organizing an accident is a once-weekly newsletter where I leak home demos of unreleased songs, first draft lyrics, thoughts on the creative process, and dispatches from music life in Paris.
Listen to “Too Little, Too Late” (demo):
This song was written on August 13, 2022
At the time of writing this demo in mid-August of 2022, my niece had just been born two weeks prior, and summer vacation was looming large. The following day, I'd be taking a short flight and spending two weeks traveling throughout Portugal and the south of Spain with Janis. This trip, as it turns out, would be our last summer vacation completely without child.
From looking back at the lyrics, I vaguely remember using as inspiration the couple of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne Wiazemsky, as depicted in the film Le Redoutable. The movie is alright, but, as is sometimes the case, I sat down to write a song that particular day and chose at random a topic, setting, or character as a starting point.
This demo is a quick voice memo, somewhat lazy and rushed and gotten out of the way before leaving town. Unsurprisingly, the song isn’t bad, as I find can happen when I write quickly without any pressure or care. Just a simple exercise of wringing ideas from the subconscious in a limited frame of time. ◍
From the vault
What I’m listening to this week
What I’ve been reading
Stephen King - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
You can pay a visit to my previous demos and writing via the Substack archive + find my official music releases on Spotify, Apple, or your platform of choice. Stalk me across socials at @thisryanegan.
With love,
Ryan
Read the previous post.