Tristan Kaupas

Knighterror

This is the first song I ever wrote on piano.  The lyrics came about sometime in 2005.  They were inspired by a dream I had where I was flying through the night sky.  It was like something was drawing me upward, but I felt this immense fear of falling or being dropped.  I originally recorded it in 2006 at my friend Matt’s house.

At first, the left hand was played with blocked chords during the verses while the right hand played arpeggios, but now both hands are arpeggiated.  The lyrics for the last chorus are also new and everything else has pretty much remained the same.  I’ve had the idea for the drumbeat for a long time now.  The synth part came out of some “studio wizardry” and experimentation.

Some alternate titles that were considered are: Sleep, Under Its Wing, Don’t Look Down, The Night is Still, Shut Down, Restart, Error, and Mare.

Away Message

The majority of the lyrics for this song were written in May 2006, making it one of my earliest writings to be put to music.  The chorus went through some changes before being finalized for the original recording, which took place in 2007.  The second guitar part in the second chorus is a recent addition, that may be translated into a bass line in the future.

I’m not going to lie, this song is very eerie and depressing.  I was trying to write something sad that encompassed all of the emotion that went into a song like “Something in the Way” by Nirvana.  Though the lyrical content is bleak, I think that the chorus does shine with some optimism.

At one point I decided to break this song up into two parts.  The second would be piano based, consisting of the third verse alone.  This version would be called AM Reprise and would probably be featured as a hidden track on an album or as a B-side.  Some other titles considered for this song are: You’ll Learn, Shut-In, Recluse, When I’m Gone, A Pawn, Temporary, and Misplaced.

Quicksand

This song was compiled from about four different poems that I wrote in August of 2008.  The first one yielded the bridge, the second: parts of the verses, the third: basically the first half of the second verse, and the fourth: a few lines from verse 1, a much longer version of the chorus, and the whole second time around part.  The closing lines were added much later.  One line from the second poem that was excluded is “march to April, may I please, June?”  The part about the moon was written on a train coming home from Manhattan.  It was just huge and I was wondering if it looked the same elsewhere.

Though it may be hard to believe, judging from my older work, there are absolutely no power chords in this song!  Well, maybe one.  This song is actually about a childhood friend of mine that I came in contact with again a few years ago (when this song was written).  She was just one of my favorite people on the planet when we were kids, so getting the chance to spend time with her again was something I had always hoped for.

Some other titles that were considered for this song are: Nineleven, Cancer, Gemini, Nevelenin, and Waking Up in a Chalk Outline.

Courtesy Flush

This is the second of two songs that were recorded in 2009 at my friend (of a friend) Steve’s house.  I came up with the basic idea for it lyric-wise on December 5, 2008.  Since the initial recording, the only addition I’ve really made is in the second chorus: “…why don’t I look like you?  I’m sorry but this just doesn’t seem to compute.”  Oh, and the handclaps are new too.

 This is my first song to feature the drop D tuning, you know since everyone else was doing it I had to try it out.  It is also the first to use the ii-V-I progression, albeit using all power chords so the ii isn’t really minor.  So it’s more of a II5-V5-I5 I guess you could call it.  This song still gets stuck in my head to this day.  The lyrics are probably my all time fav (that I’ve written).

Due to its catchiness, I would almost consider this a pop tune.  Except for the bridge which I envision as being really heavy and foreboding.  I have to throw some metal in there to counteract the happiness.  Not exactly metal per se, just my version of metal.  Anyways, I really want to hear this song on the radio someday.  That’d be gnarly.

Song titles that didn’t make the cut: If You Are What You Eat, Cannibalistic Vegetarians, Canned Veggies, and Difficult to Digest.

She Gets Around

I started writing lyrics for this on June 30, 2008.  They are definitely some of the most poetic lyrics I’ve ever used in a song.  At times they are beautiful, and other times they are creepy; still other times a bit of both.  When I talk about bones piercing the skin, I’m really talking about showing your teeth when you smile.

For some reason or another, I never got around to recording this one before.  It could have something to do with the oddity of the chorus.  I had considered rewriting it or taking it out completely, but I wanted to have a record of the song in its current state before messing around with it.

The only part of this song that really went through any changes over time was the pre-chorus, where the song derived its name.  Originally I added the lyric “she likes to get down” but I decided to omit it.  The rhythm of the guitar was altered in this section as well as a couple of chords.

The pre-chorus and chorus both use power chords, while the verses use an inversion of the power chord, or chords using only the root and the fourth.  I tried analyzing them and ended up getting frustrated so I think it’s better to leave them as a mystery.  I did not use any music theory rules writing this so trying to impose them on it now is a waste of time.

Some other titles that were considered include: Body Parts, Collector, Thirteen, Run-On Sentence, and Breakdown.