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The Weight Of These Things

from The Weight Of These Things by Joel Eckels

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This was the song we started with when I came back to Steve's to record the entire record. We spent the whole first day on this one song. It was a completely different feel and guitar part than it is now. We ran into issues with it and decided to move on to other songs so we wouldn't lose momentum at the beginning of the 2 weeks of sessions.

We literally ended up waiting to do this one last and it came down to the last day in the studio. I wasn't sure how we were going to approach it and was nervous about whether it would make the record.

The morning of the last day, I was on my way to the studio and had the idea to make it about the bass line. We took the bass line from the guitar part I had been playing, slowed it down to a slower jazzy vibe and tracked it on a guitar. Then, I played an ambient electric guitar part on top of the temporary guitar/bass line and it began to take shape. Once I added the vocal and the atmosphere had been created, we knew we had taken it to a whole new level.

However, it wasn't until we took the tracks back to LA and had Erik Kertes and Quinn add the drums and upright bass that it became what it is now.

Even then, I still felt like it was missing something. We added an ambient tambourine part that brought a whole lot to the vibe, but it didn't fully come together until Wes Poland and I experimented with a background keyboard drone that swells through the whole track. You can barely notice it, but it became the glue that the song needed in the end to make it complete.

Not only did the song make the album, it became the title track.

lyrics

The Weight of These Things

Don’t know where to go, guess the joke’s on me
Guess I’m moving too slow to ever keep anything
There’s a story in every song I sing
Every love that I’ve lost, every thought that I think
I could never ask you to carry that weight with me
I could never ask you to carry the weight of these things

You’re just a girl who’s looking for someone to love
So much to give, so much to take
So much you only could dream of
I should go ahead and just let you win
I should never second guess again
If only you could see the shape that I’m in
The shape that I’m in

You’ll never want to hear me sing that song
Cause the good ones come when the love is gone
If you’re hearing these words you know that day has come
Believe me when I tell you that you did nothing wrong
I’m a good man trapped in this vagabond
I love you baby, but I must be moving on
Said, I love you baby but I must be moving on

Don’t know where to go, guess the joke’s on me
Guess I’m moving too slow to ever keep anything
There’s a story in every song I sing
Every love that I’ve lost, every thought that I think
I could never ask you to carry that weight with me
I could never ask you to carry the weight of these things

credits

from The Weight Of These Things, released April 13, 2015
Joel Eckels - Vocals and guitars
Erik Kertes - upright bass
Quinn - drums
Steve Rizzo - tambourine
Wes Poland - drone

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Joel Eckels Los Angeles, California

Influenced by the soulful songwriting of his mentor Bill Withers, the Rock & Roll swagger of Led Zeppelin, and the honest raw style of Neil Young, Joel Eckels is an L.A. based Singer-Songwriter & Producer.

Currently based in the storied Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles, Joel is channeling his life’s journey into preserving the magic, nuance, and importance of the live music experience. ... more

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