empty
Words and Music by James Ozenne, October 1994
Recorded and Produced by James Ozenne, November 1998
Song and Recording Notes:
The lyrics to this song are meant to be disjointed and frantic, a jilted lover's incoherent outburst.
I recorded this song on the 4-track when I wrote it in 1994 and was happy with the atmospheric sound I got then, so I didn't want to mess with it too much -- I actually tried to play every note the same when I made the recording for this disc. The recording process went smoothly. Out of the nine songs on the disc, Empty by far required the least recording time -- 3 days, probably totaling less than twelve hours of work. (By contrast, Put Me Down easily consumed over 100 hours of my time. Probably much more, but I've blocked out the memory of it now. :))
I added a military-sounding synth snare drum and synth bass part that enters only for the "it was mine" bridge. Otherwise the vocal is accompanied only by trio of guitars: one acoustic playing the main rhythm, one overdriven lead guitar playing little bends and slides the whole way (toward the left channel), and one other electric guitar that plays harmonics the entire time, giving the recording its distinctive sound (toward the right channel). Be sure to listen carefully at the end when the final E minor 9th chord is articulated in harmonics. :)
My heart
Empty from the start
Looking through
Seeing through to you
And I know
Now I know, but then you
And you're a fool
Don't know what to do
And it's a ride
I'm feeling too hard
It's feeling right
We talk into the night
And I felt it
And it was mine, but I
Didn't know
You were keeping time
Oh, and it was mine
It was mine . . .
And I'm down
And I'm feeling something
And I'm wrong
It was all along
I can't fight
And I can't stop the fight
But it's you
And what you say is true