Almost five years in the making, I have finally finished an entire album of music.
I was going to burn the song to a CD and give you guys a copy each, but I decided that it would be too complicated to do that so I will just post them here on Waterblogged, I hope this is OK Stev-N.  Because I am currently on an airplane and have nothing better to do I will post the lyrics and explain a little bit about each song.  I hope you guys enjoy it.  Please feel free to give me some feedback, that would be great, just don’t dog on the musicianship, I already know it is bad.  Thanks.
All songs written and performed by Sean Uranga unless otherwise noted.
All songs were recorded using GarageBand and the direct input and built in microphone of a MacBook.  USB port for MIDI input as well.

1. Picture
This was the second song (real song) I ever wrote.  It was summer of 2005, I had just recently returned from my freshman year at BYU and it was hot.  I don’t think that my parents believe in air conditioning and I’m pretty sure that I was going to die of heat exhaustion by the end of the summer.  Well in this state I decided to distract myself and look at some pictures.  You see, the last week at BYU I think that I took at least 400 pictures with everyone that I saw.  There was one picture in particular that I liked, mainly because it contained a girl that I very much enjoyed being around.  It started with a thought, I wasn’t going to be seeing that person for a very very long time (since I was leaving for my two year bike trip in just a few months) and I realized that this little picture was going to be all that I had for a while.  The words just started to flow out to a melody that I can no longer remember.  I kept repeating it in my head over and over again and the next day I got the guitar out and put wrapped some chords around it.  From that first recording session quite a bit changed and nothing really changed to the one I recently recorded.  The original plan was to end with a bunch of different instruments for a big epic ending (I was borrowing Xack’s keyboard at the time and was having quite a bit of fun with it) but the trial run of this that went by Stev-N got a big thumbs done with him accusing me of creating an Orgy of sound and attempting to rip off A Day in the Life by the Beatles.  I honestly wasn’t trying, but I think it hit me that I couldn’t lay done so many tracks and have them keep the same rhythm and tempo (this was back before I was capable of using a metronome).  As I pondered how to end it I remembered a funny Monty Python skit involving photography and that ending with the synth buildup still stands (although I liked the sound of the original synth a lot more than the current).  The guitar solo is a kind of embarrassment for me; I feel that I did such a stellar job on the original (I recorded it three times with each one emphasizing a different frequency, it actually turned out okay) but when it came time to attempt the recording again I was saddened as I learned that I couldn’t remember how to play it (this is where the crappy musicianship comes in) and I had to turn to the guitar virtuoso that lived in the apartment next door to me to tab it out for me.  He couldn’t get it the note for note, but he did an incredible job and actually put something down that resembled the original so I gave him some gummy bears and considered us even.  I guess he didn’t think so because he called me a stupid asian and kicked me out.  Anyways, my second problem was that I couldn’t for the life of me remember the original words to the verse and how the melody went (I remembered the chorus perfectly though) and on my way home from work I would sing and sing trying to remember it.  I have absolutely no idea if the current recording is the same, but it is what I came up with, the world may never know.  Anyways, that is it.

Lying here tonight, I feel so lonely
And this picture of you is all I have to remind me
Of what we used to do
And this picture of you
Is going to kill me

And because I care, I think about you every day
And because I care, I know that we’re so far away.

2. Cars Don’t Have Arms
This is a really interesting song with regards to how it remained a concept and nothing more for about three years.  I was driving me car one day through Robin and Billy’s neighborhood and I noticed a little girl riding her bike and what appeared to be at first glance a sexual predator following her in a black Ford.  After much inner-diolouging trying to convince and unconvince myself to call the police I realized that this man was her father (I don’t know how I ever proved that, I think I just assumed) and this sparked another thought, what’s he doing driving behind her?  If she falls he is never going to catch her.  I mean, it’s not like his car has arms or something.  Thus, it was born.  I never really gave it serious thought until Stev-N said that he liked.  When I got back from my mission I attempted to place it with different chord progressions that I had been dabbling with, but nothing seemed to be working.  Then I saw the movie August Rush (which really disturbed me and I recommend it to no one) and got the idea to start slapping my guitar.  This didn’t work out well, but it gave e a chord progression that I liked.  The original plan was for the entire thing to be kind of softer like the verse, but I realized that that is what all of my songs were turning into and I realized that I was dooming myself to a John Lennon solo career-esque sound.  I decided to let Paul McCartney take a shot at me and sped up the chorus and made it a little more aggressive.  Unfortunately the pieces didn’t match up all that well and I had to put the weird piano part in between as an attempt to smooth the transition.  Of all the songs this is my least favorite, but it gives me a lot of pleasure to jump around my room and rock out to the chorus with my guitar.

