Odie Leigh

TRACK-BY-TRACK

Standing in a bar in the French Quarter and dressed up like a clown, I invited the tourist I met the night before to come home with me. “We’ve had a great night and I don’t want to spoil it,” he said, “sometimes I try to get too much out of a good thing.”

I agreed with him, our one evening had already turned into two and the rational thing to do would be to spend the rest of our Halloween weekend with friends, not a stranger from out of town. Fortunately, I am not always rational. The stranger stuck around.

I wrote “A Good Thing” the next day and the rest of the album in the year that followed. This whole project is just a play-by-play of me falling in Love.

Songwriting has always been a means for me to get my thoughts out about real people and situations, and it’s scary how they then get to hear my raw, the heat of the moment thoughts about them later on. I’ll be writing all the things I wish I could say to a particular person and thinking “I might as well just be throwing a message in a bottle into the ocean.” This album really reflects that concept. Every song is a specific moment, a captured feeling, something that needed to be said. It's called “Carrier Pigeon” because this album is the means of delivery. 

I’ve learned that happy songs are scarier to talk about than sad ones. Sadness is something to be fixed, happiness is something that can be taken away.

A Good Thing:

I can only think out loud, so I use songwriting as a way to sort through my emotions and experiences. I wrote “A Good Thing” the day after I met this boy fully intending that he would someday hear it. The verses are full of little details from our first conversations, and the name It’s about the delusion I had to think that this stranger I spent two nights with could have a future with me, but also my undeniable excitement at the idea (In every corner there’s an arrow pointing at me / and while my brain and bodies in the clear my hearts still inside just playing dress up).

I know I have a tendency to try and make things more than they are, but I also know that this one is different, this one gave me reasons fantizise. The chorus is truly just word vomit of me trying to convince myself that I didn’t care, when in fact I really did. 

This was the first song on the album that Derek and I recorded, and we instantly knew that it was the opening track for a bigger project, slowing introducing the listener into a broader sonic space than my old acoustic folk songs.

The vocals and guitar were tracked together onto derek’s tape machine, and we had friends come in and add the other instruments on top of the live recording to give it an casual, band in a room, live-take feel. It’s still one of my favorites from the album.

Already (On My Mind):

A reflection on the beginning of a relationship and the confusion that comes with it, I wanted the verses and chorus to almost feel like different songs. We kept the verses simple and driving to reflect the grounded-ness of being with another person and feeling secure, and made the choruses lofty and vibrant to capture the feeling of the spiraling uncertainty that comes with a new relationship.

I tried to sneak as much trumpet into this album as I could, there are a couple songs that we recorded trumpet on but ended up taking it out and thankfully this isn’t one of them. I knew from the beginning that I wanted this track to feel full and fun and welcoming, and I think we accomplished that exactly.

Party Trick:

I throw myself into everything I do, and sometimes it works out and is fun and beautiful and other times its super super embarrassing. I wrote the majority of it the day after I met this boy (the same day as I wrote “A Good Thing”) and wrote the bridge as a separate song a week later, I thought they fit well together and showed two sides of the same uncertainty, both questioning my perception of the situation and allowing myself to enjoy a crush and day dream about the possibilites the way I already was (I wrote a letter on a plane / it said “I miss you” and “What’s your middle name?”).

Conversation Starter:

I am not a relationship girlie. The “talking stage” of courting always made me feel awkward and stupid, I just want to skip to the good part. With “Conversation Starter” I tried to capture the feeling of playing the hottest, most cool-girl version of yourself to hide the fact that we’re all so awkward and insecure and it’s just so incredibly scary to get to know someone and let them get to know you.

There’s a part of me that seeks conflict so I can just get it over with and enjoy a little drama before getting too invested (I’m good at turning nothing to tragedy / I’d rather get burnt now / I’ll light a fire just to snuff it out) but I also really like this person, so much that I’m almost regretting getting involved and wishing we were just friends because I cannot imagine a world in which it doesn’t blow up… but I’m in too deep.

But also, this song isn’t not just about sexting.

No Doubt:

I’m not used to people actually liking me for me, to people meaning what they say and standing by it. When I found this, I couldn’t help but feel like the rug was about to get pulled out from beneath me. I always overthink the details, but sometimes it's just simple: He’s got me. No Doubt.

The verse’s are my insecurities, my overthinking, my worries (I’m always worried that I come off too foolish, self obsessed). The choruses are my truth (If you want me to be there / Then I’ll be around).

Sonically I wanted the song to build and feel bold and confident by the ending. I knew from the start I wanted horns on this track because being from Louisiana horns sound like home, and home is as grounded as I can get. Recording it, Derek and I kept adding to the end wanting to capture the feeling of a parade: driven, grounded, a celebration.

Finer Things

Simple and sweet, “Finer Things” is a soft moment in a sometimes not-soft album. Recorded as one piece on tape, it was meant to be the sweet respite in the middle of the album. We kept it simple and stripped, letting the lyrics carry the track and clarinet float you away.

Either Way

“You’re obsessed with not hurting me, I’m obsessed either way.”

It’s easy to overthink relationships and to look into the future and wonder what will happen. It should be as simple as it is: Do you want to know me like I want to know you? Yes? Alright then.

The past few years have felt very unstable, I’ve been living in a trailer, traveling for work, and having uncertain brief relationships throughout. When I wrote this song, I was in a new relationship and feeling hopeful that maybe it wouldn’t be like all the rest. I knew how I felt and was carried away by it, building a white-picket-fence future for us in my head. Either Way lays out both my dreams and my reality, and invites him to join in, baggage and all. It’s simple and truthful and embarrassing, and one of the most challenging but rewarding songs to record on the album.

Common Denominator 

“I’m not too used to love like this, I’m used to losing long before it starts.”

I’m so used to things going wrong that I create my own problems. I want to start a fight, I want an emotional reaction so that my brain can say “told you so” leave so I can protect myself from real problems later on. But this time is different, I’m not protecting, I’m destroying and I need to stop because I don’t wanna lose something good that I’ve never had before.

Idiom

Dark and vulnerable, “Idiom” is my most negative thoughts personified. Each verse represents how my pasts interferes with my present. At the time I was listening to the song “Pure Imagination” a lot, so we were going for a dark Willy Wonka vibe in the bridge, using clarinet to create a whimsical otherworldly atmosphere.

My Name On A T-Shirt

Relationships are never smooth. This was not smooth.

I never intended to make heavy, loud music, but for whatever reason the songs I’d been writing called for that. I feel like there’s an unspoken idea that comes along with creating “rock” music, that there’s a desire to be huge and outlandish. This was the second song we recorded, months before we had any idea what the rest of the album would sound like and after recording, I was so insecure and embarrassed of it. I never wanted anyone to think I’m trying to be anything, and “rock” music carries such implications of desire and fame and commercial success. My only desire is to make a good song. As the rest of the album wrote itself, “My Name On A T-Shirt” started to feel more in place in my world, and became a reference point for what the album could be.

Simply put, it’s just about seeking resolution for the weirdness of it all: the weirdness of long distance, and the weirdness of trying to date when the details of your breakups and insecurities can all be heard on spotify.

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