Jeff Iftekaruddin - Lights

Filmed By Margarita Dominguez at Lake Bluff Sunrise Beach Edited by Martin Vrigsjo spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/54EeAACs163lgZF6JCHRcV?si=4f6a30b6b16941c5 “Just follow the lights. They will lead you, they will guide you, they will show you where to go.” For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard some version of “just follow the lights” or “go to the light” (Carol Anne) in movies and throughout my life whenever I was leaving a concert venue. "Go towards the light! The light is your friend!" The security guards would shout as we would file out of The Rave in Milwaukee, WI in my college years. Several years ago, after someone in our family passed on, we felt like she was still here . Was she confused? Did she want to stay on this plane a little longer? Or was it all just in our heads because we missed her so much? All I know is that we sure as heck felt her there in our apartment in San Francisco. Around that same time, I was reading Jeff Tweedy’s book “How to Write One Song,” so I sat down at the piano and began writing what would eventually become “Lights.” At shows, I usually tell people this is a song written for someone we loved who we felt needed a little guidance getting home. That always feels presumptuous to say out loud. Why would someone on the other side need help from mere mortals like us? But after losing my father a few years earlier, I realized that what I thought I understood about the world and the universe was actually not that much. I choose to believe that these feelings are valid. So I sat down at my piano overlooking our neighbor's beautiful garden and I tried to speak to this family member the same way I would tell someone the party is over and they have to leave. What's the age old bar tome? You don't have to go home but you can't stay here. Can I blame her for wanting to stay? No. The worst part is when the bars turn on their lights and the music stops…or maybe the music starts. Anything to get you to skedaddle. I tried to talk to her in simple English: “Honey, you can’t stay here. They need you over there.” She was incredibly perceptive and always paid attention to every song and every album I released. She would ask about my parents and my whole family. I believed that if I wrote her a song, she would hear it and continue on her journey and find her way out of the labryinth. I like to think it worked. Years later, I still find comfort in the lyrics myself. Grief is such a complex and chaotic emotion. Live through it and you experience the full color wheel of human reactions and emotions. Very rare are the people who simply sit beside you in your grief and share it with you. The people who help you finish that terrible meal so you can finally leave the table. Everyone has their own speed. Everyone has their own tempo. If you have lost someone, I hope you take your time and set your own speed limit. It really hurts when someone has to go, especially when we love them deeply. I like to believe they are truly happy wherever they are now, with all their wildest dreams coming true, finding the things they had lost, floating through the heavens and quietly helping orchestrate little miracles of goodness and happiness every second. If you are grieving please know I stand by you and as hard as it may be to believe in the moment, this too shall pass. Credits: written by: Syed J Iftekaruddin produced by Chris Ruscoe mastered by Steve Sopchak guitars: Jerry McPherson piano: Reed Pittman bass: Isaac Wriston drums: Tom Dupree III background vocals: Kimera Morrell