The Story Behind the Song: “I Wonder”

I wrote this song at the end of May 1997 during a nostalgic evening perusing my high school yearbook. I wrote it on a new keyboard I had just purchased. At the time I considered it kind of a “forced” composition, meaning that it took a little work to put it together, though I mostly finished it within a couple of hours. The middle section chord progress wasn’t done until November though. During the recording process I took advantage of my new capability to do complex sequencing on the computer to compose string parts. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but I think it turned out ok. For the 25th anniversary version of Machine Dream, I tweaked the lyrics a bit and re-recorded the vocals, drums, bass, and guitar.