In an effort to celebrate the official launch of djphillips.com, challenge my songwriting/ recording abilities and to take my own swipe at a 30 Day Project I will now post a new song idea every day for the next 30 days. These are not necessarily finished products. They are not necessarily fantastic pop nuggets. But they will be new ideas (written at least within the last few weeks). They will be on time. And they will be original.

Along with each posted song, I'll include a little story of the writing and recording process. If you're the kind of person who doesn't like to know what's behind a song, feel free to skip all the content below the track.

I'm putting these out there-- warts and all-- so let me know what you think! The songs that get a good response will be the most likely to be included on a future release.

Drag You Down

I can think of nothing better than having the one and only Emily DeLoach as my co-writer on this first foray into too-much-songery. Emily is a dear friend, an awe-inspiring singer and an incredible songwriter. We have tried to co-write a couple of times before, but this is the first attempt that actually ended with a finished product of sorts.

"Drag You Down" is an idea I've been kicking around for a while and we even started to work it up in my old band Brother Big Bad. Emily helped me with the verse lyrics and bridge melody and I think it came together pretty nicely.

This was my first attempt to record into Logic with my newly acquired Apogee One. It was not easy for me, but it involved less weeping and gnashing of teeth than my last recording adventure, so I'm considering it progress.

At one point everything I recorded came out ahead of the beat. Now, I'm not a perfect musician by any means, but I can usually stay pretty solid in tempo. Then I figured out that I had the "Recording Delay" slider turned all the way to -5000 milliseconds, meaning that it pushed everything I recorded ahead. Weird. Once I figured that out, it was fine. By this point in the evening though, I didn't want to re-record everything, so I just slid the tracks into time. So, if you hear some slightly off-kilter rhythms....

Lyrically, the song comes from a pretty simple place. It's just a sketch about the vulnerability you subject yourself to when you really care about someone. You put yourself out there and you put the other person up on that loving pedestal. At times, you can get really paranoid and think "Why are you with me? I'll only drag you down." Whether true or not, it doesn't matter. It's hard to fight that occasional feeling of just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Anybody with me out there? So, it's not the most uplifting song to start with, but I hope you like it anyway.

Here are the lyrics:

Will you notice, Will you care If I land anywhere

Is it only what I see Could you ever care for me

Because I will only drag you down I will only drag you down

When you whisper, when you sigh When you look me in the eyes

Are you saying yes to love Or are you lying just because

I will only drag you down I will only drag you down

I say this is only the start Can I trust you with my heart

I will only drag you down I will only drag you down