BIG TIME DREAM 03 - From the Sketchbook

Listen in as our bridge goes from first draft to finished.

Welcome to From the Sketchbook. Today, I’m sharing work tapes from the writing phase of my latest single, “Big Time Dream.” It’s available now wherever you find digital music. To find it on your favorite music platform, click this button.

Elaine Summers and I completed “Big Time Dream” on July 22, 2023. Since it features our duet harmony vocals, we’re including it on the forthcoming Droge & Summers Blend Sessions AKA Volume Three. It will be the only new tune on the album. The rest date from 2008 to 2015.

Once we had completed the verse and chorus, I hunkered down on my own to try and find a bridge. Here is my first draft.

Why move on?
Why stand still?
Been too long
Now I finally got some time to kill
Finally got some time to kill

I was primarily focused on refining the melody, so the words were dashed off with little thought. Not the worst lyrics ever. Not quite right either. I liked it all enough to bounce it off of Elaine. Next, we gathered in Puzzle Tree Studio’s control room for a ‘side by side’ session.

In this next work tape, you’ll hear as our new lyrics take shape. This clip is not in real-time. Listen closely, and you’ll hear I pause the recording at one point. Even still, you can get a sense of how the process evolved to reveal our final draft.

We kept four words from my first draft. “Move on” and “stand still.”

Here is the final bridge lyric:

I move on
I stand still
I’m doin’ whatever it takes
Why’s it always feel like going uphill?

You can find “Big Time Dream” wherever digital music is served.

Also available now is the single’s b-side, “Hang On To Me,” which I wrote about HERE.

Peace & Love Songs,

Pete