A friend of mine, Jeremy Kamiya, wrote a movie in 2006 called “ I Quit” where my name was the name of the main character. I’ve never seen the movie but I’ve had an idea for a long time about writing a song imagining being a character in this movie. That is obviously the inspiration but I liked the idea of not being typecasted. This goes with real life, where people make up pre-conceived notions of what you are or what your are capable of (I think Mrs Talley would get mad I ended a sentence with ‘of’). The idea that I am more than what you may think I am…no one knows my range. I am capable of more than what you think. That theme has stuck in my head for a long time.
We are all hopefully evolving and challenging the notion of what it means to be us. This is a song about that. I turned 48 when this was released and hope to show my range someday.
Side note, I was trying to learn a song from the band “ Hovvdy” and ended up writing this one with the odd guitar tuning.
Cover art is me from 7 years ago. The “Steve” shirt was purchased in San Diego like 20 years ago while visiting Bobby but is always my go-to beach attire. And makes its way into the lyrics.
There is a lot here inspired by REM…if you squint hard enough.
Tuning: Open D, capo 2…so really open E
IRSC: QZK6K2519370
Lyrics:
I was once in a B movie
Or at least I heard my name was
I still haven’t seen it yet
Don’t know if I’m a villain
Or the good guy
I hope I am the good guy
Sometimes I wear a shirt at the beach
With someone elses name on it
Makes me feel like a character
Just like in a Wes Anderson
With super weird colors
And people with backstories
I wish I had a backstory
I like to think we’re all playing a part
But I keep getting typecast
No one knows my range
No one knows my range
No one knows my range
Hazen James 