A successful song goes well beyond simply conveying a certain tone or message. It tells a story through lyrics or rhythms and beats. Music is a language understood by all and, when it is written well, it contains a narrative arc similar to that of a written story, complete with mood, progression, conflict, tension and resolution. It has its own way of eliciting emotional responses that can be uniquely visceral, physical and linked to specific experiences. Music gives supplemental emotional context, complexity and depth to what written words often can’t express. 

Guided by the field recordings and prose supplied by Ian, we tried to match the journey of each book chapter we were inspired by and ultimately created a body of work that acts as a mechanism of storytelling for The Outlaw Ocean. For instance, our song “Adrift” was inspired by the content of Chapter 6, in which two stowaways seeking a new life were caught and abandoned on a raft in the middle of the ocean. We want to communicate a sense of despair, loneliness and eventual acceptance of inevitable death, things I thought I might experience if put in a similar situation.

BLU J