Breathe Into Me has gone through a few twists and turns prior to its release in its current form. I was working with another song title/music framework and served it up to my producer, James [Jamie] Stoffa, and asked him to think in terms of “Bob Moses”, a current, amazing artist I admire for both the music and production. 

Jamie came back to me and said he was struggling with taking the song framework and incorporating it into a Bob Moses-like feel. With that, Jamie said, “Now for something completely different” and presented me with a musical arrangement that had elements of the original song plus a haunting piano part that captured the same mental vision I had yet driving the work-in-progress in a completely different direction. I sat on it for a while as we worked through and released another single, “Turn Back Time”.

A few months back, Jamie and I both returned to the shell of our new concept and mapped out what the cadence and arrangement might look like, with the agreement that any/all musical genres could be the basis of the final product. I told Jamie, “run with it” and he did just that. Back and forth we went and developed 70% of what the song would be…then came the lyrics.

I went back to a night a few years back in the parking lot of a Marriott in Macon GA. where I furiously penned multiple verses, and the bridge of what would become, “Breathe Into Me”.  

In my head, I saw an old apartment in some big city where the city outside was loud and sprawling. 

Inside, the paint was peeling, there was a chair that was covered in dust, and the room was empty. In that same room, I pictured all that probably was…the good and bad, the beautiful and the ugly, tears of joy and sadness, moments of celebration, challenge, and despair. 

I quickly thought that this building and room in decay could be or could have been so much more if life and love gave it the attention it deserved. To me, this parallels the dynamic of relationships. 

If you fail to nurture it, appreciate it, and breathe into it, it will decay until it is lifeless. Yet, almost always, in all of this, there is hope. In that Marriott parking lot that night, the lyric of hope came to me.

The sun evades the room

Yet a single flower grows             

It reaches towards the sun

As the curtains blow

Life and love are precious. You cannot expect them to be sustained and/or grow if you don’t take care of them. Love, and invest in all that is important to you.

My thanks to James Stoffa and Karole for all of the time, life, and love they have invested in me, this song, and all of my works. Love you guys.