Making "Division Street," Part Seven: Division Street

Listen to the song HERE 

 

 In Which We Transplant and Explore

We moved to Spokane in the middle of June last summer. I came across Division Street the first time I drove around to get my bearings. It's hard to miss, really. It's the big North-South line running down the middle of the city. On the East side of Division is Gonzaga University. On the West side, our little neighborhood is nick-named "Felony Flats." We found this out the day we were moving in. But it really isn't bad. It's just got character! There's all sorts of entertainment. Once, we saw a whole mess of police cars scream up to the apartments opposite our house. Police were spreading out, running around, obviously trying to find someone. [I haven't lived here long enough yet see much for myself, but I've heard reports of problems with police brutality here] Another time we woke early one weekend morning to find an inebriated man in our back yard. He was standing, leaning in a corner beneath a tree, apparently dozing. I went out back to send him on his way. He was quite confused and wandered off. Needless to say we installed a lock on the gate posthaste! But we've never been bothered or felt threatened. Our neighbors are nice.

In Which We Leap Recklessly From Solid Ground

But back to Division Street. The first time I saw it, I thought it would make a good song title. I filed it away, and some months later it finally saw the light. I decided, as a songwriting exercise, to write a complete song in one evening. Right away I knew this was the time to use "Division Street." But first things first. I am much more comfortable writing the music first. I'll get a chord progression that sounds good to me, then start humming various melodies. Eventually, one will stick, and I'll start refining it to determine the cadence I want. Only then do I turn to the notebook to write. Not every time, but often. Frankly, the lyrics for Division Street practically wrote themselves. The name evoked so many images.

In the verses, the theme is dislocation, loneliness, but presented with a serene countenance. The chorus is the reminder of interdependence and connection. It's an important thing to be reminded of. We can get so caught up in our petty, selfish goals, that we forget we are all part of a vast web of interdependent systems. The ability of our minds to differentiate between things both course and subtle seems like a generally positive trait. But just because it is easier to perceive differences than similarities does not mean that differences define us. Indeed, I'd say it was the interdependent systems that define us first and foremost. That delicate balance of everything from subatomic particles to compound ecosystems, to the movements of the stars.

Well. That's a tangent I could blah blah blah about for a while, but I'll leave it there for now. 

In Which We Return

I usually record vocals last, but the case of this song, I added the acoustic guitar during the mixing process. I had thought I was done with the tracking, but sometimes a part just jumps up and grabs you by the throat and yells "put me in the damn song ya bastard!!" Congenial guy that I am, how can I say no to that?

I realized fairly soon after writing this song that Division Street would also be a great title for the whole album. Along with being a great title just on its own, it also tied the process of making this album to my new home. I ended up using some more references to Spokane in some of the other songs on the disc. So you could say this was the track that brought the whole project together. I'm rather fond of it for that.