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 (pretty much) 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.

Everything

This one feels incomplete. But I'm not sure where else to go with it at this point. I've been messing with this tapping lick for a while and I've had several different visions for what would go around it. This is just the best one that came out at the present time. It's possible that this song is completely missing a chorus that could go after each time the "we see everything, we hear everything" part comes around. I should also tell you that typing "everything" is really difficult today for some reason. I keep trying to put an extra "r" in there. Double You Tee Eff, man?

Regardless, this one is also up for sale at Bandcamp with all proceeds going to the Nashville Red Cross flood recovery efforts. On that note, I'll be uploading the pre-flood songs for sale as well, but not until I've finished all 30. That way the collectors among you can have the whole package at once and give a big chunk to the cause. Only 3 days away now! I can't believe I'm almost done. I got a little sad when I started thinking about being done with the project, but then I remembered that I can write and post songs whenever I feel like it!

Anyway...

Lyrically, the song is just about how we're constantly bombarded with information from TV, cell phones, the internet, everywhere. I don't even necessarily believe it's always a bad (or new) thing. But some times it's overwhelming and you just have to shut down and walk away.

I took a 3-day writing retreat a couple of years ago in Wisconsin. I just got a hotel room, some food from the grocery store across the street and shut myself in to write for 3 days. No phone. No TV. I did allow myself to check the email and upload videos in the evening when I didn't think it was appropriate to be making a racket anymore. (See?! I couldn't even cut myself completely off for three days!) It was really one of the best things I've ever done.

Last year's month long road trip was the closest thing I've had to it since, and I'm not sure that counts. Isn't that something? It was an amazing experience. One of the best things ever. It was less than a week. It didn't cost very much. It was only three days of being (nearly) disconnected. And yet, I haven't done it since. Interesting how things like that go, isn't it?

What do you guys do to unplug?

Everything

Some time away would surely do you good And I'd talk about it just because I could

Because we see everything And we hear everything

They lock us out, we feel as if we're shunned We shout it out until it's no longer fun

Because we see everything And we hear everything

Just walk away Just walk away Just walk away Just walk away

Because we see everything And we hear everything

We turned it on but can we shut it off? I just want to yell and make it stop

Because we see everything And we hear everything

Just walk away