Wake up the morning to see the sun has risen,
Wake up the morning to see what you’ve been missing,
There she goes right through the front door
Oh so fast with her pedal to the floor.

Follow close behind to see she doesn’t falter,
Follow close behind with no course to alter
There she goes straight to the ground
The glass between you won’t let you hear the sound

Oh oh, don’t you wish you were there,
But oh no, she’s gone to far
Oh oh, don’t you wish you could catch her,
But what a shame, cars don’t have arms.

Hold her tight and ask if she’s alright
Hold her tight to keep those wounds out of sight
in just moments you are at her side
To share those precious moments when your tears collide

3.  One in a Million
I was on my mission (two year bike trip) when this song started.  It was in May of 2006, I had just transfered areas and was now in Provo, UT and was kind of lost and had no idea what I was doing.  For some reason there was a guitar in the apartment (it was actually a little house) and I attempted to play it, but was disturbed at the fact that it went out of tune once I put it down.  To make matters worse the tuning pegs were broken and it required pliers to twist them back into tune.  Well, I didn’t have pliers, but I found this wooden contraption that was a series of small three inch by one inch boards that were connected by an intricate ribbon system which made the boards flip over when you held it up by one end (I originally thought this was really stupid until Elder Arnell came over and said he loved them and started doing all kids of cool tricks with them by flipping from both sides!  What an innovator!) and that got really annoying so I would only tune two strings and try to play music.  I came up wit the chorus to this song and I just happened to have this thought in mind that everyone has multiple options out for them and that you can’t just say that you found the one because there are like a million people out there that you are compatible with.  So, when I say one in a million what I mean is that if that person doesn’t work then I don’t have to worry because there are 999,999 other people out there I can get with, but most of the time people don’t think that way and talk themselves into staying with the one (which is an absolutely great thing, don’t get me wrong, I am all for sticking it out) when they have some kind of issue with the person.  The inner dialogue at the end is just nothing more than thoughts rushing through someone’s mind on whether or not a partner is worth it.  Not of much interest, but originally the song was too low so I used a capo to raise the pitch and later found out that it was too high so I had to adjust the melody a little.  Also, I completely forgot about the key change when I recorded the keyboard so they keyboard is playing in the key of C and I think that the guitar is in the key of E, but I can’t remember.  I was going to fix it, but as I looked back on it I think that it represented the song well; two people each moving at a different pace and moving to their own tune is causing the clash that inspires the internal strife anyways so I think that it is fine.

You’re one in a million,
But you’re the one that I needed in my life,
There may have been others,
But no one else made me feel so right,
Although you’re one in a million,
You’ve got me running for my life,
You ever let me be,
But when you do it doesn’t feel right.

Now I can hear the bells so clear,
Giving fire to my fears
But i comes so naturally,
It must be right for you and me.
What if you are not the one,
Then I am as good as done,
But it comes so naturally,
That it must be right for you and me.
My one in a million and me.

When I first saw you,
I began to believe the air had come undone,
But when you smiled,
It brought me back to oxygen 101.

Now I can hear the bells so clear,
Giving fire to my fears
But i comes so naturally,
It must be right for you and me. Then I am as good as done,
But it comes so naturally,
That it must be right for you and me.
My one in a million and me.

Now the time has come
and I must be steady,
I think that you’re the one
but am I ready?
Can I live my life,
living with this feeling?
The thought of you with me,
has got me reeling.

