Writing & Recording “Open” from HOTEL BY THE RIVER EP (reposted from Facebook)
If "I'm Told You Never Sleep" is my favourite song to listen to from the HOTEL BY THE RIVER EP for its energy, "Open" is my favourite to close my eyes and listen to for the melody and lyrics. "Open" was another song penned long in advance of the EP. I wrote this for my friend, John DePalma. John was the first new friend I made when I moved to Asbury Park, and he has been my best friend in town for the five years I've lived here. Of course, when you live in a town as small as Asbury, everybody is your "neighbor," but John lived two blocks down the street from me, so he was, indeed, my neighbor as well as my best friend. And having a best friend who will swing by unannounced (and is okay with you doing the same) is a true blessing! John and I have spent countless evenings geeking out to either Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who, or listening to old music by Fleetwood Mac or The Carpenters; we saw Janis Ian in concert at McLoone's and Danielia Cotton at The Saint (where there were only six people in the joint, and three of them were our party -- way to promote an artist who had been featured a month earlier in Rolling Stone magazine, The Saint!); and we have talked shop (he's a singer too, with a much lovelier voice than mine, so no end to those discussions!).
When John decided he was going to be splitting his time between NYC and the shore and would no longer be my neighbor and constant partner in crime, he was worried that I would be upset, but I was happy to hear that he was getting a better job and finally getting his singing and recording career back on track, so I wrote him this song. I simply had no place to put it.
Then "Hotel" came along, and the folk sound of this song fit right in with the acoustic Americana of the rest of the songs I'd written for "Hotel," so I had finally found it a permanent home!
This track was another one for which I'd enlisted the guitar talents of DC area guitarist Mark Sylvester. Once Mark's guitar had been recorded and sent to me, I added vocals and piano. Paul came into my home studio and added cajon, bongos, and tambourim. Since Jacque was unable to get to my studio to record the bass line, I had to create one using a synthesizer (yup, but it does sound like bass, right?), and finally Steve Jankowski mixed and mastered this as he did everything else. Again, there is no real interesting story to tell in the recording process -- no Rumours-esque drama, no coke-fueled blow-ups, only a love of music and some major drive amongst my fellow musicians to create as polished a product as possible without losing the spark in the process. Mark's guitar playing is gorgeous and flawless, as always; and Paul's percussion adds layering to the sound that lets it soar majestically.
You can purchase the track here at iTunes:
Or you can order a hard copy of the whole EP from my website's store.
OPEN
lyrics and melody by The Random Hubiak
Wind's picking up & the sails are unfurled
Horizon's expanding and so is your world
There's a siren singing you a song far out to sea
Compass points beckon and i know you must go
The closing of an act but the start of a new show
An old world receding; I can only wonder how you'll be
But time and distance are just minutes and miles
Between what we do now and what has to wait a while
I know that you ain't, there's just a little more space between
You're all I could ask for and maybe more
A better friend than any that I've known before
You came into my life through a door where I swear walls were all I'd seen
Now everything is open where they'd been
So Godspeed my brother, may the Fates smile kind
On the path laid out before you whether it be straight or if it wind
And as you wonder, may Saint Christopher be there to soften your miles
This chapter is over but the book is not done
There are dragons to be slain, and battles to be won
There are walls to break through and doors to be flung open wide
But time and distance are just minutes and miles
Between what we do now and what has to wait a while
I know that you ain't, there's just a little more space between
You're all I could ask for and maybe more
A better friend than any that I've known before
You came into my life through a door where I swear walls were all I'd seen
Now everything is open where they'd been