Reality (mp3) 

Written and Performed By:             Dan Wahlin
Lyrics:                                              Heedy Wahlin (with a little input from me).  She also gave tons of great input on a lot of different things from sounds, to melody, to rhythms. The lyrics for the song are shown below.
Production Advice:                          My good buddy Spike Xavier (I'll probably ruin his reputation by associating him at all with this song.  But, he had several great suggestions!).

UPDATE:  New mix released on August 27th.

Like a lot of developers, I've played around quite a bit with song writing/composition but realized early on that I needed to make a living somehow since the odds of making it in the music world never looked real good.  When I was 18 I was lucky enough to get a song played on the biggest pop stations in Phoenix, AZ at the time but nothing really came of that so I traded in playing on keyboards for typing on keyboards.  Due to the demands of work, school, family, golf (hah) and other things I haven't done much with song writing since then other than dinking around on my piano.  It's something I really enjoy and find relaxing....there's just not enough time in the day though.

About 1 1/2 years ago I bought the Roland Fantom-X8 keyboard/workstation (awesome product!) and have written several new songs in my spare time.  About 6 months ago I decided that writing songs for myself didn't accomplish a whole lot (my wife was on my case about that as well) so I started creating my home studio so I could record some stuff.  I'm now using Sonar Producer 5 as my recording software, the Fantom-X8 as my MIDI device and keyboard, Colossus and Kontakt for samples, the M-Audio 410 firewire device for connectivity to my laptop, a Jackson JS30 electric guitar, Marshall MXL and Sterling Audio ST55 mics, plus Ozone for mastering.

I just finished recording a new song called Reality (long story on the title and lyrics) and overall I'm happy with how it turned out.  It was fun recording music again and learning how to do everything digitally.  Feel free to download the song if you're interested.

 Lyrics:

Verse 1:
What's really underneath that charming smile
The coldness surfaces after awhile
And I've never known just who you are
You act like you're the world's big star

Verse 2:
You haven't found the nerve to face real life
You lie, you steal, you cheat, you cause such strife
And you can't recall just what you've done
But you always seem to have your fun

Chorus:
You live your life without a purpose and you fake reality
Life has so much meaning don't you blame society

Bridge:
Looking down on everyone
You fail to see the good they've done

The love they've shown through hellish years
Countless times you've played their fears 

I'd like to know when you will wipe their tears

© 2006 Dan Wahlin