So hear is the deal. I’m issuing myself a challenge and I’m letting whomever wants to know about know about it. Those that know me know that I have been playing the guitar and writing tunes for a few years now. I love it. It is a beautifully frustrating process. As a result I have written (either by myself or with friends) some 25ish songs, 18ish that I like. I play in a band with some great guys and we have a great time both gigging and practicing. We call ourselves Peter Harvey.

So the challenge then is this: to post 50 videos of me performing tunes to youtube in the year 2010. I have set some parameters for myself that will take this challenge a bit beyond what it already is. They are as follows:

1) 50 videos in the year 2010. Each video will contain me performing a song. While each video will at a minimum contain me performing each song, I may include members of my band in the videos and/or other friends that seem appropriate or that are available at the time of recording. This is approximately one video per week but leaves me a little wiggle room if needed. Besides, the number 50 has a better ring than 52.

2) Greater than or equal to 30 of these songs will be original songs. Each original song included will have been written at least in part by me. This means that I will have to write a minimum of 5ish more songs. However, as I don’t like some 7ish songs, that means in order to fully satisfy this parameter, I need to either write 12ish songs or rework some of the songs I don’t like, or I need to be okay with posting a video of songs I don’t love.

3) 10 of these songs will be covers songs. There is much good music out there and I love attempting to play it. Cover songs are fun to play and a good way to broaden horizons.

4) I will allow myself less than or equal to 10 repeats of songs. The purpose of this is twofold. First, the above parameters will be challenging and will already stretch my comfort zone. Second, there are often many ways to play the same song. Any repeats will in some way be different from the prior recording. The most likely of this scenario will be the adding additional instruments and personnel to songs. This also allows for the possibility of making an extremely low budget music video or two. By extremely low budget I mean a budget that is simply time and materials that are already in possession.

Well there it is. I am calling this “The 2010-50.” Wish me luck.

"Rest My Head" has been in the works for a while. It is a new song, and I wanted to get a recording of it before it becomes a band song. I have a feeling this song is going to have a life of its own with the band and may get to a place much like "Wanderlust" where I won't feel like I can do the song without the band. I'm not even certain this song is entirely finished from my end, but it is finished enough to play. I'll let it simmer a while and see what happens.

It was conceived after talking with a friend and coworker about one of our gigs. Matt was talking about how he loves "Wanderlust" and how he thinks we should write a couple more with a similar feel--up tempo song laced with quick acoustic guitar chord progressions while leaving plenty of space for the trumpet to cut loose and go wild. I was thinking about this when I went home that night and hammered out the chords and the chorus as well as a rough first verse. And there it sat, unfinished for a couple of months. Music has been good to me lately, and it seems I've been working on three to four songs at a time for a while. They come and go in their progress. This one was finished (at least I think it might be done) last week with a good friend Joe when he came over to jam. He really dug what the song seemed to say and helped me with a few lines that helped it work. So what is this song about? Well, I suppose no matter what direction it takes in one's mind, it is really about a lonely guy with a rough life who can't seem to catch a break. There is some resolve at the end of the song, but it is intentionally vague as to what that resolve is. Maybe he makes his life better, maybe he makes his life worse. I don't really know yet.

This song was a written with a good friend of mine. Joe and I get together as often as time and schedules permit to jam. I love jamming with him. His voice is a smokey, soulful voice and he feels music. We always have a good time and sometimes turn out a decent product. We both bring songs we are working on and try to find some new angles through the other's perspective. We talk about things we like in each others' songs and as well as things we dislike. Most of our statements to the other start, "I know this is your song, and I'm not trying to take it over, but this is what I am thinking..." To this point in time we have helped each other finish a handful of songs, and we have written one together from scratch. This is the one we wrote together.

As I remember it, Joe came up with the chord progression just sort of fiddling around. I stopped what I was doing and told him to play it again. I started do-dahing a melody and just started singing what came to mind based off of the feel of the music. He did the same. We just kind of took turns until we each felt like we had something to build on. I really like the contrast and the symmetry in the different lines we each sing. It seems my commitment issues are present in the lyrics I sing, while his contentment and fear seem to come out in the lyrics he sings--both sets of lines seem to envelop some insecurities. The chorus somehow seems to complete the gamut of emotions most of us commoners experience with love and relationships, bringing it all together. Interestingly enough, I don't think Joe and I have talked yet about what this song actually means, so it may be interesting to get his take on the whole thing. I love this song, and it gets stuck in my head in a good way.

