press clipping

Philadelphia City Paper
March 18-24, 2004
cover story


The New Classics?

Local artists on the quest for immortality.

by A.D. Amorosi

How do you go about writing words and melody that last longer than a haircut? I asked some of my favorite local songwriters to use one of their recent songs as a guinea pig for our experiment.

LouDog, "Farewells Forgotten (the end)," from 61 Old Depot How did it come together?

My best songs come quickly. I think of a song as a living thing: If you cut it apart and dissect it, you kill it. That said, I remember thinking about how I was going to sing the chorus part. Once that came together, I got goose bumps because it had such a hook. The song isn't my edgiest, but there are some interesting things going on. Also, the song was written during an extreme time in my life, as was most of the album.

What makes it so special? Fuck yeah, I think the song is classic. I think it is important that the lyrics stand up as prose. What I like about the lyrics is they are abstract enough for the listener to attach their own meaning, but are not so random that they don't make sense. The song definitely projects the feeling and emotion that I was trying to get across, which I think come down to how I phrase the lyric. I really like the phrasing in this song as well has the melody in the chorus. I think it flows from start to finish.