Somebody's Son

Album: 11:59 (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • In our interview with Ryan Star, the Long Island-based singer/songwriter told us that this is one of his favorite songs on the album. Said Star: ''It was written as a punk rock song, but we recorded it as a piano, more of a ballad. And I really love it. People keep asking, 'Is it political?' because there's a line where I say, 'Hey, hey, head of state, send me home.' It's really more about a relationship separated by a war, but it's more about longing for that person, and missing them, and what that life is like missing someone so much. Which I know a lot about, being on the road constantly. But it sets up this beautiful scene of bombs dropping over this man, but he's holding a note that his lover left him so he could think of her and remember her and keep him strong when he's awake and with what he has to do."
  • Explaining how this song went from a punk rocker to a piano ballad, Star told us: "We kept trying to find different ways to approach songs on this album. And this one would have been a rocker and fun and everything, and I play it that way live, still. But when we sat down and started stripping it and letting it be softer, I found that the vocals, the story, came out a little more. And a lot of this album is really about the songwriting and about the stories and about the imagery that I created, the movies in my mind that I like to bring out. I always joke around that I'm a lazy filmmaker, because I like to make these movies. I see the characters and everything in my head. I don't have the patience to write a two-hour script, but I have patience for a few minutes of a song."

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