As a songwriter, I’ve been pretty stuck in my own head for as long as I can remember. I tend to favor impressionistic lyrics, snatches of ideas mushed together into a whole that I hope is greater than the sum of its parts. More often than not, the phrases tend to reveal something bigger than themselves, but don’t really tell a story in the traditional sense.

I usually associate that kind of “story” writing with cheesy country ballads and CCM artists singing about the love of their daughter, but realized that some of my favorite songwriters (particularly Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie) also use it to great effect.

I guess I’m starting to learn there’s a benefit to getting out of my own head.

To celebrate the momentous occasion of having seemingly survived the worst of winter, I’ve uploaded another new song to my Bandcamp profile. Well, not exactly “new,” as the song’s been percolating for about 5 years in my head, and in various live configurations. The recording’s only been completed in the past few months, anyway. It’s called “Light of Day,” and it’s something I wrote to remind myself. Of what, I’ll let you decide, because, hey, maybe you need a reminder, too.

As usual, you can download it for free (all I ask is your email address, so I can keep you in the loop when I make yet more music), or pay whatever you want to download a higher bit rate version of the song.

Take a deep breath, enjoy the weather, whatever it’s doing (it’s supposed to be sunny and mild here), and let me know what you think.

I was recently burning a few extra copies of Prodigal Songs when I noticed the copyright date – 2003. Yes, it’s been 6 years since I’ve released any recorded music.

2009 marks the end of that silence.

Over the past few months, I’ve been playing live at an open mic in Augusta – trying out new songs, getting re-acquainted with old ones, throwing in a few covers for something familiar. It’s been great fun, and given me the confidence to start recording stuff again.

It also helps that I simplified my “studio” setup to make it easy to just sit down and start recording.

With all this in mind, I bring you the first of what I hope to be many “digital singles” of the coming year: “Return,” a ballad-y thing in two flavors (piano/vocal, and synth washes and bleeps). The feel of this song seemed appropriate for a late, reflective winter night.

You can stream both versions from the embedded player below, or download it for free. Should you be so inclined, you can even contribute to the Starving Musician’s Fund (name your price from $0.50 up) to download higher-quality copies. The “share” link gives you options for embedding this into your own website/Facebook/myspace/whatever, so please…pass this around!

Happy 2009, folks. Let’s pray this is a better year for everyone.

Return (piano version) by Andrew Thomas

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

-noun:
1) A light, two-wheeled one-horse carriage.
2) Something that whirls.
3) What Andrew’s doing this afternoon at Java Joe’s in Augusta.

Gone are the days when a simple link from Geof Morris would catapult me to the front page of Google results for my own name. Apparently, “Andrew Thomas” is far too common of a name, especially among musicly types.

This has led to some funny “reviews” on iTunes from people who think I’m one of the other Andrew Thomi out there. As I’m in the process of gearing up for a new short-term writing and recording project, I thought, what better time to re-evaluate how people know me?

I’m talking stage names, here, people.

For example, Brad Sucks, I can assume, does not actually go by the last name of “Sucks.” And Scott Andrew leaves off his last name LePera when performing. Bon Iver? Nice try, Mr. Justin Vernon. How about Farokh “Freddie Mercury” Bulsara, or Sherman “Keith Richards” Plotzenstein (ok, I made that one up)? You get the picture. If there’s too many Andrew Thomases in the kitchen, you make lemonade. Or something.

So, gentle readers, in your own infinite wisdom – how would you resolve this dilemma? Or would you resolve it at all, and just let the chumps keep thinking I’m an avant-garde composer, or some guy who sang on a chillout lounge CD? After all, not changing in the face of extreme pressure seemed to work for Michael Bolton…

Having done this kind of thing before back in the old MP3.com days (check the remixes here), I was curious to see what I could come up with, and threw this together with a download of a loop-based music program, Glen’s tracks, and some stock loops. The original’s a little slower, but I was going for a more paranoid techno feel, in keeping with the lyrics of the song.

Check out some of the others at Kompoz.com, and if you like it, please leave a comment or something. I don’t know if public opinion will sway the judges, but the winner gets a guitar autographed by the man himself, and I could use all the validation from my heroes that I can get.

Why am I posting it here? Well, firstly, to put something new on the site. Secondly, to invite some open-source comedy by soliciting sarcastic captions.

So, let’s do this right. Make Ronald James Padavona proud!

The winner gets…uh…the people’s…fame and adulation forever…?

I’ll start: “Damn kids! Get off my Shire!”

It’s basically the same playlist (I’ve heard Death Cab, Feist, and Van Morrison over the past half hour). Their logo looks more like a radio station’s, less like that of a microbrew. Gone are the “You’re never more than 3 minutes away from the music” liners that would lead into commercial breaks. Apparently, the CD at noon is also gone, which is kind of a bummer, but they’ve kept the iPod Wedndesday bit, at least according to the website. Instead of Tad with his dry, Shatner-esque pauses, we have someone named “Rock” doing the 10-2 on-air slot.

I just hope they don’t get too much slicker – part of the unpretentious quality of WCLZ was that it didn’t sound like it was being run by sales staff, even if that meant it wasn’t always “perfect.”