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Ivan

from Ivan by Travels With Brindle

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about

"Ivan" was the first song I wrote for this album project. Midway through reading Elif Batuman's The Idiot for the second time, I got a prompt from a songwriting group to write a song with a single-word title that began with a vowel. With Selin's emails to Ivan in my head, I wrote a pop song inspired by her correspondence and the ways Ivan was about to disappoint her.

This has been through a few iterations. When I had a mentorship with a local singer/songwriter, they advised me to write a single-word chorus for this. I did this suggestion one better and wrote a chorus around the word "correspondence" in Turkish, Russian, and Hungarian--the languages Ivan and Selin speak in The Idiot. I had hoped to release this as a postcard, and I ended up playing this at a faster tempo to get it to fit in that format. (This hasn't happened yet.) I had been thinking about the band the dB's when I played this at a faster tempo, but mixing engineer Christian DeKnatel instead made this sound like a song you'd hear on the TV show The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

Made possible by a grant from the Malden Cultural Council.

The percussion line is a Tomy Tutor Typer toy typewriter, ably played by my frequent collaborator Hilary Lahan.

lyrics

I got a glimpse inside your mind
We don’t talk much in real life
It’s explicit, by design
That our paths only cross on Pine

Yazishma, pidipiska
Levelezee, correspondence

Instrumental break

I’m tired of playing by the rules
I’m sick of waiting weeks for you
Language makes me feel a fool
I ran out of words for you

Chorus

You’re beguiled by my keystrokes
A spirit haunting Matthews lab
Wish I could be who you saw on the screen
But our words are all I have

Maybe our ghost writers could meet
How do you know it’s really me?
They could keep each other company
And we could leave each other be

Chorus x 2

credits

from Ivan, released June 3, 2022
Chelsea Spear--songwriting, vocals, ukulele
Hilary Lahan--typewriter percussion
Erin McKeown--developmental editor

Mixed by Christian DeKnatel

license

all rights reserved

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Travels With Brindle Boston, Massachusetts

Under the name Travels With Brindle, Boston-based songwriter Chelsea Spear got started as a busker on the MBTA, playing ukulele covers for a diverse audience. She later began writing her own music, developing the ethereal-yet-gritty style that can now be heard in the tight melodies of her most recent EP, Greetings from Rocky Point. She is writing her second EP. ... more

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