coastal alt/indie rock

​​Field Notes​​

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This one started as an assignment in a songwriting cohort.

The project was to do a co-write, so I asked my wife, Angie, to write one with me.

We decided from the beginning that we wanted to try something different—an electronica/chill song in the world of Delerium, Morcheeba and Balligomingo, all bands we love. We talked about the sound, the mood and the kinds of images that might belong in that musical world.

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Eventually we arrived at the title, "Evening Calm".

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And once we had that, we realized we already knew the place.

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Light fades on the mountainside
Night is taking over soon
Coyotes howling in the canyon
There's magic in the moon
The breeze is rustling in the palms
Warm air wraps around us
It's time for Evening Calm.

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That's Monterey County and Carmel Valley as we experience them.

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There's a particular transition that happens there at the end of the day. The light disappears behind the mountains. The temperature changes. The coyotes start up somewhere in the distance. The breeze moves through the trees. Everything seems to settle.

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Nothing necessarily happens.

And that's the point.

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This song was always more about mood than story. We weren't trying to build toward some revelation or make "Evening Calm" mean something other than what it already meant. We wanted the music itself to feel like that moment when the activity of the day falls away and night begins to take over.

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I feel that we accomplished exactly what we set out to do: write an electronica/chill song that captures something of the spirit of Monterey County.

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Sometimes a song doesn't need to take you anywhere.

Sometimes it just needs to make you want to stay where you are.

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