I am a wanderlust at heart. There really is no way around this fact. This is represented in the way I live my life, the way I think, and certainly in the music I write. I remember when I realized my first passport had expired. Though I had no international travel plans in my immediate future, I suddenly felt trapped. My chest seemed to tighten as I breathed. I realized this was somewhat irrational and still my oyster of a world was in that moment much smaller and limiting. The concept of this song I think is found in its first line, "I'm going nowhere, I'm going nowhere, got to get there fast, Lord I hope the daylight lasts." It seems the things I chase in life are often things that bring a sense of "unknowing" as well as cultivate my wanderlust soul. I was certainly contemplating the direction of my life when I wrote this song. There were things much too uninteresting to explain going on in my life that caused me to question the path I was traveling and the expediency with which I traveled. The rest of the song I think explores this concept and I am amazed at the depth of my subconscious exploration. There are a handful of references that only make sense after the fact. I think this is part of the excitement I find in the creation of music. Often times I set out with a purpose, and other times the purpose finds a way out.

I almost got married once. There was a date, a dress, a ring, and invitations while not yet ordered, were in the works. For a guy who has never been married, it seemed like all the ducks were in a row to make it happen. Long story short, I did say I almost. I didn't get married. It didn't happen and there are probably many reasons why it didn't. I don't remember many anymore, and I'm not even sure I ever knew many. All that aside, it hurt when it didn't happen. It hurt for a while. I hurt for a while. Mister Moon came about because one day I was sick of hurting. I had been hurting too long. I wanted to be done hurting and I knew there was a lot right in my life. My life was and is pretty good. I had and still have many people around me who love and care about me. I sat down with these thoughts in my head and hammered out Mister Moon. It is a feel good song. The chords feel good, the lyrics feel good, and I feel good when I sing it. The chorus even says, "I feel good like I feel I should, and I wouldn't change my life if I could." If I have had a true cathartic experience in my life, writing this song was it. Through this song I was able to turn my back on the hurt and walk away content and proud. I think I have written and will write many songs that are arguably better, more complex, more musical, whatever. That being said, this is and will always be one of my favorite songs to play and sing.

I remember watching a VHS Storytellers episode with Bruce Springsteen wherein he explained how the song "Devils and Dust" came about. He said at the conclusion of his explanation of the lyrics, "How much of this was I thinking about when I wrote this song? None of it... How much of it was I feeling when I wrote the song? All of it. That is how they get written." The Boss is a legendary singer/songwriter and truth be told, I can only aspire to his lyrical and musical genius so I am not trying to put myself on the same level as him. However, while most of my songs are a result of thoughts, ideas, and emotions in the back of my mind that eventually find their way out, this one seemed to take a "Boss-like" approach. It was written before I realized I had been feeling it. It really just came together without much trying at all. It was written in two parts. The first part was written while I was tinkering with my guitar and watching TV and not really thinking about what I was doing. I heard something in the tinkering, turned off the TV, and figured out the chords to match the tinkering. I just started singing what came to mind, and had the chorus figured out within a matter of minutes. I jammed on it with a few friends over the next week or two and got it in my head how I wanted the verses to sound. I liked the idea that "...if you love somebody, you got to be worth loving back." This seems to be an element of love that is often overlooked from its most simple to its most complex aspects. We often want more bang for our buck, and in love I think this is a flawed approach. You've got to give to get. At any rate, I thought I'd try to use childhood stories and nursery rhymes as a basis to make this point. I took a couple that I loved as a kid and tried to imagine the fictional characters as real people. I'm not even sure if that makes sense outside of my head, but I think it worked in completing the song.