If I back out now,
will I find another?
One just like you?
I can think of no other,
Can I have some time?
I feel that we’re in rushing.
To sort in my mind,
It needs some thinking
Can I make you laugh?
Or will I make you cry?
I wish that I could see
This through your eyes.
That way I could tell,
What you expect of me
I know what I want
I just want to be happy

4. Denise
Performance by Hailey Sherrill – Vocals
Ending written by Percy Wenrich
Back when I lived in Cali-forn-I-A I knew of a girl named Denise but was not really close friends with her (now I am though, Facebook says so).  Years later I met another girl named Denise and she looked exactly the same as the girl I had known growing up (it wasn’t the same person though, I asked her if I knew her and she said no; she was from California and went to my school though, what a coincidence) and I began to think that all Denise’s looked the same.  Then I thought, man it must be embarrassing for a guy that gets around to run into a girl named Denise, I mean he would never be able to tell them apart.  I had just recently watched the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I thought of the duet that Xander and Anya do and thought it would be cool to do a campy duet like that.  After writing a non campy duet I tried to think of a way to campify the song.  I decided that I could radically change the ending and get something across there.  So I thought that nothing could make a novelty out of this song faster than a Ukulele and reached for my little wooden friend.  I don’t know how it came to mind, but Moonlight Bay seemed like the perfect way to end the song.  Unfortunately I found only one verse of the song so I just made one up and thought all I need is a girl.  My first thought was Seana (who is really me with just the female vocal filter applied) but then a more practical thought came to mind in Hailey.  After a long time of trying to track her I eventually hunted her down and got it recorded finally.

Can’t you see, can’t you see?
You all look the same to me,
And I can’t remember, so won’t you tell me your name?
Tell me please, tell me please,
How do you know me?
And I can’t remember, so won’t you tell me the day, that we met?

I can’t see how you’ve forgotten me,
Where are those memories of good’ol Denise
The sweetest rose still carries the name
Even if others appear the same.
Of course oh name I remember you,
But like you the others blossomed too,
Pink, White and some as red as you,
Green and orange, but I was black and blue.

Like the leaves of the trees,
We all change in our own degrees,
And I can’t remember, now you’re golden from green.
There’s no need to be forlorn
Your frame looks a little worn,
But its all for the better, and at least it’s not torn.

Can’t you see, can’t you see?
You all look the same to me,
And I can’t remember, so won’t you tell me your name?
Tell me please, tell me please,
How do you know me?
And I can’t remember, so won’t you tell me the day, that we met?

I can’t see how you’ve forgotten me,
Where are those memories of good’ol Denise
The sweetest rose still carries the name
Even if others appear the same.
Of course Denise I remember you,
But like you the others blossomed too,
Pink, White and some as red as you,
Green and orange, but I was black and blue.

We were sailing along on Moonlight Bay
We could hear the voices ringing
They seemed to say
“You have stolen her heart”
“Now don’t go ‘way”
As we sang love’s old sweet song on Moonlight Bay

You were dressed in red, and covered in lace
The stars and moon shone down, upon your face,
I remember now Denise,
And I’ll never forget,
How we sang love’s old sweet song on Moonlight Bay.

5.  Just Don’t Break It
Co-credit – Stephen Niedzielski
Last year I would work really late and come home really wound up.  To unwind I would play my acoustic guitar and watch a spanish show called Buenas Tardes (a spanish family feud basically).  One of these nights I found a particular chord progression that I liked and played it for the next 2 hours (it is very annoying to be around me when I am playing guitar for self entertainment).  I did this for the next three nights before I started singing along with it.  I didn’t know what to sing about so I looked in my book of ideas and found an idea about a very popular saying.  When people loan something out and they are very possessive and untrusting they always add in, “just don’t break it.”  Is is really necessary?  I mean a jerk (like me) is quick to follow that up with much complaining about how the only reason why they even wanted it was to break it.  Although that saying is completely unnecessary I think that it is more of a sign of how little the person trusts you.  As I wrote it I couldn’t help but think of all the times I borrowed things from Stev-N only for him to never see them again (sorry about that Stev-N).  I think that inspired the entire chorus as I remembered a song he and I wrote a long time ago and I decided to use it for the chorus (for those of you that don’t know Stephen and I wrote a song that was known as many things, but posted as Handshake Special in which you can find the chorus of this song although with different words).  I recored this song and unfortunately my hard drive crash and I lost the individual tracks, but had the whole thing saved as a mix down.  For some reason the drums stop and I could never match it up again to finish off the drum sequence.  Also, there is a random snare in the chorus that I can’t get rid of now.  This is my attempt at an indie-emo-overdramatic song after Xack kept repeating to me over and over that it was very indie.  Xack was also supposed to play bass on this, but it was a very spur of the moment decision and no bass was to be found anywhere so as a result, there is no bass on this song.

