The Inside Track: Gibraltar - 'Better Than Yesterday'
Clockwise from top left: Aaron Starkey, Nick Biscardi, Nate Henry, Sari Breznau, Holly Waits
Words by Aaron Starkey of Gibraltar
Q: How's it going today? A: Pretty lousy, <insert real life pain> happened.
Q: Is there anything I can say to make you feel worse? A: No...
That's actual practice space dialogue--APSD for short--from the months in which "Better Than Yesterday" was written. June 2018 I think? That's also how I feel when tasked with writing about my own music...
It's even harder than the actual writing of the song, which for me, is always the arduous part. Like...what should I write about? What is there to say? More angst? (No thank you) A beautiful sunset? (Have you met me?) Angry about someone or something? (Blah blah. Who cares? I don't) Lost loves? (Not many of those, I'm good) Catharsis? Yeah... now that's getting somewhere. Let's write another song about making it from lousy to not so lousy and having hope. That feels about right; I at least know how that works.
SO...WHAT ARE SONGS ABOUT? And how do we get there as artists?
Staring with a single word, or words, is sometimes how I personally get there. And usually that word or phrase doesn't make it through to the end. It gets replaced by whatever word or phrase feels better on that particular day (the "day" being when you have to actually sing it, as that's where the rubber meets the road). Do you believe it enough to put it down on tape? Can you listen to it a 100 times in a row as it comes out of your throat? And usually, I do.
So for "Better Than Yesterday", the original kernel of that phrase stayed true throughout the whole life cycle of the song. It was great to sing, it meant something to us, and I never got tired of saying it. Three data points means it's a keeper.
And as a framework, sticking with "Better Than Yesterday" as a theme from start to finish was great to pile on a few other notions and ideas. I'll leave it to you the reader to pick out what those are, but for me I do believe that we can make each day, in some small way, a bit better. Whether a little more intentional, a bit more forgiving of ourselves and others, or more loving, restful, truthful.
The video, directed by Amethyst de Wolfe, is about a moment, a day, of one of those notions I spoke about. A glimpse into the cycle of monotony, night into day into night into day. Zoom call after zoom call after spaghetti dinner after tallboy after spaghetti dinner after tallboy. A familiar and endless cycle to most humans these last few years. Usually there is always something to make someone feel worse, but perhaps you can instead find a way to make it better than it was before. It's always your choice.
Our upcoming vinyl release, Modern Mischief, is actually pressed and awaiting final delivery to Seattle. We'd love to share it with you and you can pre-order it on our Bandcamp page now!
Pre-order "Modern Mischief" on Bandcamp
Check out the "Better Than Yesterday" music video, originally premiered on ArtistHome