Long Quote

Emerson And Henry David Thoreau was written in my stateroom on the Norwegian Bliss. I used to play music on cruise ships and this song was written gazing out at the waves through the large window in my room on the second deck. The original voice memo recording might even be better than the final studio version. 

As for the writing process; I was determined to write a song with the most uplifting chorus imaginable. I’ve written plenty of sad songs. Sad was my wheelhouse. But I needed to hear the opposite. I’m a huge Oasis fan and Noel Gallagher has always been the master of epic transcendent choruses, so that was the target. I was at a low point in my life. A long relationship had ended and I was doubting a lot of the choices I had made. I wrote what I needed to hear. “Never change whenever the world tries to make you hate who you are.” As for the name, I wanted it absurdly long. Mission accomplished. I have a proclivity for impractically long names and titles. A View Of Earth From The Moon is another great example of this. The verses are little vignettes of my childhood in Moses Lake. I had an idyllic upbringing and I just wanted to cram in as much happy stuff as I could. 

Short Quote

I wanted to write the most uplifting chorus possible, for myself. I was in a dark period and I needed to hear something that would recognize the pain in me and do everything it could to lift me out. Throw in some big drums, a wall of guitars, and a fuzz bass, and this is just about as effective on me as an SSRI.