Game Over

This track, “Game Over,” exemplifies a common trend in my creative process: intending something simple and ending up with something weird instead. I set out to do a few things here. First, I was inspired by an ominous bit of graffiti in the alley across from the Logan Square YMCA that read “GAME OVER” in black spray-paint, with no further explanation. From there, I tried to write an 80s, Eurythmics-style midtempo soft-rocker, ideally limiting myself to three chords (there is a fourth one that creeps up in the chorus, I’m ashamed to say). The “woo, ah-woo” vocals that open the song are my tribute to the Redwalls’ song “Deep in the Heart,” which contains a great “ah-woo woo” break of its own.

In any case, after not listening to it for 36 hours or so, it sounds much weirder and more gothic than I remember. As if it’s being sung by some lonely bureaucrat from 1970s East Germany on a slow night at the state-sponsored karaoke bar. (Yes, I am thinking of the great film “The Lives of Others” at the moment.) It also sounds a little slower than I intended it, but maybe that adds to its disorienting effect. Your thoughts?