What’s This? “Leavin’” Official Music Video Release…Directed by Ryan Howard, Written by Jess Furman and Ryan Howard
Inside Info: I remember standing in the vocal booth at Reed Vertelney’s studio where he, Marc Nelkin and I wrote this song…and thinking as I sang the line, “Like hanging onto a sinking ship all alone,” that I wanted nothing more in the moment then to re-enact the scene from Titanic towards the end, only have Kate push Leo off the raft from the start or have her swim away. It was a burning desire. The song wasn’t even finished yet and I needed there to be a video for it. All of these classic representations of love…of the way that things are supposed to be…the way that you want them to be, but aren’t with the person you are with. The scenes in the bedroom shows the reality…and each fantasy gets dispelled as it gets closer to the moment where its time to walk out the door. So many friends pulled together to help make this video possible…just for the sake of being creative…and I am grateful to them all…
Lying in bed, you tell me that I’m not your girlfriend. I’m going out of my head…knowing what I could not know then…cause I don’t know what I can take - how far I’ll bend before I’ll break down…and I don’t know, what I should take - how far I’ll bend, before I’ll break down.
— J. Furman, LYRICS (see below for posted video of “Out of My Head”)
I wrote this song years ago while living in NYC, on a little Casio keyboard that I had set up at the foot of my bed. Trying to sort out what my breaking point might just be amidst an on and off again love.
Every time I play this song I’m transported back to my quiet room with a tiny window facing a brick wall, heat pumping so strongly in the dead of winter that my roommates and I had the fans blowing, despite the 20 degree weather outside.
These days, when I see a brick wall…I just might be getting wise enough to let it be a brick wall…
“A pretty flower in a vase, a slipper by the fire place…a cello lying in its case..”
…don’t know what made me think of this song tonight. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it. As much as I try to fight it - I think in music a majority of the time. There are words that you speak - then things that the confines of language cannot quite do justice.
And as this song portrays…there are intricacies to life that most people don’t notice.
Let me go, boys, let me go
Push my boat from the highest cliff to the sea below
Rocks are waiting, boys, rocks await
Swoop down from the sky and catch me like a bird of prey.
Now my feet won’t touch the ground - Now my head wont stop
You wait a lifetime to be found - Now my feet won’t touch the ground
I have to learn how to play this. I might have to lock myself away for a good week. but damn…
I’ve been trying not to write as much as I usually do. There’s this odd frenetic energy thing that happens when I get into songwriting mode and sometimes it takes over a bit too much. This week I’ve been trying to get back to that Zen place. If there is one…
In ten thousand years, if travelers land here, to tell folks back home what they saw. they better find Beatles songs, and traces of God, in pictures Da Vinici had drawn. The whisper of leaves the wisest of trees, a planet-wide self dialogue. So without a doubt, whether we’re here or not, they’ll speak about life on earth after all.
For those of you who are missing the kick-ass music scene down in Austin at SXSW - you can catch watch my show LIVE from the web! Just check out the link on Wednesday, 3/17 at 3pm!
Not sure if the audio is up yet, but here’s the article in the meantime. I went into the studio the other week to talk about how independent artists try to scratch out a living these days…. viva la dream!
