Walking Away From You
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Walking Away From You (2002)
Below you will find my first solo album that I released. This was put out 20 years ago and as I sit and reflect on it, I can’t help but think to myself about what might have been going through my mind at the time. Technically, I had made one other solo album after the second release of my high school punk band, Done Mama Proud. It turned out terrible and was a terrible time in my musical journey to decide to make an album. With Walking Away From You, I felt like I actually had something to say. I was broken; 18-years-old, on the verge of eviction, constantly high or drunk, and incredibly lonely. These songs allowed me to reflect on the love I didn’t have anymore, the love I wanted, and the love that was right in front of me that I was subconsciously rejecting. I was so proud of this album, and as I listen, there’s a charming immaturity about it, but I think I love it even more today and wonder what these songs would sound like if they were recorded today in the studio.
01 Long Way Home
A song about being far away from home, which is strange in a sense, because it was written at a time I had barely left home. I was simply down the road at an apartment. It became more meaningful two years after this album when I moved to the other side of the country.
02 Imaginary One Night Stand
One of many songs from this album that was revisited by best friend and producer, Chad Nini. This one was the first to get a full makeover with electric guitar, drums and bass. You can hear the souped up version on Living Room Sessions, but this is the original, four chord acoustic banger.
03 Cry
One of the first songs I wrote, Cry held a special place for me and was hard to let go of and drop from my regular set, as basic and simple as it was. It evolved some, but it will always represent a time more than anything for me.
04 Low of 86
Tell me you were listening to Dashboard Confessional in a lonely apartment without telling me you were listening to Dashboard Confessional in a lonely apartment.
05 Savior
This song came on the heels of John Mayer’s Comfortable. I loved that song and what it represented and in homage to him and the first true love of my life in high school, Brittany, I wrote this. It became on of the most requested songs from this album.
06 Intermission
I was on a Bloodhound Gang kick when we recorded the album and I thought it would be both fun and challenging to do a full acapella intermission.
07 I’m About to…
Written in the vane of Counting Crows and specifically in reference to my first relationship outside of high school, this song is ripe with metaphors and speaks to my attempts at accessing that poetic part of my brain.
08 Promise
Like the aforementioned Cry, this song was another one that was hard to let go of. I can’t play it or think about it or hear it without picturing my then girlfriend and me sitting on the sofa in my buddy’s basement as she begged me to play it again and my buddy just rolled his eyes.
09 She Said
This song is the first I wrote that tells a story outside of the first person. It’s not about me. It’s about a fictional couple and the struggles they go through when one of them learns something terrible about the other. The actions felt real and I have become very emotionally attached to this fictional story over the years.
10 End of the World
End of the World. This song speaks to a lot of my influences while simultaneously feeling so far away from what I wanted to write at the time. I love how it turned out, but it was always such a hard song to duplicate the sound and feelings of since it lived in the power chord past of my punk rock roots.
There’s a secret track on this album, as well. I mean, come on, it was 2002. All CDs had secret tracks. This one was specifically for a friend who was one of my biggest supporters, but also liked weed a lot.
Justin Lamb - Podcast Host, Writer, Musician 