“Anthem” had a long gestation period. The chorus melody came to me in May of 2015 while changing the sheets on my bed (inspiration strikes in strange places), coupled with the lyrics “keep your hands off my desert.” I had the beginnings of a verse melody, which only bore a vague resemblance to the final result. It was more than a year later before I sat down to figure out what chords belonged with the chorus melody, and also wrote chords and melody for a bridge. Then I set everything aside for a while…eight years to be exact. It wasn’t until July of 2024 that I dug those old demo recordings up, made some changes to melody and chords, and added lyrics. The song is perhaps a shade ironic in that it is clearly anthemic but the words deny any claim that it actually is one.
This is one of four songs on the album recorded with Kirk Roberts on drums. I also recruited friends to sing the backing vocals, including my Dungeons and Dragons group after we had finished an adventure.
I played this song with the Chaos Crew at the Number 9 release show. It was great getting the audience to sing along.
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