Songwriting Sessions

Taking the train to NYC became a regular thing and soon, we were taking days off from school. Mike had set up a writing session with Sam Hollander and his partner, Sluggo and I was so excited. When we got to their office in NYC, the walls were covered in record plaques of various bands that I recognized. Fall Out Boy, Cute Is What We Aim For, Metro Station, and more. I couldn’t believe I was in a room with the man who wrote with so many of my favorite bands. 

We worked for a couple of hours and Sam and Sluggo ran the session. We ended up writing a song about a break up called Stay Gone. Mike arrived back at the office to pick us up after our session. We played him the demo we made of our new song and he liked it. Since we didn’t have much material at the time, Mike connected us with more writers. Imani Coppola ended up writing some really creative lyrics over our 7/8 song, Fuchsia. We also spent two days in another studio writing a song called Numb with Peter Zizzo. Mark Hudson, who co-wrote Livin’ On The Edge with Aerosmith gave us a song he had written called Peace and Love and he had agreed he would come to Connecticut to teach it to us as well as write another song with us.

The day Mark Hudson arrived, this man with a rainbow colored beard walked into my house. I hadn’t quite known about him before this but was impressed after learning about the songs he had written throughout his career. Mark was a lot of fun and had a way about him that made learning and writing songs flow as if they’re already written. We spent sometime in Carly’s and my basement working on his song Peace and Love. Mark pointed his fingers like magic was shooting out of them, spontaneously yelling over the music what each of us was to play. In a few seconds, Peace and Love was grooving.

Afterwards, we decided the vibe in the basement was too dark for a writing session and we invited Mark upstairs to my bedroom. The hot pink walls with black stripes and black stars was a way better vibe. We gave Mark a chair and the rest of the band sat on the ground or on my bed as Mark began to work his magic. We explained to him that we wanted to write about us as a band. I began to notice the gears moving in Mark’s head. He got Carly plucking a bass line with her fingers, and pointed to Ben and Duran with their guitars as they began strumming along. He began singing a melody and soon after, lyrics began to flow.

There was a time when everything was alright
Between the lines we're losing all our sunshine
All that I know
Is that everything goes
Gotta hold onto the things that we need the most
That's you and me, You gotta believe
That we never will last if we live in the past

The times they are a-changing
We’re all caught up in the crazies
While the world's busy fighting
We'll be out there, Kicking Daisies!

Wow! He really managed to write about us! The self-titled track, Kicking Daisies began in the pink bedroom. Mark pointed to Duran to sing and then to me to add harmony. He pointed to Carly to add harmony on top of mine. Soon, we were singing three-part harmony in the room!

It came time to write a bridge, my favorite part of a song. Mark made the music change to a psychedelic vibe. 

Running in circles
Chasing our shadows
Falling down endlessly

Our harmonies were making the bridge sound epic! As we reached the last line of the section, Mark waved his hands like a conductor on the word “endlessly.” We each held our note. I watched Mark as he kept his hand in the air. We continued to hold the notes. I began to lose my breath. Finally, he dropped his hand before pointing at Ben to rip a killer guitar solo. All of the parents gathered in the hallway listening to Mark craft the song. We finished strong with a final chorus and screaming out “Kicking Daisies!” 

Mark looked elated. “Let’s go down to the basement to bring it to life!” He said as he led us back downstairs. We plugged in our instruments and I grabbed my sticks as I sat down behind the drums. Just then, Mark began conducting again. Duran has the handwritten lyrics on a music stand in front of him as he navigated singing the lyrics and melody while playing guitar at the same time. We crafted a drum beat to go along with the music and finally, the song was ready! Mike seemed pleased. It was our first official single and it was all about us! We thanked Mark for his magic and he left.

Mark backstage with us at our first ever show a few months later

Mark singing with us at Chef’s Table the weekend of our first show