WELCOME TO A VERY GOOD EP

This melody came to me while I was trying to fall asleep one night back in early March of 2023. I often wish I could explain the nuance of what I’m feeling and why I make my decision when I think I’ve let someone down. I’m learning it’s okay to give people answers they don’t want to hear if it’s said with truth, kindness and thoughtfulness, but I still HATE IT. I struggle to not push off those uncomfortable conversations until I absolutely have to so I can live in the ambiguity and not have to disappoint. I’ve taken a lot of steps to get better at expressing how I feel when I feel it, but when I’m left without a “happy ending”, I still struggle to not ruminate on what I could’ve done differently to make the other person feel better. I wrote this as a reminder to myself that focusing on the “coulda, woulda, shoulda” only keeps me stuck from growing from the situation while the other person is completely unaware and unaffected. This concept comes full circle with I’m Coming Home, but ultimately I am in charge of giving myself permission to move on and with that comes the closure I need. Each experience we have - each fight, hug, laugh, tear, drink, wink from across the room, accident, fall, triumph and more - is a part of our collective story that makes us who we are. And every story is worth telling, because that is what connects us to the bigger story of humanity. And that is, afterall, a very good story.

 

*Fun fact about A Very Good Story

This song is completely a cappella and the instrumentation is my voice, my hands and street sounds. I originally wrote this in C major but when I got to the studio, my voice kept gravitating towards Db, so we kept it in that key.

 

Vocals: Jessica Vines

Percussion: Jessica Vines

Street Sounds: some random sample of a street in New York

 

Written and Produced by Jessica Vines

Produced and Engineered by Tom Rasulo

Record at The Patch Studios 

Mixed by Tom Rasulo

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering

Evan Geiger sent me a clip of this song back in February and the first time I listened to it, I was instantly transported to a movie scene. I was the main character of a High School Coming of Age flick and I called my crush to see if they would want a ride to the popular kid’s party that night. The crush says “yes”, I silently rejoice while still on the phone acting casual and we hang up so I can get ready and put on WAY too much perfume. 

 

After I was done pretending I was in a movie (lol) I immediately started writing the melody and heard the chorus. The energy of this track was so groovy and chill, I wanted it to feel like taking a joy ride with your favorite person and continuing to get to know them through the mutual experience of the journey. Evan and I pieced together the track to create the flow and had Conor Lee add guitar, which he recorded at his apartment in Minneapolis. Tom mixed the track and really brought all the elements where they needed to be to pull the energy through. It’s one of my faves.

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Vocals: Jessica Vines

Track: Evan Geiger

Guitar: Conor Lee

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Written & Produced by Jessica Vines and Evan Geiger

Vocals Engineered by Tom Rasulo at The Patch Studios

Mixed by Tom Rasulo

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering

Originally Evan sent this song to me in January of 2022, which was only four months after I moved to LA. I was at the tail end of a casual fling with someone I met here and my sweater smelled like incense, which reminded me of them. I originally wrote about my frustrations, but the chorus was boring, so we didn’t progress much after that. When Evan sent more demos to me in January of 2023, this was included again and was titled Elevator. I kept the idea of “sweater smells'' because I liked the place it put me in, but switched up the chorus to have a lot more emotion and used the idea of an elevator to guide the lyrics. Even if it’s not a romantic relationship, we’ve all had relationships in our life where one day they’re super present and involved and the next they’re completely gone. In those relationships, it can feel like you’re stuck on an elevator while the other person is hopping on and off at different floors. Just when you think they’ve left the building and maybe you should too, they hop back on the elevator to journey with you again. When they are there, you feel you have a shared goal and each floor you invest time and energy into passing feels like progress toward that goal. It’s only once they leave that you realize you’ve spent your whole day/month/year on an elevator waiting around for someone else to push the button. It becomes clear you’ll never achieve the goal because it was never actually yours to begin with. If this really resonates with you, I encourage you to get off the elevator. There is much to be explored when you get outside.

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Vocals: Jessica Vines

Track: Evan Geiger

 

Written & Produced by Jessica Vines and Evan Geiger

Vocals Engineered by Tom Rasulo at The Patch Studios

Mixed by Tom Rasulo

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering

I wrote this song in September of 2022 and I sat on it for a while. I couldn’t figure out what to do for the second verse until October when I was like “duh… have a rap and ask Oh Bummer! because he’d be perfect”. Then I thought, “also, ask Evan to make a track because he has such an ear for modernizing retro elements and adding them tastefully by making them feel nostalgic and new at the same time”. This started Evan and I working together again and basically the whole project. I sent him a rough demo and we did a zoom call to chat about it. He sent me the first draft and I couldn’t have been more stoked! I recorded the vocals with Oh Bummer! at his studio in Glassell Park, we sent it off to Conor Lee to add guitar and Tom mixed all the elements together. It was such a fun collaboration of ideas that melted together perfectly to be the cute, little love song it is.

 

*Fun fact about Sun in Your Eyes

When Oh Bummer and I recorded this song, we bonded over break ups, which sounds kinda silly while recording a love song, but it made me feel at ease with the song topic. The shared experience allowed me to feel safe to dive into a character and bring the most authentic version of this song. 

 

Vocals: Jessica Vines and Oh Bummer!

Guitar: Conor Lee

Track: Evan Geiger

 

Written by Jessica Vines and Oh Bummer!

Produced by Jessica Vines and Evan Geiger

Mixed by Tom Rasulo

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering

This is a very special song. It’s rare for me to write a love song that doesn’t have some kind of “we might break up” element to it, so I think this is the first “I REALLY LOVE YOU” ballad I’ve ever written. Inspired by a long distance relationship I had at the time, the feeling of caring so deeply for someone is overwhelming and the idea of forever is so exciting. I wrote this to encapsulate all the feelings I was having at the time and to be able to express them in the most true form. Even though this relationship has shifted from romantic to platonic, I’m so thankful for the adventures we had and all of the emotions that came along with it. Falling in love is one of the most beautiful feelings in life. I hope this song reminds you of butterflies, long conversations you don’t want to end and the exquisite privilege of sharing an experience with someone special by your side.

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Vocals and Keys: Jessica Vines

Programming: Evan Geiger

 

Written by Jessica Vines

Produced by Jessica Vines and Evan Geiger

Vocals Engineered by Tom Rasulo at The Patch Studios

Mixed by Tom Rasulo

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering

Last, but not least! This song really is the connecting point back to A Very Good Story. Evan sent me this song and originally it was called Diesel. I asked if he had any inspiration while writing and he said “Nothing specific, just the general bittersweet feeling of moving on,” which really struck me. As I talked about in the write up for A Very Good Story, I have a hard time moving on when an ending isn’t perfectly wrapped up with a bow on top. I started thinking about relationships I’ve tried to force positive closure on and how you really can’t rely on anyone else to say what you want them to say or to hear what you want them to hear. So sometimes the best closure you can have is the closure you give yourself. The last chorus has a line that says “if making up your mind is how you know, closure’s coming home”. Coming home to yourself, to your values, to what you know to be true and allowing the variations from others that make life beautiful provide you with acceptance for what you cannot understand. It’s so valuable that we are all different because we all add something. It’s important that we take up the space to write our part in the story of humanity. And that is, afterall, a very good story.

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Vocals: Jessica Vines

Track: Evan Geiger

 

Written & Produced by Jessica Vines and Evan Geiger

Vocals Engineered by Tom Rasulo at The Patch Studios

Mixed by Tom Rasulo

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering