• Home
  • About
  • Music
  • Videos
  • Events
  • Media
  • Blog
  • EGPhest
  E.G. Phillips, Ducks With Pants

​E.G. Phillips: Mental Maps

Picture
Written in Phillips' instantly recognisable style..."
​— FVMusicBlog

Produced by Kenny Schick 

​Instruments and backing vocals by Kenny Schick recorded at Basement3Productions in East Nashville

Vocals by E.G. Phillips recorded at Ducks With Pants Music in San Francisco
​
ArtemesiaBlack on backing vocals (tracks 1, 6)

Renee Padgett on backing vocals arranged by Kevin Seal and recorded at Wally's Hydeout in San Francisco (track 3)

Peter Cloclasure on piano (track 5)
​
​All songs by E.G. Phillips, © 2022 Ducks With Pants Music

Party in the Sunset

Picture
Party in the Sunset - artwork by Mario M. Noche
There’s party in the Sunset 
And I don’t want to go
Conversations of obligation
All of which I’ve had before
While you and I communicate
In the language of words unsaid
There’s a party in the Sunset
And I don’t want to go
There’s a party in the Sunset
Inviting you is useless
From the the facts I’ve seen you’re a factory
That only makes excuses
Never once heard you make a sound
That resembles a word like yes
There’s a party in the Sunset
Inviting you is useless
​

Oh all the social graces
Trying map names to faces
How much longer must I stay after I arrive?
Eat hors devours, blend into walls 
Look at all the pictures in the halls
All the while aware you reside so near by

​There’s a party in the Sunset
And while I’m there you call
I can’t recall that you’ve ever called
I never hear from you at all
Of all the calls that I’ve missed of late
This is the one I missed the most
There’s a party in the Sunset
And while I’m there you called​
​

Pulled You from the Fire

She says she can undress a man
In ten seconds flat
I don’t get why a married woman
Is saying things like that
Now I’ve got to go so I hit you up for a ride
I can tell you want to stay
Yet reluctantly you
Oblige

What you may not realize is I
Pulled you from the fire
It was not my priority still I
Pulled you from the fire
Ya don’t need to know why I just
Pulled you from the fire

She creates chaos and
Expects ya just to deal
You shouldn’t have even been there,
If we’re being real
Maybe you think getting a singed
Is all good and well
But you gotta watch for the honeypots and
Intentions that pave your way to
Hell

What you may not realize is I
Pulled you from the fire
It was not my priority still I
Pulled you from the fire
Ya don’t need to know why I just
Pulled you from the fire


It’s true this situation is inflaming my old wounds
It’s true that there’s nothing here to win or to lose
I try my best to be mindful and what do I owe you
I am not your keeper — but I’ve also been there too

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,
I said under my breath
As I slammed that car door shut
And who knows what you went and did next
If you leapt right back in,
Then that’s not on me
You may be ten years her junior
​But you cannot be that
Naive

What you may not realize is I
Pulled you from the fire
It was not my priority still I
Pulled you from the fire
Ya don’t need to know why I just
Pulled you from the fire

The fire…. The fire…. The fire… The fire… Oooh…

Chained to the Sun

Picture
Chained to the Sun - artwork by Mario M. Noche
Here comes that feeling that comes with the dusk
I am Hector as he’s dragged around the walls of Troy
It’s a fate the ice giants can't even escape
It’s a fate the ice giants can't even escape
Helios is riding away with my joy

For my heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun

It’s not that I am ruing that a day is done
Or dreading the onset of evening’s bitter chill
The only warmth I crave is your breath and your embrace
The only warmth I crave is your breath and your embrace
Their absence saps me and puzzles the will

For my heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
Forged by Hephaestus, it’s binding is relentless
Not a single link’s fabricated weak
Sunny days uplift me, cloudy skies set me drift’n
The constant rattle drives me crazy
Don’t wanna be play’n host to ancient imprisoned ghosts
Does anyone around here possess the key?

For my heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun

Can’t stand being inside so I decide to go outside
Neighbors walking their dogs barely stop to say “hi”
Pretty girl head’n towards me, clearly trying to avoid me
I must accept that I’m suspect in her eyes
I’m just some maladroit en route to Inspiration Point
To marvel at the colors of the sky

Were I to chase the light would time come undone?
Like a spinning wheel that’s wound in reverse?
Pull the threads of your lace and its pattern is erased
Pull the threads of your lace and its pattern is erased
Could I outrun this star to which I have been tethered?
​
For my heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
My heart has been chained to the sun
​
Picture
The alternate "Slow and Bluesy" take

The Time Space Vortex

We’d been talking a bit when she said she wanted
To go and get a drink
An invitation or excusing herself?
I didn’t know which to think
So I played it safe and stayed where I stood
While she headed to the bar
Leave it to me to find a way to make everything awkward

The two of us were born in the same town
But many years apart
When we’re conversing I rarely feel
Like I even know where to start
The gulf between us feels so wide
We’re not on the same wavelength
I’ve spent too much time lost in the space time vortex

Outside the course of human events
Outside the flow of it all
Stuck in my pocket universe
No talk ever feels like it’s small
I cling to skin of her world
As if a soap bubble
Attraction and beauty to me are nothing but trouble
She picked up her jacket and slung on her purse
Said she’d be right back
I’m anxious by nature but felt reassured
Seeing she’d left her bags
When she returned it struck me
Particularly my nose
Somehow I’d never pegged her as a smoker

I turn myself back towards the stage
No more or less at ease
And when I left I tried not to read
Too much into that shoulder squeeze

Mental Maps

Picture
Mental Maps single artwork
Silk road through the roof of the world
Flowed to the spice lands of the East
A persistent belief
In a Northwest Passage
Tempered fears of the Kraken and
Other beasts of the deep

That’s the stuff of history books
Dreams found in an atlas from the past
Yet still live at the intersection
Of our mental maps
We both sketched the city in the dirt
Drew landmarks from our memories
We clearly referred
To all the same places
Yet shared no ground in common
As far as I could see

We set a course for the morning star
The sky fell and we lost the path
Which direction is the intersection
Of our mental maps?

The compass rose is in full bloom
Let’s get the lay of the land
You insist we stick to the forged trails
Lest we step into a mess of quicksand

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

Last week you set off on your own
A voyage of discovery, a walkabout
One of those journeys
Where you delve deep though the self
And drift as far as you can from
All of your doubts

I had a vision — we arrived at a point
Where space and time had collapsed
And there we met — at the intersection
Of our mental maps



This is a set of songs I've been working with Kenny Schick of Basement3Productions to help realize — he'd previously worked with me on my EP "Nashville Recordings, Vol.1.” Where as my previous album "Alien from an Alternate Earth" was backed with classic jazz stylings, this its folk rock cousin, with many of the tunes written as contemporaries to that batch. In some ways I consider consider them as volumes I and II of the same project.

The notion of the mental map has always intrigued me — that our subjective and fragmentary geographical knowledge effects how we interact with the world.  As my geography professor explained, the reason that people don’t stray from the familiar paths they know when going somewhere is because there are vampires in those unknown areas.

​For "Party in the Sunset," the Sunset referred to in this song is not the literal sunset, but rather one of those lesser known, ocean bounded neighborhoods of San Francisco in the western part of the city — certainly not one that draws tourists or even other residents of the city for that matter. 

I'm dropped this boppy 50s beach party-esque track ahead of my August 6th mostly annual birthday show where I invite other Bay Area songwriters to cover my songs.  This was the 6th edition of this little shindig and this year it will beheld held at Bazaar Cafe in San Francisco's Outer Richmond neighborhood.

The irony of this timing should be readily apparent from the lyrics, which may otherwise hit a bit close to home. Not only is a relatable social anxiety of the singer on full display, but so is a pre-occupation with someone not present, with whom communication and connection prove ever elusive and misconstrued.
​

The EP version "Chained to the Sun" features Renee Padgett on backing vocals, whose contribution was arranged by Kevin Seal and recorded at Hyde Street Studio C during the session for AfaAE when she also recorded her contribution to "This Infertile Valley."  An alternate "Slow and Bluesy" take has also been released that features ArtemesiaBlack providing some gospel tinged vocals.

With references ranging from classical mythology to William Shakespeare to more contemporary astronomical terms as well as my own local environment (Inspiration Point being a favorite local destination for evening constitutionals), the song is about trying to absorb the heaviness that comes at the end of the day.  This version is realized as an uptempo rocker with lead guitar stylings that owe a bit to Kenny and I having a mutual affinity for jazz guitarist Marc Ribot.

In addition to producer Kenny Schick of Basement 3 Productions (who’s recent credits include Anthony Arya’s “Jaded Rust”), the rollicking folk rock  title track  features Peter Colclasure on piano.  Peter is a musician/composer based in San Jose, California who plays piano at the New Ballet School and teaches at Evergreen Studio of Music and the Arts.  The way his piano line builds to a crescendo in the final verse is reason enough to give this track a listen.

The remaining songs are based on true stories... and that will probably get me into trouble one of these days.  





Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Music
  • Videos
  • Events
  • Media
  • Blog
  • EGPhest