So you want to borrow my car,
Well all I ask is just don’t break it.
So you want to take it far,
Well all I ask is just don’t break it.
If you want to borrow my CD,
All that I ask is just don’t break it.
If you want to borrow my DVD,
All that I ask is just don’t break it.

Why’d we ever have to agree,
On a lie that would only bring misery
I never thought that you could do this to me,
But then again I wasn’t thinking clearly.

So you want to borrow my trust
All that I ask is just don’t break it.
If you really think it’s a must,
All that I ask is just don’t break it.
Do you really think it’s a start?
All that I ask is just don’t break it.
So you want a place in my heart?
All that I ask is just don’t break it.

Why’d we ever have to agree,
On a lie that would only bring misery
I never thought that you could do this to me,
But then again I wasn’t thinking clearly.

6.  Stay With Me
This song is my attempt at trickery.  I am trying to make it sound a lot more deep than it actually is.  The man stranded by himself crying for help from his dearest friend.  In reality it is his best friend that he is calling for, but his best friend is a blind seeing eye dog.  The man is bling and he is having a nightmare about being out in the city without his dog and can’t really tell what his happening to him or what is happening around him, hence the agitation building in the verses.  I never intended the solo to be permanent in this, but after listening to it a few times I grew to like it.  I think that this is by far the most rock’n of any of the songs I have written and I really like to jam out to it with my bass, except the bass line I wrote for it makes my hand incredibly tired (funny fact, there is no bass recorded, and I’m not sure if I’ll keep it that way or not).  I wrote this on my mission during a very effective personal morning study in which I just happened to be keeping a very upbeat drum beat with my hands on the table.

Woke up, took a stroll through the street tops,
Didn’t know if I should stop,
There was so much pavement!
I couldn’t belive!   Oh yeah!  Oh the amazement!

Won’t you come and stay with me,
I can’t even see, I can’t even see what’s around me!
Won’t you come and be with me!
I can’t make it through, I can’t make it through without you!

My best friend, without you I’d meet an untimely end,
You were always there to defend,
Me from the haze,
I couldn’t believe it!  Oh no, I’m lost in a daze!

Won’t you come and stay with me,
I can’t even see, I can’t even see what’s around me!
Won’t you come and be with me!
I can’t make it through, I can’t make it through without you!

7.  Mr. Ventana
This is another song that is reaching for a deep complicated meaning.  I wrote this in April 2006 while I was serving my mission.  I was located in Orem and we lived in a basement apartment at the time.  There was a particular couch that I liked to sit on and the sun would always shine in my eyes and I hated it.  I imagined this conversation between the window panes where one said to the other that no one liked it because it was so see through and the sun blinded the poor pepole inside the room.  The other pane tried to comfort the other one and said that it could come over and visit anytime (slide over) and they could try to be see through together, see if they darkened up any.  It was really dumb and I think that I was taking cough syrup at the time,  I thought that it would make a really funny song though.  As I wrote it I wanted their to be a big gospel chorus that sang the repeated phrases, “oh how bright the shine, oh how deep the gloom,” but unfortunately some unexpected budget cuts forced me to abandon the idea.

Mr.  Ventana,
What makes you really you.
Mr. Ventana,
What makes you so see through.

When your light shines (Oh how bright the shine!)
When your dark glooms (Oh how deep the gloom!)
You just call on me, because there I’ll be,
And you can see through me too!

