Book 7: LOUVRE
This song has been the bane of my existence. Dramatic? Yes. True? Also somehow, yes.
I was scrolling through Pinterest one day to try and find some inspiration and saw a book cover with a painter painting a self-portrait (how many P words can you fit in a sentence haha). There was something so mesmerizing about it: there was a sense of focus and calm, like you’re secretly entering a deeply intimate moment of watching the artist portray themselves. I thought it was a beautiful analogy for life, the idea that we can become who we choose to be - taking on the role of both the canvas and the painter.
For me, the most important part of creating a new song is finding its ultimate message - something with depth and a unique angle to it. And in that moment, I felt that glorious feeling of having figured out the next Bookstore song: an art-book inspired tune about the beauty of change.
I was on a roll and continued to dive deep into my Pinterest algorithm so I could get a better sense of the general aesthetic and lifestyle that the song would portray:
The aliveness of the art world was immediately evident. It was messy and imperfect, bursting at the seams with life and an innate desire to create. But most of all, it seeped with patience. The willingness to keep coming back to the same, tireless work - in a constant state of change and improvement. There was a comfort of knowing that there is always tomorrow, always an opportunity to add shading or carve another crease.
At first, I titled the song ‘The Sculptor’ and recorded its first makeshift demo with my phone leaned against the sheet music stand of my keyboard:
You can hear the verse almost in its final form, and the little bits of the pre-chorus melody intermittently peeking through. I added a few jazzier harmonies, opting for some Major 7th chords to try and mimic the early 2000s British Neo Soul / Pop music. In my mind, the production was going to be early Duffy (think ‘Mercy’, ‘Warwick Avenue’), Pixie Lott (‘Cry Me Out’), and Paloma Faith (her song ‘New York’ is one of my all time favorites). This was the music I grew up with, looking up karaoke and lyrics in the nascent days of Youtube, trying to learn their riffs and singing along when no one else was home. :)
Having this sonic reference, I went about writing the chorus:
Things were going relatively smoothly up until this point and I was feeling confident. The song’s theme was universal, but portrayed from a unique angle. It had a distinct world it occupied, immediately painting (pun absolutely intended) an image in your head.
But it’s this chorus that opened up the Pandora’s Box and turned the process of this song from a smooth sail on a summer afternoon to a Category 5 hurricane. Again, I think the dramatics here are kind of warranted.
I really liked the chorus melody I had written, but had absolutely no lyrics to pair it with. Zero. What could I possibly say that would both serve as a synopsis of the song’s theme and do so without being super direct and cheesy? Every possible idea I had sounded like a tampon commercial. Sad, but true.
So we fast forward to an evening in November. I’m sitting at the living room upright piano, lights dimmed. It’s cozy and peaceful and I have this growing ‘feeling’ that I could write something.
*side note: there is a very distinct ‘feeling’ that I (and, I’m assuming, all artists) experience. It feels like a sudden urge to say something, an excitement around creating something from scratch. It’s almost as if a film speed runs in front of your eyes, and you get dropped in a new world that you’re desperately itching to describe. In that moment, you just know that whatever you create will be good. Every song I’ve released so far was born in this overwhelming instance of the ‘feeling’.
Here’s a rough recreation of how the following 10 minutes unfolded:
I think of “you’re an artwork - Frida Kahlo”
okay, now we’re getting somewhere. What rhymes with ‘Kahlo’?
pulls out phone and immediately jumps to rhymezone.com (some poet, huh??). One of the first results is ‘Apollo’.
Google Apollo’s role in Greek mythology. Google comes back and says:
okay, wow, serendipity. What if I say “lead the muses like Apollo”?
then, since Frida Kahlo is a painter, let’s continue describing a painting. Something like “all the colors layered, a kaleidoscope”
actually, let’s go back and fix the first line and say “you’re a painting, Frida Kahlo” instead of “you’re an artwork - Frida Kahlo”
yeah, that feels more grounded and specific.
okay, moving on to the second part of the chorus. Let’s use the same structure of describing a piece of art but instead of a painting, let’s talk about a sculpture - this will tie us back to the verse 1 lyrics of: “I’m the canvas and the painter” and “the marble that I sculpt away”
first sculptor that comes to mind is Michelangelo, but I already used him as a reference in ‘Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying’ AND, more importantly, I need a sculptor with a 3-4 syllable count name to fit with the melody
Google famous sculptors
Oh, Bernini!! The phonetics of that sound beautiful. It’s technically 3 syllables but I can cheat it by saying “you’re a sculpture, A Bernini”
okay, love it we’re on a roll. How cool would it be if I could use an actual Bernini sculpture as an analogy?
