The writing process for “In This Life” was at times effortless and at other times extremely tedious.  I put a lot of pressure on myself to make this song a perfect representation of my skills as a vocalist, electric guitarist, and saxophonist.  

The guitar loop was created on my couch late at night, and I listened to it over and over.  I knew that it needed a bunch of layers, so when I got around to recording it, I just kept adding different pieces of acoustic guitars to round out the sound.  I wanted this song to be simple and wholesome.  I wanted to inspire a sense of peaceful thoughtfulness.

After listening to the loop for several days, I was ready to record the vocals.  But I didn’t have any lyrics.  I didn’t know what to sing, or what I wanted to say with this song.  It was so chill and nice, I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and completely ruin the aura of the song.  I was in my head and confused about what I wanted to do.  

I wanted to see what my mind and my heart would say on this song.  So I just hit record.  

To this day, I can’t believe it, but all of these lyrics are first take vocals.  The entire verse that you can read below (and hear) was performed and recorded as an improvised stream of consciousness.  

After I somehow magically pulled that off, I placed an extreme amount of pressure on myself to deliver a saxophone that would be worthy of following such a raw and honest verse.  It’s funny, because usually my best saxophone solos are performed as in-the-moment improvisations, but this time, I knew I had to write something amazing.

Maybe that’s why I struggled so much with the saxophone solo on this song.  So much pressure.  I didn’t want to come in hard and aggressively, but I also wanted the listener to feel the passion and the emotion in what I was playing.  The voice in my head said “Start slow, then let loose.”