Been Busy Jamming
An apology for my absence lately and my plans for content over the next couple of weeks
To my subscribers:
Once again, I apologize for my lack of content lately — I’m disappointed that I have to do this so soon after the last time I wrote something similar. I had every intention of getting an article out last week but due to multiple family events and the basic demands of day to day life, I was unable to find the time to write a full piece.
With that being said, I did manage to pull some inspiration out of such a hectic week.
Back in April of this year, I wrote a brief note thanking you all for your support, and in that note I discussed my desire and intention to expand the writing I do here at Thoughts Into Words.
As I said at the time:
The bulk of my content will continue to be political/social commentary and analysis, but lately, I’ve felt compelled to attempt to do more with my writing.
That includes more creative forms of writing like satire or fictional short stories, as well as the occasional poem here and there. I also hope to post articles from guest writers every now and then, with the first such article potentially occurring within the next couple of months.
So far, I haven’t done a great job at attempting those other forms of writing, but I do still intend to do so. One way of expanding my content that I didn’t mention at the time is to post the lyrics of songs I write or am a part of in this space and include a link to an audio version of those songs, which brings me back to that inspiration I mentioned above.
One of the events that took up much of my time last week was a gig I played with some of my brothers at a block party in Salt Lake City, Utah. In order to elaborate on why that was so significant, I need to provide some backstory.
I grew up in a very musical family. My dad plays guitar, my mom plays bass, and I have several aunts and uncles who also play musical instruments. When I was young my dad was in a band called Final Truth which also included a few of my uncles over the years. That band eventually broke up, but years later my dad — and one of my uncles who was a member of Final Truth — joined another band called Lucid 8.
Around the same time, when I was in junior high school, my younger brother and I would go out into our garage (which had been turned into a studio during the Final Truth days) and jam together; he would play the guitar and I would play the drums using my dad’s guitar and amp and my uncle’s drumkit. I mentioned how we would jam to a friend of mine and he ended up buying a bass guitar and started jamming with us.
We had formed a band.
That band took several names and included many different members who came and went over the years, but it’s final and best iteration included the founding members (my brother, my friend, and I) and my brother’s friend who eventually came in as a second guitarist. We called ourselves Awkward Anonymous.
In 2016 we recorded and released one studio album called Reality Time Machine. Listening to it now there are some issues with the album that I wish we had resolved, but doing so would’ve pushed back the release and it would’ve also meant spending more money to remix and remaster all the songs. At the time I had already poured a decent amount of money into the album and couldn’t immediately afford to spend more, so we decided to release it as it was.
To this day it’s one of my proudest accomplishments, even though if I could go back I would definitely take the time and spend the money to work out some of those minor issues.
Awkward Anonymous eventually went on an indefinite hiatus. My brother (who was the front man) moved a few hours away and my friend who played bass for us also ended up moving out of state shortly after. In the time since, I’ve continued to play music but I haven’t seriously pursued it.
A few years ago, my brother ended up moving back to Orem, Utah, where it all began, and we would occasionally jam together just for the fun of it. Over the last few months, however, we’ve been jamming with two of my other younger brothers (I’m the second oldest of ten siblings) and the gig we just played was the first show we’ve played together, and my first show in years.
During that gig we played several songs off of Reality Time Machine, which caused me to reflect on that time of my life and the music we created as Awkward Anonymous, and that brings me back to the inspiration I keep alluding to.
In honor of my past band and the great times we had and the (I think) great music we created, as well as the future of this newest project my brothers and I have started — and as a way to both expand the type of content I put out and make up for my lack of content lately — I decided that I’m going to post the lyrics to each song off of Reality Time Machine, one at a time, over the next couple of weeks.
I intend to get back to writing my usual political/social commentary soon, but until then, I hope you all enjoy the lyrics and music Awkward Anonymous created so many years ago. I know I still do.
As always, thank you all for your patience and your continued support. It is greatly appreciated.
— Steven