Phosphenes

Phosphenes For me, it’s mostly green and purple…geometric shapes that spin around and tunnel down, flying past at breakneck speed. As a kid I used to sit in the cafeteria after lunch, eyes closed and head down on my arm, just to see if the tunnel would go anywhere. It only ever kept going… I found out later these colors we perceive in the absence of light are called Phosphenes, and that’s a fun word to say. These lyrics are mostly from about 15 years ago, tucked away 3/4 of the way through my first songbook. I was thinking about it in the context of “I want to know everything about you…the books you love, the music that pumps your blood, every wild daydream that curls your lips…even the colors you see when you close your eyes”. It just kinda grew out of that. I had a melody in mind…for all those 15 years…and could never quite make it work. So I finally gave up on it. Figured I hadn’t written in E major for a while, so I’d start there. 2 minutes later I was playing this. I thought about filling it out more, but nah…I kinda like it all stripped down like this…