Mr.  Ventana,
What makes you really you.
Mr. Ventana,
What makes you so see through.

I can’t see a way out of the problems laid ahead for you,
I’m sorry for you.
Right now our situation makes it so easy for us to imbue
The sky’s blue.
Maybe we can go together to form a bit of a darker hue,
Obscure their view
Life could be so much better if we were able to take our two
The whole time through.

8.  By the End
Performance by the extremely talented Ben Walley – Piano
This song was very interesting to work with.  I got the idea for it as I was sitting in church waiting for spanish people to show up during my mission.  It was originally designed to be a super rocker and rock into oblivion, but that all changed when I accidently started to sing it to this tune.  The tune has quite a history as well and dates back to 2005 to the same time when I borrowed Xack’s keyboard.  I recorded a piano progression (I am still impressed with how well it sounded to this day, I think I was a much better piano player back then) and I found myself having a hard time with a theme for it, so I just called it Rocky Loves Emily (from three ninjas) and I would sing tat phrase over and over again to the tune.  I don’t know why, it didn’t really flow very well.  I mean, you try it.  When I got back to BYU I met a guy named Ben and he was amazing at the piano and I had to have him play for me.  He agreed and we did this in one take.  It was great.  I was originally have a beat to this and apply some samples to it to make a little hip-hop and R and Bish, but his piano playing was just too good to cover up with that crap so I kept a simply bass snare beat.  Same thing with the ending.  I toyed with the thought of signing Cars Don’t Have Arms to this song, but it just didn’t work out.  I think I even sent it to Stev-N under that title and he was extremely disappointed (well he just said he didn’t care for it actually).  This song has absolutely no meaning at all.  They are just words that go together, nothing more.

Some people say that things are going our way,
But you, and I see differently,
We see things how they should. be
Like they were, when we were so much younger,
And you and I realize we’ve changed,
We have gone our separate ways.

Oh by the end of the light,
By the end of your sight,
By the end we’ll all be singing to ourselves goodnight.
Oh by the end of a cry,
By the end of goodbye,
By the end we’ll all be asking ourselves why?
Does it even matter by the end of tonight.

Nostalgia’s bell is ringing I can tell,
For your and my old memories,
Of growing up care free
Through those years, not knowing the meaning of tears,
And you and I realize we’ve changed,
We have gone our separate ways.

9.  Oh My Dear Darling
I wrote this on my mission as well and got the idea after thinking of the song Lady Madonna by the Beatles.  Translated it means Lady, my lady.  I thought that was interesting so I took a little spin on it.  This song actually does have a serious message to it.  I wrote it after hearing a story about a man that cheated on his wife and she caught him.  In counseling they worked it out and the man was counseled that his wife just forgave him of a very serious grievance against her and that all of the little things she did were insignificant by comparison.  At first I wanted to to be a pretty dull acoustic song but as I was looking through channel settings I saw one named, “Vapor Trails.”  That just happens to be the title of my favorite song by the band Ride.  They are a shoegazer band  and I decided that I could take the song in that direction.  Just to give you an example of how bad of a musician I am and how strange it is that this actually got finished with any sort of coherency, it wasn’t until about a month ago that I realized that this song was in 3/4 time.  I like it though.  I decided to just put cymbals in only on purpose, I didn’t like the sound of real drums in this.

Darling,
Dear darling,
My dear darling,
Oh my dear darling,
Oh oh oh.

You were there with me through thick and thin
You picked me up when I thought I couldn’t win,
But I have been focused to much on within,
Now I’m ashamed of what I have been.

And if these days should turn for the better,
Goodness knows I would never forget her,
Who knows what tomorrow may hold?
One thing’s for sure, my darling is gold!

Darling,
Dear darling,
My dear darling,
Oh my dear darling,
Oh oh oh.

You were there with me to help me on,
Fixing mistakes and righting my wrongs
Through all this time you stayed so strong,
I promise, I promise those tearful days are gone

And if these days were to turn for the better,
Goodness knows I would never forget her,
Who knows what tomorrow may hold?
One thing’s for sure, my darling is gold!

