Stay and Never Leave is the 5 track on my Genesis album, initially it was called the “Water Level” but that name didn’t stick for long as I had decided I wanted to tell real story with musical compositions versus making random songs. This composition is comprised of so many layers dancing atop and underneath one another, just like schools of fish in a busy sea ocean floor, but then the party is crashed by an ancient leviathan who trundles along.

This song was the game changer for me in more ways than one, it was the first song on the album that I did not build using a foundation of loops. I spent some time envisioning this song as up until then I was creating music in a very passive way, just letting my instincts and ear guide me. For this song I knew needed to dig much deeper than ever before and compose something very special, something that was living and breathing. There is an unspoken rule in video games music making that “Water Level” music has to vibe HARD. I have never been a keyboard player, nor have I ever taken a lesson or even practiced a scale or chord… but when I sat down at my keyboard that had been collecting dust for almost 2 years, it was like a dam had burst as the melodies and chords came to me. Fortunately, the music theory knowledge I had learned on guitar easily translated over to keyboard, my only real barrier was physically playing the keys, which is still much easier than guitar strings.

If you listen to the Demo Days version of this track you can hear me embarrassingly struggling with the timing. Listening to the final version to Stay and Never Leave now, I am confident enough to say that this is one of my 3 masterpieces next to it’s twin Hot Pursuits and younger sibling Live 4 Me 2. I never knew I could create songs this beautiful and complex, these songs gave me the confidence to finally be able to call myself a true musician and it all started here.

Music written and performed by Spoon

Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at the Vice Caves Studio by Spoon.