This song, like many, was a conglomerate of ideas, thoughts, and emotions felt at around the time of its creation. I had a chord progression I really liked but didn't have much of an idea what I actually wanted the song to say. Jon came over to my place one night to jam and I played him the progression. He chucked out the phrase, "Is it possible?," and we kind of went from there. I think we got a verse and at least a rough chorus that night. It kind of stayed in the back of my head for a bit as often happens when I write a song. In the meantime, my dad had asked me to bring my guitar and sing a song at a party for his parents (my grandparents). They are well into their 80s and have been married for 60 plus years. Trying to find something to play that my grandparents might like seemed a challenge. I remember stories about the disgust expressed by my grandpa about Elvis and the Beatles when they first appeared on TV. Now I am no Beatle or the King, but if he was disgusted by them, what would he think of me? So i was thinking a lot about my grandparents and what it would be like to live the lives they have lived. I just kind of wondered if they could go back and do it all over again, if they would do it all again. Anyway, as I thought about this, the song sort of finished itself and it became clear that I needed to debut it at their party. It is clear that the song is not simply about my grandparents, but there is definitely an influence there. It gave me an avenue to question life and regrets. By the by, whether or not my grandparents really liked the song is questionable, but they definitely appreciated the effort. 

This song was one of the first in the first handful of songs I wrote before I even started playing with the band. It is essentially a song about being a wanderlust, or one who is driven by desire to travel and adventure. I often tell people that the most important things I have done for me are: living in Germany, backpacking through Europe, and living in Australia. It was through these experiences that I started to find me and my peace. So without boding too philosophical, essentially I was trying to explore in this song, the idea that I ended up someplace completely different than where at 18 years old I thought I'd end up. Through the experiences and many since however, I became my own person and am reminded to live life as full and as best I can.

The life of a song, I am learning, is a beautiful thing. I remember watching an interview with Dave Matthews a handful of years ago, and hearing him talk about how songs often take on personalities and lives of their own. I thought it sounded a bit hokey but am learning he was quite wise in those thoughts. "Wanderlust" is a song that I thought stood pretty well on its own. However, throughout its evolution, it has clearly become one of our strongest songs as a band, and a song that I rarely if ever play without Jon and his trumpet. The trumpet gives this song expression, feeling, and a personality that it lacked before. This in spite of me feeling it once stood solidly alone.

Basement is a song that Jon Mehl deservedly gets most of the credit for. Inspired by a Scream Metal Band, Jon came up with the riff, chord progression, and basic melody for this tune. He came over to my house with all of this as well as some rough lyrical ideas for the song. As we started playing and jamming the progression, we started putting some lyrics to ideas he already had. The way I remember it was that we had written the first verse and the chorus before we really started talking about what the song was trying to say or what it was about. As we discussed it, Jon mentioned he had been reading about Elliott Smith and was fascinated with how he used to wander around at night trying to get his head straight and find some peace in his life. I got cold chills as I realized this was what we were writing about. The rest of the song is definitely written with him in mind and references him through phrases like, "on the stage alone" and "basement on a hill." We both saw his last live show and found out about his sad and too early death a few short weeks later on a road trip we made to Lake Powell. We love his music and hope this song does him the justice he deserves.

As I contemplated which song to do first for the project "the 2010-50," I gave it probably too much thought. I figured it was much like creating a mix tape (for those who remember mix tapes) in that I wanted to start out strong but not so strong that there is nowhere left to go. Endurance is key for this goal I have set for myself. I settled in on "Superhero." I love this song and the evolution tied up in its creation.

Dan Dohanos, who used to play in Peter Harvey, busted out the main chord progression while we were screwing around at a band practice. I heard it and knew something needed to be done with it. I loved the way it sounded and the emotion I felt hearing it. I tried to find appropriate lyrics though nothing seemed to feel right. It kind sat in the back of my head for a while. Sometime later, I was talking to a friend who was battling cancer and she openly expressed her fears and frustrations in the battle. Trying to be supportive and impart whatever wisdom I could muster, I told her that she didn't always have to be a superhero. I told her it was okay to be scared, and that she could cry if she needed--but only for a while. After she had her moment to be scared and cry, she needed to resume superhero status and kick cancer's ass. Thinking about this conversation, I went home and penned the framework of the lyrical side of the song and I think I made a couple of minor tweaks to the chord progressions. By the way, she kicked cancer's ass and is still in remission.