My Vocal Debut is Live! – “These Late and Lonely Nights!

“These Late and Lonely Nights” is a direct follow-up to my last release, “Small Alone Tune”, and it’s about the past several weeks, in which I’ve found myself staying up way too late every night, driven to keep going for reasons that I can’t fully explain.

This song is a first for me: after years of only writing and releasing instrumental tracks, I feel confident enough in my songwriting to share a tune with vocals and original lyrics. This also might be one of the fastest complete tunes I’ve ever produced; over the course of about 48 hours, I wrote the lyrics, recorded vocals and organ, mixed and mastered the track, and edited the accompanying video.

I’m thankful for my wife and for my musical friends, who listened to this track before it was fully-formed, and gave me the confidence boost I needed to put this out there.

For the vocal part on this track, I used Vocalsynth 2 by Izotope, and for the organ, I used my Nord Stage 3.

Released July 26, 2021

Music and lyrics written, performed, mixed, mastered and video-edited by Jake Smolowe in Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro X
Artwork by Jake Smolowe

Lyrics

I don't know why I stay up so late
My mind is sick with worry all day
I just can't seem to concentrate
And I don't know if I'll be OK.

How will I make it through this time
Keep looking for wisdom, or reason, or rhyme
But turning to logic when nothing makes sense
Is like trying to stop water with only a fence

So spare me these late and lonely nights
After you’ve put out all the lights
The light in my head keeps burning bright
And I don’t know how to make it all right.

Spare me these late and lonely nights
After you’ve put out all the lights
The light in my head keeps burning bright
And I don’t know how to make it alright.