Hey Lady

Album: Thriving Ivory (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • Written around 2004, Scott Jason says this song came at a very dark period of his life. "I had a lot of things going on, a lot of other things going on at the same time, and I wasn't paying attention to my girlfriend, and before I knew it, I had lost her. And that's the inspiration for this song."

    "I was living in Berkeley at the time, cooped up in this studio apartment," he continues. "It was kind of a s--thole. And obviously I was with a girl, the song's about a girl. But it's actually written from the guy's standpoint. And I personally was going through a very difficult stage in my life. That period in my life was a pretty low period, and I was so focused on that that I kind of lost sight of her, and before I knew it, she was kind of slipping away. And then I reached a point where I knew I had lost her, and then it really really broke my heart. I had never had my heart broken so hard before. And I found out that she was with somebody else, in fact she actually got pregnant, and they ended up getting married."
  • With songs as personal and emotionally draining as this one was to write, it stands to reason it would take a toll playing it on stage night after night, re-living the unhappiness that inspired it. Not so, says Scott. "It's kind of the opposite. Playing the same songs over and over and over and over again, you kind of just begin to start going through the motions, and you actually struggle as a musician – and all artists go through this – to try to keep the original spark alive, and make it feel like it's the first time you're playing it. So I actually try in my mind and in my heart to put myself back, as we're playing it, to those days when this was going on, to make me really feel, you know, the power of the song and the music and stuff like that. So I actually try to put myself in those shoes. It's not torture. It's more just bittersweet, I guess."
  • Scott is a very prolific writer. He writes every day. In fact, he's probably writing at this very moment. And he believes that Thriving Ivory's second album will blow their first one out of the water, so he's very anxious to get started on it. Here's his take on their next offering: "Not to pat myself on the back, but I really think I've stepped it up even more. And I think – I'm positive, I'm hopeful, I really think our fans are going to be blown away by the second album. Because a lot of times what happens is with a band's first album they have their whole lives to write it. They haven't been signed, they've been together for six years so they have all these songs, they have a million to choose from, so they have their life's work for the first album. But then the second album comes around, and a lot of times if the writer hasn't been writing every day, it's like the record company says, 'Okay, we need another album in six months,' and then trying to force yourself to write 12 songs in 6 months, it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen good, anyways. And so that's why I write every day – other than the fact that I enjoy it, and for me it's like the most natural – writing is very, very challenging. And it's also very, very satisfying when you can honestly look back and say, 'Okay, that was good.' And it's very challenging and very satisfying. But I think that the second album, I'm very, very happy about it. I'm really looking forward to getting into the studio and recording everything that's been written. And I think our fans are going to be more than blown away." (Check out the full interview with Scott Jason)

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