I SAID, "DANCE!"

TL;DR

“I Said, ‘DANCE!’” is a thank you.

It’s for every person I’ve seen dance to one of my songs.

Every person I’ve seen sing along.

Every person who has allowed something I created to become part of a moment in their life.

As the creator, I think I have a responsibility.

I said, “Dance!”

So I better give you a reason to.

The Creator

There is a line at the beginning of the song:

“Creator we are here
To make amends
Let these notes uplift us
As we dance together”

I’m the Creator.

Or at least that’s how I think about it.

Within the world of Prophets of the Cosmic Darkness, I picture one of my Prophets taking on that role. The Creator makes the music. The listener receives it.

But the relationship doesn’t really exist until both of us participate.

I can make a song alone.

I can write it, record it, produce it and release it.

But I can’t make someone dance.

That’s their part.

I Said, “Dance!”

“I said, ‘Dance!’” wasn’t something I invented specifically for this song.

I’ve been putting the phrase into my music almost from the beginning.

It’s my little signature.

The idea actually came from DUSTYCLOUD. He uses the recurring phrase “kiss me he said” in his music, and I always liked the idea of an artist having a phrase that keeps appearing.

Something familiar.

Something that belongs to the world they’re creating.

So I found mine.

I said, “Dance!”

Eventually, it made sense to build an entire song around it.

Four on the Floor

This one started exactly where a song called “I Said, ‘DANCE!’” probably should.

With the drums.

A four-on-the-floor beat came first.

Then I added a rhythmic bass line.

And the song came together fairly easily from there.

By this point in Prophets of the Cosmic Darkness, something had changed in the way I was writing.

I was getting faster.

I don’t think I even realized at first how much faster I had become.

“Marry Me” was probably the song that really unlocked it for me.

That song taught me something extremely simple:

Less is more.

I Don’t Need Another Synth

Earlier in my songwriting, I had a tendency to keep adding.

Another synth.

Another layer.

Another sound.

Another thing happening somewhere in the mix.

I’ve started moving away from that.

“I Said, ‘DANCE!’” came out of that newer approach.

There are still multiple synth layers in the song because they needed to be there. I’m not interested in stripping something down just for the sake of saying it’s minimal.

But now I ask whether a sound actually needs to exist.

If it doesn’t improve the song, why is it there?

That realization has made me faster.

More importantly, I think it’s made me better.

The Lyrics Are Repetitive

I sometimes worry that my lyrics are too repetitive.

This song certainly isn’t going to help my case.

But the repetition made sense.

This isn’t supposed to be a complicated story that requires four verses of explanation.

It’s a dance song.

It’s about the relationship between the person creating the music and the person hearing it.

“Will you find the chance to hold me?
Will you dance beside me?”

That’s the connection I’m interested in.

Creator and listener.

I make something.

You hear it.

And for a few minutes, we occupy the same space.

Even if we’ve never met.

Don’t Write a Bad Song

I take music seriously.

I’m very particular about what I listen to, and that makes me very particular about what I create.

So when I talk about having a responsibility to keep people dancing, I don’t mean that I believe every song needs to be happy.

I mean I have a responsibility not to give you a bad song.

If I’m asking for someone’s attention, I want to earn it.

If I’m asking someone to dance, I need to give them something worth dancing to.

If I’m asking someone to sing along, I better have written something worth remembering.

That’s the responsibility of the Creator.

You Made It Part of Your Life

I’ve now had the experience of seeing people dance to my music.

I’ve seen people sing along.

And there’s something strange about watching that happen.

I made those sounds.

At some point, they existed only in my head.

Then I sat down and turned them into a song.

And now another human being knows them.

They’re moving to them.

They’re singing words that I wrote.

For me, that’s accomplishment.

Not because they’re validating me.

Because I made a memory for them.

Maybe they’ll remember the room.

Maybe they’ll remember the person they were with.

Maybe they’ll remember absolutely nothing about that particular night except that they were having a good time.

My song gets to exist somewhere inside that moment.

That’s enough.

Let These Notes Uplift Us

That’s ultimately what “I Said, ‘DANCE!’” is about.

People have worries.

People have problems.

People carry things into a room that I will never know about.

I can’t fix those things with a synthesizer.

That’s not my job.

But I can make the next few minutes better.

I can make something that makes your foot move.

I can give you something to sing.

I can create a moment where whatever else is happening gets pushed slightly further into the background.

And if I see you moving?

If I see you singing?

Then I know I did what I was supposed to do.

The Creator created.

The listener listened.

And somewhere between the two of us, we made a memory.

I said, “Dance!”

And you did.