Google Bernini sculptures. Are there any whose name rhymes with ‘Bernini’??
Daphne and Apollo!! Serendipty no. 2! Apollo makes an appearance again which connects us back to the first part of the chorus and ‘Daphne’ kind of rhymes with ‘Bernini’. THANK YOU ART GODS.
Okay, love this but what do I say about this sculpture that can relate to the song?
Google background information on ‘Daphne and Apollo’ myth and Bernini sculpture
Google says:
serendipity no. 3!! This song is about change and in the myth / sculpture, Daphne transforms / changes into a laurel tree!! That’s my analogy!
this is where the ‘feeling’ turns into a conversation with myself:
what if I say something like “grow like branches did on Daphne”???
yes, that works!!
okay, time to wrap up the chorus. This is where we need our main, memorable lyric hook that needs to include the title of the song
but…. I already said “you’re a sculpture, a Bernini” so I can’t title the song ‘The Sculptor’ now….
hmmmmmmmmmm
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
okay, what about something like “turning living into art"?
sure, that nicely bridges the gap between the specifics and a more direct description of what you’re trying to say
but what’s the hook??
well, what’s the world’s most famous collection of art?
The Louvre???
what are the most famous pieces in the Louvre??
something everyone knows?
yes.
the Mona Lisa??
okayyyyyyyy what about: “life’s the Louvre and you’re the Mona Lisa”
I LOVE IT! It’s kind of like you’re the beautiful, magical, mystical work of art that everybody comes to see
YES, exactly!!
okay, I think that’s our chorus done??
yup, I think so.
YAY!!!!!
Here’s a demo I recorded at my piano on that night, officially renaming the song from ‘The Sculptor’ to ‘Louvre’:
Over the next few days, reinvigorated with a newfound rush of excitement for this song, I wrote little bits of the second verse, piecing them together in sections. An idea came about in the shower, another one on an afternoon walk, and they all ended with me repeating that lyric religiously, so as to not forget it until I could rush to my phone and type it into my notes app.
The last missing section was the bridge, unlocked by an image I (no surprise) found in my feed during a scroll through Pinterest:
I thought it was a beautiful sentiment that described exactly what I wanted ‘Louvre’ to capture, so I turned the bridge into a mantra-like recitation that feels like you’re reading it from someone’s affirmations diary.
With the song now fully written, it was time for me to head to my bedroom, open up a new Logic session and start putting together a production for the song. “This will be easy!”, I thought to myself as the hum of my computer brought my trusty companion to life. I had very specific references and a song that I wrote with those references in mind. I also spent the last few days studying and analyzing my reference songs and their production, breaking them down in my head and identifying what each part was doing in order to contribute to the impact of the whole. I (foolishly, I fear) couldn’t come up with a single thing that could go wrong and spent the next few hours putting together the first demo for the song:
At first, I didn’t feel to bad about it. It was a solid beginning that needed a lot of construction work, but at least the foundation was laid. Then, the more I listened to it, the more I realized I was desperately trying to convince myself to justify the song’s innate ‘meh-ness’ (and yes, that’s absolutely a scientific term). As hard as it was initially for me to admit it, this version of the song was lethargic and uneventful and boring. And if I, who wrote the song and care more about it than anyone else ever will, get bored while listening to it, then we’re in big, big trouble.
So I decided to not open up the Logic session for a week, and instead, produce the song in my head. I took extra long showers and extra long walks and fiddled with the production in my head. I made the whole thing faster (from 90 BPM to 94 BPM), raised the key of the song by half a step (from Bb Major to B Major), made the piano loop higher and more harmonically dense (added in some 2nd and 4th intervals and played around with the inversions), and made the bass line a lot funkier, moving up and down the scale significantly more. It got to the point where I couldn’t not think about the song and it flooded over every aspect of my life. I could hear it ringing in my ears when I was working out, drinking my morning coffee, I even laid in my bed awake at 2am, trying to fix the production. Spiral much?
