"Adriatic" - Jeff Arata
Originally released September 28, 2022
I used to think of this song as one about floating through past feelings when sinking in those past feelings would be worse, but as my time with the song has gone on, it's more and more become a celebration of releasing those feelings for me. I think actually releasing the song really helps symbolically solidify that :)
'Adriatic' came out from exploring a tuning I thought I had discovered as if no one else had played it before. That tuning from low to high was E G# B F# B D#, which as it turns out, is just a half step lower from somewhat well known midwest emo tuning FACGCE. Still, while writing it, I 100% felt like a kid picking up an instrument for the very first time and finding joy in just playing to play. That spirit carried me through making the song, starting with just the core guitar and vocal demo played loose, but with the right feel (who needs a click?), and then building up all the other instruments around that :)
Lyrics:
I’ve held onto this for so long tho know it’s gone
A buoy floating me yet coaxing me
Behind the boot I lick the salt from wounds soaking
In the Adriatic
We swam up that route, it looped back through blackwater
In crescent stress you turned red, all hot and bothered
(All I had I offered)
“Would you trail and trust me now?”
I gave a heart growing
To the Adriatic
You told me about your plants, they’re rootless, not delicate, they hang in air
We walked by some dinosaurs
Caught your embrace, a life vest I’ve waited so long for
I kept on floating
And then at night, we cast warm light and ladybirds, staving that black city
Sacred resound, we staked our ground, your hand in mine
But I felt it slipping
To the Adriatic
And so behind that brush, all in a rush, I said too much, I should have hushed, upon that rock it was all too soon
You didn’t wanna swim, you didn’t lean in when I went out on a limb, you got cold footing
I got a parking ticket
Now I’m hypernatremic
And so dogmatically that black city it captures me
A prisoner so willingly
Swallow somatically, familiarly enveloping, it’s almost comforting
My body withdrawn
From the Adriatic
And later on I asked about that heart growing
Drank too much rain, that black water, it got guttered, and so it drowned
While that one sank
Mine’s still floating
In the Adriatic
me - Guitars, about 16 vocals all singing the same thing at once (17 if you count the demo at the core of it all), bowed double bass, midi pad drums, totally mangled pipa, French horn, mix/mastering