Oh my dear darling you saved me,
By your tender love and mercy.
My razor tongue made your feelings sore,
But you still cared for and loved me more.
Oh my dear darling you saved me,
By your tender love and mercy,
My razor tongue made your feelings sore,
But you still loved me.

10.  Home
The words to this song were thought up as I was in Richfield, UT during my mission.  I got to thinking about going home and how I wouldn’t really be going home.  Nobody I knew before my mission could fully understand what I was going through and wouldn’t understand the changes I had made in my life.  I originally wanted the beginning of By the End to play a part in this song, but it just didn’t fit (it doesn’t really fit in that song, but I don’t care).  This song kid of annoys me mainly because it is right at the cusp of my range and I can’t sing it very well, I think it is pretty nice though.  The part I am most proud of is the key changes in it.  Also, the bass line is one of my favorites.  Oh yeah, I was right.

Home, I’ve been away so long
So many people have come and gone
Home where the friends I’ve known
Aren’t who I remember, how they’ve grown.
Home, is where my heart should be,
But I carried it all this way with me.
From the warmth of all the smiles,
The Love that goes on for miles.

It’s beginning to get to me,
The thought of this reality.
Of someday coming home,
To a place where I’m alone.

Now after a long short while,
I’m beginning to see that the style
Of everyone is still the same
They’ve just moved on towards their own fame
Home, now that I’m here to stay,
I better learn to get along this way.
But, I’m already on my way out,
I’m so lonely I feel that I can shout.

It’s beginning to get to me,
The thought of this reality.
Of someday going home.
To a place where I’m alone.

11.  A Good Year
Performance by the lead trumpet player in BYU’s very prestigious jazz band Bryce Call – Flugelhorn
This was the very very first song I ever wrote (once again, first real song) and it happened a long time ago.  There were unusual circumstances that surround this song on every aspect.  A girl asked me to write a song for her out of nowhere, I can’t remember how it came up and I obliged.  I felt to self conscious writing it just for her so I picked a couple of other girls that fell into the mix along the way to add to it.  I recorded it using Cool Edit Pro and my acoustic guitar.  My older brother was always home so I was afraid to actually sing and the result was a pretty crappy song.  The ending still gives me chills to this day (because of how bad it was).  If memory serves me right Stev-N liked this song (and he helped me a lot with the CD packaging) and was a little disgruntled when I had him take it off of his site.  I actually do like this and I wish I could record a better version and I might have, but like Just Don’t Break It and One in a Million I lost the original track recordings so there wasn’t much I could do with them (maybe if I had George Martin, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr’s help I could have mixed around it to make it awesome).  Once again, the ending is 3/4, but I didn’t realize it at the time.  I think that this is my favorite song that I have written.

I hope you’ve had a good year,

And I don’t mean,

Well then again you know what I mean.

I hope you like the west, point out everything,

Even the sirens that go ring ring.

If you want the windows down, I don’t really mind.

I’m just trying to give you a hard time.

Pleas know though, that I’m just kidding around,

Just trying to hear your laugh, cause it’s the softest sound.

Am I still your hero,

And does anybody know,

Why we have to go.

I can still remember the ways,

With balloons and twin days,

that made everything ok.

I wish this started sooner, I enjoy your company,

De nada, it was a pleasure for me.

I’d really like to stay here, but they’re forcing me to leave,

I’d rather stay here and make some more memories.

Am I still your hero,

And does anybody know,

Why we have to go.

I can still remember the ways,

With balloons and twin days,

that made everything ok.

And as the days go by,

We’ll always find a reason to try.

And as we go through the years,

Here’s me wishing you were here.

Well there it is guys, I hope you enjoy it.  This one took so long to make that I already have another batch of 10 songs ready for another compilation, but it will probably take me a long time to recuperate from the onslaught that this one was.

P.S. As I was working on the artwork I had the T.V. on in the background and the movie Doom came on.  I highly recommend this movie to every living person.  It is by far one of the coolest movies I have ever seen.  It is worth it alone just to see the scene towards the end where the guy is looking for the girl.  JS.