about getting old, but still not feeling old at all... You know, people of my age usually look clever, like they have everything under control, they have their families, houses and live their stereotyped lives... and I don't feel like being one of them... I'm not them. Not yet.
Moe Khojasteh (Xakestar) visited Bratislava by the end of July, where he also met Andy (of I&SON and Museboat Radio). Unfortunately, my holidays were over, so I couldn't go to Bratislava to meet them. We only talked on the phone, which was great. Later that day, I had a chat with Moe on Facebook about how he enjoyed being in Slovakia and he suggested we collaborated on something new (we did a song called "Frailty and Flares" in February) and I told him that I'd written a new song that would sound great on guitar. And that's how our new collaboration was born.
Moe started working on "I'm Not Them" right after he got home. We always exchanged our ideas, but in fact, everything Moe did, it sounded like he could read my mind. The process was amazing, unbelievable, just awesome! Moe put every detail right in its place and the song was becoming better and better! He recorded all of the instruments, he did all of the awesome arrangements, the wonderful mix and the perfect production. I never thought that my song would sound so awesome! A dream come true. And that dream has really become true! Thank you, Moe!
And now, all I ask of you is please, have a listen to our song. After all the hard work and all the time we spent working on it, this song deserves to be heard, to be played, to be shared, to be commented. No, I'm not trying to be greedy, I only would like to show my respect to all Moe's perfect job on the song. Without Moe/Xakestar, "I'm Not Them" wouldn't happen.
I'm very very very proud of "I'm Not Them" and I hope this song finds its place in your lives and in your hearts.
Thank you, friends, for all your amazing support.
Marek.
Follow XAKESTAR>>>
"I'M NOT THEM" on Soundcloud
"I'M NOT THEM" on Reverbnation"
"I'M NOT THEM" on Xakestar's Reverbnation profile
"I'M NOT THEM" (LYRIC VIDEO) on YouTube>>>
