Behind the song: on my mind
On my mind is a song that was written to be fun, carefree, and a little unserious. It’s the kind of song that is meant to get stuck in your head. I wrote the song at the piano sometime in July of 2023 and finished it the day before we went on vacation to Maine. When we were in Maine the song was stuck in my head to the point that I realized I had no choice but to bring it in to share with Justin at Waysound Recording Studio in Fox River Grove, Illinois.
When I brought the song to Justin at Waysound I knew that I wanted to turn the silly little song that I wrote on the piano in my bedroom into a fun synth-pop track. I wanted it to be something that you could strut down the street to. Justin was able to do exactly that with the song.
We got most of the song done in about half a session in the studio, as we had initially come in to get some work done on another piece of the project, but finished with lots of time to spare. By the end of that session we had the entire track aside from vocals arranged and roughly mixed with a scratch vocal take on top. I scheduled another session months later to finish the song, but just a few days before the session I developed my third-ever kidney infection. Two days before that studio session I was in the emergency room being pumped full of IV antibiotics and fluids and pain killers to help with the pain.
The thing about kidney infections is that it takes a while for your kidney to stop hurting, even after the infection has been treated.. Another fun little thing about kidney infections is that you feel the pain especially when you breathe in. This is due to the diaphragm expanding, thus pressing into the organs around it. This made singing both challenging and incredibly painful.
My studio session to finish this song and get all of the vocals laid on the track was two days after my Emergency Room visit, so the pain was still VERY present and I was having a hard time doing what I like to call “vocal gymnastics” which is really any singing that takes a lot of core engagement and a lot of air. Still, I am not a quitter. We laid down the lead vocals and the pain was fairly tolerable, but when we were working on building up the vocals at the end of the song to make it a little more exciting and full of energy, Justin asked if I could try some higher runs. I knew he was right and that it was something that would really help make the track better, so naturally we get me some ibuprofen and water and I fought for my life to deliver those high notes. (maybe that was a little dramatic… I was just in pain…no lives were on the line).
Once the track was complete and Justin sent me the master, I knew that it was a summer song. Since we finished the song in February, I knew that I had time to figure out what I wanted to do for the cover art. That is typically the hardest part for me to figure out. I knew that the song was fun and uplifting, but also romantic and a little dreamy. I had a tough time figuring out how to communicate that through an image. I put off the photoshoot for this song for a while, since I was so dry on ideas for it, but one day I had time and was washing my comforter, so I decided now would be a good time to try to take some cover art for the song.
For the shoot I took all of the bedding off my bed aside from the fitted sheet and I filled up my one and only wine glass with not wine but very watered down juice. I stacked an ottoman on top of my piano bench and put a stack of books on top of that so that I could get my phone stand at the right height for the images. Then, I put on my Taylor Swift Midnights record and used the self timer feature on my phone to take lots and lots of pictures.
At some point during the shoot my cats decided that they wanted to be part of it, so I just rolled with it. This is their apartment my partner and I just pay for it, after all.
Senna (left) and Luna (right) hijacking my self timer photo shoot for the on my mind cover art because this is their world… everyone else just lives in it
During the shoot I took about 55 photos and came out with a few that I really liked. Picking the right one for the cover art was a very tough decision. Even though I settled on an image, though, I decided that sharing some of my other favorites would be fun. I’ve included a few throughout this blog post, but here are some other images that didn’t quite make the cut.
In the final shot that I decided to use for the cover art for this song, one of my cats, Senna, can be seen in the upper right corner giving herself a little bath.
I am really proud of this song because I have always wanted to make a fun song to dance to. A little feel-good song.
I hope that you love it as much as I do!
I can’t wait to see what playlists you add my song to. Thank you so much <3
