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January B-Side: That's How You Made Me Happy Again
🕑 Added 2025-01-31 02:52:01 +0000 UTCArt by Billis Helg
Writing:
This was the first track I fleshed out for this four-track project. I came up with the vocal melody playing with my 4-month-old niece. Babies are a great test audience for songs - if they don’t like what they’re hearing, they’ll let you know pretty quickly. I tried to take that mentality with me, and make a song cheery and simple enough that you could sing it to a baby.
As with “The Drum Strikes Back”, I was intentionally trying to write from the happier side of the spectrum, so when the time for lyrics came, I sat down and reflected on interactions with others in my life that had left me happier. I realized that the truest and brightest moments I’ve received from others have come not from gifts or favors they’ve bestowed on me, but from them falling upon some deep inner joy of their own. That sort of recollected, calm state is balm not just to the soul who feels it, but to everyone around them. I quickly bashed out an ode to this experience - a rather simple one, but earnest, and in keeping with the original idea of making a song for children. (The word “sylvan” comes from Fanny Crosby’s “The Flower Queen”, which was the original text I was singing to my niece.)
Recording:
This uses the same ‘virtual 8-track’ method I used with “The Drum Strikes Back”. I had the Beach Boys’ “Friends” album in mind for the arrangement - very sparse and unadorned, homey ingredients. For percussion, I used two pill bottles as shakers and my computer desk as a drum. You can hear my computer keyboard, which I’d left perched on my monitor, come crashing down as I enthusiastically reach the finale of the song.
1-2: Acoustic guitars
3-4: Vocals
5: Magnesium bottles
6: computer desk
7: piano
Lyrics:
That’s how you did it
That’s how you made me happy again
Your pensive mind clouded over your heart
A broken past with nowhere to start
Looking for answers, lost in the clouds
You can hear them talking but you can’t get out
How can you do it?
How can you make anyone happy again?
Then a sylvan beauty possessed your face
The hue of your eyes shifted to new shades
Like a field of roses when the sun breaks through
Or the night’s first stars coming into view
You told me it came with a gentle touch
There was a voice on the wind and it was whistling love
And just like that, the air was cool and clear
And nothing had changed except the need to fear
That’s how you did it
That’s how you made me happy again
Gentle persuasion tells me it’s true
The peace in me comes from the peace in you
The kindest gift that you ever gave
Is to love your pieces as they fall into place
Comments
Moss
I've listened to this song so many times the last few days, it means so much to me... idk, like, the idea of someone who wrote all the other csh songs brings me so much joy. i really love the magnesium bottle sounds, the piano, the whole song. I hope, we will see more stuff like this in the future.
Lakin
This has been stuck in my head since i heard it. I dont think your hypothesis works with just babies
ghoul
I’ve been very sick these past few days, thank you for this Will, it’s made my day
Denisa Astanei
you made us truly happy today. this is lovely ❤️
oxroot
i am happy this was shared with us thank you!
barfingraiinbows
this is really beautiful i love this a lot actually 🔥🔥🔥
Caleb Churchill
So that's what happened to that kid who smiled so much and loved the Beach Boys!
Raíssa Leão
I love this!
Luka Buchanan
“Gentle persuasion tells me it’s true/The peace in me comes from the peace in you” beaming the entire time listening, I’m definitely going to test this melody out with my niece (eight months) and nephew (three big ones)!
alo
so beautiful
ash perry
Reminds me so much of kimya Dawson
Courtney 🍒
Love love love
Carmen✨
This was the sweetest thing ever 🥺💕 And I agree that babies make a great audience!
elliott
yeah you nailed that i can feel the joy intertwined in the song! love it!
scranton
very sparkly! may i ask what 4-track you're using?
Aiko
this was very nice and made me think about my loved ones
Lia
I love these tracks so much!!!
Alien
Very pretty
Luixo :D
I was i little mixed on th last one but I loved this song, this one of the most beautiful csh songs, worth the 3 dollars 🌟🌟🌟
Sageisafruit
This feels very January
adn dot
i think i like the production in this one than the drum striker back, specifically with the vocals. and if course the slight wobble of the 4 track adds something so unique!!
Garett
Before I read the description I thought to myself "this sounds like early 70s Beach Boys" then you said you were inspired by the Friends album.. I was close enough
Caiden
i love the guitar part echoing the vocal part! one of my favorite "gimmicks" when writing guitar parts because it always sounds so lovely :)
Scrade Cottontail
Love the makeshift instrumentation! Quite a twee feeling which is certainly much different from your other works. LOVEEEE the "Friends" inspiration!!!!
Luixo :D
Wow I'm excited for this onee
frankie
i can totally hear the beach boys influence in these songs !!! it’s really nice hearing car seat headrest songs with a happier tone. your music now covers all emotional bases 🔥
lex walton
just wonderful
samuel
horray!!
elvis
YAYYY
Aaron Ragasa
Reminds me of Nobody Dies, I love it!
italo
beautiful
Sarahbeth White
🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷
