Paul Driscoll

All Alone - I don't particularly remember writing this song but I've always liked it.  I know it was written early on in my brief songwriting career because the climbing scale during the chorus was an actual exercise I used to do while learning the guitar.  The lyrics reflected my empathy toward women at the time.  I remember thinking about the pressure on me, a white male, trying to make it alone in a big city like L.A.  It must've been doubly so for a young woman in the city of angels, oft fallen.

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California - I wrote this during what I called the "Sun Valley Days" on the cassette label (summer '92).  It represents the two months I lived with a guy that was in the band Nine Inch Nails (Harry), and his ultra-conservative, super-hot ex-girlfriend who I was in love with (Diane), and her seemingly nerdy but uber-dangerous boyfriend who was both a black belt and a doctorial physics student (Jim). The four of us lived in a sweaty doublewide trailer in the desert during the months of August and September where all we did was drink, smoke cigarettes, argue over politics (see date), and play music.  This was the only song I ever wrote that Harry complemented me on. It came in the form of a chuckle he uttered while listening to the last verse that he must've recognized immediately as a summation of his whole life's philosophy..."you live your life, you die, and they mourn ya".   Still, this guy was in NIN, man!

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Meant A Lot To Me - Another early ditty; both simple and complex. Wasn't thrilled with keeping the gun reference at first but I'm trying to take the "stay pure to the original" approach to this re-creation project (where possible). Besides, this was written pre-Columbine - a different world than now, sadly. The fact is, they've been singing about guns for generations: I Shot the Sheriff, Give Me Some Water, Hey Joe, Happiness is a Warm Gun (not Lennon's best).  Only recently though have we seen mass shootings become routine in this country.  But because of the obvious stranglehold the NRA has on our lawmakers, we're forced to accept these events as the new normal.  Let's come together (ala, John) and find a middle ground on guns so we can make America safe again!   

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Starting Today - My greatest attempt at irony, and probably overstated at that.  This was written during the cockiest point of my short songwriting career.  I now was creating characters with admirable traits and obvious flaws.  The singer is "gonna keep [his] vices out of site," as if that's a commitment to turning over a new leaf from whatever wayward path he's on now.  Rounded out by the ultimate of life-changing ironies: "Maybe tomorrow".

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Nowhere To Go - Unequivocally, the first song I ever wrote.  I know because I played it for my friend Tom almost a year before I moved out to L.A.  Which was unlike me to be so bold as to strum and sing an original for a friend.  I kept most of my music private and worked hard to overcome my fear of sharing my original songs with my fellow band mates regardless of what band I was in out there. Anyway, the song accurately expressed the bummer rut I was in right out of college when it seemed that all my friends got jobs in their field of study while I watched from the sidelines.  Apparently, there wasn't a big demand for entry-level poly-sci majors in the early '90s.  Go figure.

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All I See - Another "Sun Valley Days" cut.  Harry was a self-proclaimed "gear whore" so we were swimming in four tracks, guitars, mixers and amps. But it was the drum machine, of which Harry had many, that was a new device for me.  I would generally loop a canned drumbeat or something that Harry had come up with and stored in the machine as a backdrop to what I was writing at the time.

Living in this love trapezoid was a Goth-like existence too.  We were vampires, up all night, slept all day.  So the music I was exorcising at the time was both hard driving and macabre.  And, of course, self- important!

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Stay With Me - Newly released upload (October 2016)

Pretty much written at the height of my 18-month creativity period. Don't really remember writing  it.  But listening to the four versions of originals, I discovered a progression of takes that started with the electric piano pattern on my little Casio (that mom gave me one Christmas!).  I was so honored the day at work when Harry handed me a tape  where he banged out an incredible drum track behind my original four-track version that lacked drums, (2 guitars, keyboard, vocal). But I only recently discovered an awesome take where Harry, my buddy Scott and I riffed out a rockin' "live" version with a great guitar solo which I tried to emulate here.  Good stuff.

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When I'm With You - Newly released upload (October 2016)

So I don't want to get into a Neil Diamond revelation-thing as to who Sweet Caroline really was, but I can't talk about this song without mentioning my LA muse (unbeknownst to her), Diane.  I distinctly remember writing this song after our one and only "date" where we saw a matinee of the movie "Harold and Maude" at the Century City open mall, dined on a light lunch along the Miracle Mile on Wilshire Boulevard and walked through the La Brea tar pits before I dropped her off at 2pm.  It was pitiful.  But it gave me time to use the rest of the day to write this light little (seven-measure) guitar run and an honest narrative that I hope I captured here with the help of a manufactured orchrestra.

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