Story Behind The Song

I composed this song after listening to Juana Molina Tres Coses record. Do you know those occasions where you just know that a certain record is going to change the way you think about music? This was one of those for me. I think at that time I was listening to a lot of Bela Bartok's String Quartets. Beautiful but extremely complex. Juana's music is often heavily layered but built on simple sing-song melodies and sometimes one chord. I wanted to see if I could write within a similar limitation. The song is essentially the same harmony throughout with slight variation. It builds, evolves into a grander statement towards the end. As with all of my songs for the most part, 30 Feet Tall is inspired and named after simple things. In this case, a tree.

Song Description

It's a calm piece, the melody played on guitar on a bed of synths and gradually developing to include strings and pedal steel guitar. At near 1'50 a short section of string counterpoint ushers in a brief statement of the melody using guitar harmonics, followed by a forte section; though still retaining the nostalgic setting established from the start, this section is more dense with instruments and counterpoint. It ends with the ostinato figure consistent throughout the song.

Lyrics

Instrumental, lyrics N/A.