Lyrics, Recording & Production by Jack Smith
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Key Lyric: “You could save me!”
Inspiration (Why this song?)
As many know, I’ve been financially struggling through my 20s and have been itching to live in a gay city like NYC/SF/Chicago for years.
In the last few months, I’ve been reaching out to gay men I know with the intention of getting their advice & stories about moves they’ve made throughout their adulthoods. Many of the guys let me know that they only ever made it to a new city because their partner was moving and didn’t want to leave their love behind. All of these guys found a job in their new city while living with their partner, in said new city.
It left me feeling hopeless about my own ability to travel, move, and establish myself in a city. It also made me feel grief for my college boyfriend, who moved to SF post-grad and left me behind. In just a few years, he has been able to live in New York & Chicago, as well. I wrote and recorded this song to communicate the heartbreak I feel knowing my lover didn’t bring me with him when he moved to a better place.
Sonic Identity
Archangel was primary a song written in a state of frustration, perhaps even rage. Whenever I feel this way, I start to feel the urge to slam things. I’ll Slam doors, slam pillows into the ground, slam my fingers onto the keyboard venting my frustrations… you get it. With this in mind, and understanding that Archangel’s lyrics are a musical manifestation of the venting I do, I wanted to sonically encapsulate slamming on the keyboard too. During the song’s intro and chorus, you’ll notice that the same chord plays repeatedly on my right hand. On the left side, I’m moving down the octave to create the chord progression, but otherwise, I’m just playing “A minor” over and over again. I thought it was a cool way to take this feeling of frustration and turning it into something both tangible and musical as well!