Recently, I went through a bit of an Alan Watts obsession. He got me thinking about the self, the ego and all that good stuff. A lot of these ideas spilled out into a song called “Puzzle Box”. The finished song will be on my new album “Outlines” which is coming this September. For now though, for a taste and a tease, I thought it would be fun to give you a glimpse of the song in raw form. These things rarely spring out fully formed and ready to race up the charts you know! 😉 Usually I find they take a bit of coaxing, a bit of playing hard-to-get, and a measure of good old fashioned toil.
I think this one started with the expression “Join the dots”… I thought that would be a cool line for a song, and it all grew from there. I’m pretty sure my good musical friend Brian Murphy had some kind of hand in the “Puzzle Box” image / idea. He’s good like that.
Puzzle Box Lyric Sketches
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Musically, it’s a tuned down dark thing in DADGAD and to me has a kind of Nick Drake feel to it. I definitely had the music first for this one. Click on the links below to hear some early sketches and discussions of the song in it’s raw form…
audio:
“Puzzle Box” – early draft and discussions with Brian Murphy [CLICK TO PLAY]
November4th – Puzzle Box [CLICK TO PLAY]
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Below are the finished lyrics. I hope you enjoy the song and this insight into how it tumbled into the world. I look forward to sharing the finished work with you. I’m currently working on mixing the album and I hope to have all the audio end tied up by the end of May. Mixed and mastered stamped and sealed. Of course I’ll keep you in the loop with all that.
Please feel encouraged to communicate your thoughts/feelings/questions etc in the comment box below!
Best wishes always
~Peter
“Puzzle Box” by Peter Doran