New-ish

Here's another song that I wrote a little while back but only recorded as a multi-track composition for the first time this evening:

 

 

I'll keep working on it, but I thought I'd let you in on the process. 

Posting updated versions of these songs here is also one of the ways that I listen to them on different devices as I continue to work on them. 

I welcome you to embark on this journey with me. We'll see where it goes. 

 

Lyrics:

If I could build a time machine
I would be a better man
I’d be a wiser version of me
And everything would work out like I plan

I would learn to learn from my mistakes
Leave notes to my former self
Tell him to give more than he takes
And this is the only life that you get

Because time only moves in one direction
And no one ever gets it quite right
All we ever have is our best intentions
And a perfectly imperfect life

But if I could build a time machine
I would be a better friend
We could see all that we’ll never be
And everything that could have been

Like particles in variable dimensions
Our crooked paths seldom cross
At these random and chaotic intersections
We’re here for a moment, then we’re off

Because time only moves in one direction
And no one ever gets it quite right
All we ever have is our best intentions
And a perfectly imperfect life

But if I could build a time machine
And relive any moment
I wouldn’t change a thing
Except the stupid words I had spoken

I would work out every perfect line
Leave the script behind to memorize
And if I didn’t get it right on the second try
There’d be ample opportunity to revise

But time only moves in one direction
And no one ever gets it quite right
All we ever have is our best intentions
And a perfectly imperfect life

© 2025 Zach Sands, PhD

 

 

Another song

I wrote this one a few years ago but only recorded it for the first time this week. This is today's version. As with my other recent recordings, it is a work in progress.

   

 

Thank you for listening. 

 

Lyrics:

Singing with the stereo in a parked car
Belting out the words like we were rock stars
"It doesn't get better than this," you said
You rocked my heart and you wrecked my head

We were young lovers under covers in the summertime
You said we'd meet again some other place, some other time
And I went looking for you out there
Ghosts and mirrors everywhere 

It was always you
It was always you
In my dreams and in between
It was always you...

I still remember in September when she went away
My heart was broken, mouth wide open with nothing new to say
Like ice water in my veins
Through my brain and back again

I can't forget her, wrote a letter that I'll never send
Don't want to upset her, hope she's better, found herself a new friend
But we keep telling the same old lies
It hurts too much to realize

It was always you
It was always you
In my dreams and in between
It was always you...

Got back together, you said forever and we'll never be apart
You sang my songs, you played along, fiddled around with my heart
Until we were everything we are not
Like shards of glass in the parking lot

I suppose we were better writing letters from our parallel lives
Expose the wires, start a fire, don't know if we'll survive
Do we walk away or watch it all burn?
All we have is all we ever learn 

It was always you
It was always you
In my dreams and in between
It was always you...

"Circumstance is happenstance," you say, "a game of chance we play"
But what becomes of the lucky ones, and were they just born this way?
It's all so confusing
At least we have the music

I got my shit, you got your wish, you've got your vitriol
Choking down this poison does you no good at all
What doesn't kill us makes us numb
Strangers to who we've become

But it was always you
It was always you
In my dreams and in between
It will always be you... 

 

© 2025 Zach Sands, PhD