Inspired by the theme "Optimism" from Weird Heat - Episode 01. Each month, Weird Heat will tackle a new topic or concept which will be the impetus to create new shows, music and art.

For the first assignment, I took the idea of "Optimism" and created a song about it, or rather, the role optimism plays as a mind state in a world that it is otherwise grim, guttural and paranoid.

The baseline beat for this song is purposefully sort of dark and menacing. When the much more triumphant strings kick in, it's an opportunity to rise above the not so optimistic core theme of the song. I don't think "optimism" begins with a great mood getting better. It's more of a reaction to something sad and utilizing that reaction to overcome it. Otherwise you're just always happy constantly and I don't really know many people who are actually like that.

The intro sample is from an old 1960's sci-fi film called "Giant Of Metropolis" in which two characters are conversing about the idea of what "tomorrow" means to them. The woman states that she has no meaning of that word and I thought that interpretation fit perfectly to theme of optimism. When things are shitty and tomorrow is uncertain, it's easy to be defensive or cynical as a sort of base line emotion or defense mechanism against things to come. Being optimistic in those scenarios is much harder but ultimately much more rewarding.

The pianos and organ sections of this song were done in one take. I love taking heavy and plodding beats and sprinkling little dustings of bluesy high notes and stuff on them.

This song was started and completed over the course of 48 hours which is pretty non standard for my usually much more meticulous recording process, but being free from the shackles of creating an entire album is really fucking liberating for me. I'm excited to keep making songs in this process every month as Weird Heat grows and evolves.

Thanks for listening.

- Brian