I guess this is a good time to let you in on a little secret. I LOVE a challenge, crave it. I adore it when things get difficult and tricky and I have to work out a solution. I always get very excited when I’m being pushed to try out something new. Sure, it’s uncomfortable, but it’s also a sign that I’m learning , growing and improving, and ultimately: getting better. And what could be more exciting than that?? So yeah, all the dramatics aside, I kind of relished in the difficulty of this process.
Determined to make this song work, I cleared out my schedule for a few days and got back to work.
I started by playing a brand new piano loop to serve as the main instrumental hook in the production:
Spiced up the bass line and made it move around more (played here by Victor Balconi, who records all of the live bass and guitar on my songs):
Sped up the drum pattern (played here by Chris Hill who records all of the live drums on my songs):
And added a lush string arrangement that serves as the foundation of the chorus (played here by Yoed Nir who records all of the live strings on my songs). You can especially hear the orchestral strings peek through in the breakdown third chorus of the song:
With the song now in the mixing stage, it was time for me to start thinking more specifically about the music video for the song. The song always sounded like pastels to me, light and spring-y so I kept thinking of this Rodarte 2020 Spring / Summer campaign shoot (can you see the inspiration here hehe):
This is a shoot that I’ve been attempting to recreate for YEARS, but never quite found the song and theme that would fit within it. But as soon as I saw the ivy-draped sculpture in the back left of these shots, I realized this was finally the time I would get to do it.
I got a black and white checkered carpet , a watercolor-style photo background, a garden faux Greek sculpture, and buttloads of artificial flowers - all from Amazon. As the props were delivered one by one in the days leading up to the video shoot, we collected them all in the living room:
These were all cheap, plastic versions of whatever fancy props I’m assuming Rodarte used for their campaign, but I was taking a gamble that on video, you wouldn’t be able to tell (the gamble, methinks, paid off).
I rummaged my closet for outfits and came out with my 2023 NYE dress, my 2014 Junior Prom dress and a set of PJs I bought on sale a few months back (all true). Add in a few extra braids, flower clips, a laurel crown (thanks again, Amazon!), and a pair of silver ballet flats and we’re in business baby.
We (‘we’ being my dad) built the music video set in our backyard. I ate my morning cereal while watching my dad carefully place faux moss by hand, creating an overgrown look for the black and while tile flooring (yes, my parents are objectively the best).
Everything was filmed on my iPhone, complete with the track playing from my laptop and a mini spa e heater we brought outside because it was so cold. :)
OUTFIT 1 - the artist
This is who I would consider the main character of the ‘Louvre’ music video. She builds the set from the ground up, preparing it for the artwork to be created. She constantly makes tweaks and changes, until she becomes the artwork herself at the very end of the video, holding up the frame in front of her (peep my dad’s faux moss on the floor).
OUTFIT 2 - the painting
I envisioned this as a mashup between Frida Kahlo and Mona Lisa, as both are mentioned in the ‘Louvre’ chorus lyrics. If you zoom in on the hair, you’ll notice I did a little milkmaid braid crown and clipped in some flowers, as an homage and reference to the famous hairstyle that Frida Kahlo became synonymous with.
OUTFIT 3 - the sculpture
Meet my Junior Prom dress! This was from the Anthropologie bridesmaid section and even though I hadn’t worn it since that 2014 evening, it was way too beautiful and precious to give away. For the ‘Louvre’ video, I wanted the dress to echo grecian togas, as a way to depict Bernini’s Daphne. My mom and dad wrapped ivy around the dress and my hand (mimicking the sculpture in the back), and I added a little golden laurel crown in the hair - since, if you recall, Daphne transformed into a laurel tree.
With a couple months of space between working on ‘Louvre’ and writing this, I noticed something that was perhaps embarrassingly evident this entire time. It’s almost too poetic that a song about patiently embracing change and spending your entire life working towards the version of yourself you want to be, was also the song that took the most challenging and turbulent process to complete it.
I have learned A LOT simply by seeing this project to its final form, but most of all I was rewarded with seeing the beauty and satisfaction in not giving up. I think it’s also what I love so much about doing what I do. Every song is a new puzzle, the shapes and sizes of its pieces being decided as you work through them. It’s also a very deep and apt analogy for life - the constant ebb and flow, the ever-present change, and the patience to complete each new puzzle you’re fortunate enough to find in front of you.