Music Story - Sweet Dream

Song: Sweet Dream

Album: Next We Rock (©2024)

Credits: Darren Lee Richardson

Inception: 2015

At First Thought

Sweet Dream was originally conceived in July 2015 after a long hiatus of being in a band and playing live. I had been going to open mics again, just me and my acoustic, I was playing around with jamming with people online through a service called Jam Kazam, and I was beginning to experiment again with new ideas in my studio. After that hiatus, it would seem apropos that this song would be the first new hard rock song that I would discover within myself.

I don't recall the day, per se, but I was playing around with heavier sounds in the lower chords one day. I like to do a lot with dissonance within keys and/or chords. I particularly like the angst and edge of augmenting or diminishing the fifth of chords. It lends itself to dystopian or darker tones which, combined with a slower, heavy pace, can spark an array of emotions and directions. This song would become one of those.

This type of dynamic shows up in many of my songs. 'Fear' from the album Next We Rock, 'Rock Dog', and 'The No One', which are slated for my next album project, also take advantage of this dynamic.

The Call of the Art

Although the music for 'Sweet Dream' has that edge, including the vocal melody, the underpinning thought in the song is what it means to be an artist, musically or otherwise. Not so much because you want to be, but more because you have to be. It's not something you can just quit, although at times you feel like you will. It's something you are compelled to do. It calls to you.

Being an artist, or rather striving to be an artist, is a circus of rollercoaster emotions. There are far more failures and lessons than successes along the way. If you ride this rollercoaster and still get back on after it pulls back into the unloading station, you understand this notion deeply. You are an artist. You bear this cross willingly and acceptingly and no one can take that away from you.

It is a form of love; of self-love. It is ingrained within your soul and it cannot be separated from you without a deep sense of loss. And that is a tragically, beautiful thing.

Progressive Progression-ism

From a structural perspective, Sweet Dream showed me a dynamic in an arrangement I did not know was in me. When writing, I never set out to write something specific or on purpose. I let songs tell me where they want to go. I'm a believer in the concept that art is never created, it is only discovered. Even the artist is unsure where the art is going until it is declared completed.

For starters, the main riff that ignited this song is in F# minor. That is not a key I typically write in, but the tone was right and the riff was haunting and compelling. It technically starts on the upbeat of one in the measure. That is unusual, certainly by me, and was not a choice. That is what it wanted to be. Once I started that riff, I knew I needed to find out where it was going. And I was delightfully surprised where it ended up.

That riff, that chord, turned out to be an excellent opener, as well as an excellent closer to bounce the anthemic chorus that came of it. Getting from point A to point B was an unexpected journey. Sweet Dream is not an ABAB song by any stretch. It is a revolving progression. It is a stretched-out repetitive pathway to itself, with subtle changes, giving it a meandering quality.

It does not align with standard Verse-Chorus because the lyrics never repeat anywhere until they arrive at the punch. They just build to that punch with similar, growing perspectives that come to the same inevitable conclusion.

The underlying composition starts with the F# and then ends with it. But it has slight alterations, that trickle back to the F# before moving to what appears to be a change. That change then hybrids down towards the next lyrical moment, then finally half-steps its way back to the F# for the anthemic chorus punch.

The challenge presented by the song was to give the appearance of differentiation around a foundation that was just doing its cyclical job. Depending on what part the F# was utilized, the bass line offers a different compliment to say, this part is different. The pinch-harmonics on the second guitar helps affect these nuances as well. Adding in the deep bending solo riff transitions to the next section provides another shakeup of the same F# foundation rhythm and chord allowing the song to breathe before continuing another rotation.

As a progression, Sweet Dream is in orbit; an elliptical orbit.

The lyrics are below. Would love to hear your thoughts.

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Thank you for reading... Darren Lee Richardson

Lyrics

Sweet Dream

by Darren Lee Richardson

I can’t deny the power, I can’t deny the flame

I can’t deny the hour, I’ve no one else to blame

I’m heading down, but not without a fight

I’ve staked my ground, and I feel alive

Cause I’ve lived this life before

It’s the one I can’t ignore

And it’s true, so true; it touches me, from within my sweet dream

I can’t forbid the passion, I can’t rescind the pain

I can’t forsake the ashes; I have to bear the chain

I’m on the edge, of the black of night

I need to fly, into the blinding light

Cause I’ve known this soul before

It’s the one that I adore

And it’s free, so free; it calls to me, it calls from my sweet dream

I can’t denounce the spirit, I can’t resist belief

I can’t repair the ruins, I must endure the grief

I’ve touched the ground, but I’ve held my own

I’m aiming high, and I’m not alone

Cause I’ve felt this love before

It’s the one I must restore

And it’s real, so real, it comes for me; for me in my sweet dream