Influences
The Price Is Right, “Bean Stalker” (many people won a car to this song)
Story
“Multicam behavioral health” – a phrase in some glitched closed captioning I saw – was so evocative that I had to write lyrics to figure out what it could mean. At that point, I had suddenly committed myself to putting a vocal song in my previously instrumental project. Whoops?
What I came up with was an actor in a busy, bright set (the “multicam” bit) who desperately needed to process, but the show must go on and its relentless push meant the need sounded like gibberish. That felt true to life in a way that allowed new explorations – in particular, letting the singer’s words fight the genre of the music.
So which genre? Well, the most instantly happy and bright music I know – the most multicam – is game show music. And that pairs well with my style. For instance, the song where the original quartet of contestants on The Price Is Right come on down switches between 3/4 and 4/4 without calling attention to it – hello! I was elated from both nostalgia and musicality to build off that. There’s 10/4 in the verse, 15/4 in the chorus, and (7+5)/4 in the ending. And it’s all ‘70s instrumentation – clavinets and Rhodes pianos and horns and boxy drums.
The specific choice of “19 hours straight” is a reference to the same lyric in “Fripp” by Catherine Wheel, although in that song it’s how long he’s been asleep, rather than how long he hasn’t.
Lyrics
Excuse me
I’ve been on set so long – 19 hours straight
Is there somewhere to lie down and recuperate?
Wait, what – my next scene’s in 5, and it’s super-intense?
Whatever, that’s fine – but after that, could my needs take precedence?
If I say all my lines, will you make a fourth wall
So I can heal without being watched by you all?
Your stared daggers hit me
Your side eyes don’t fix me
I need to process but I can’t in this excess
Now you say I’m a head case in need of a shrink
As though you act normal when you’re too tired to think
In a room full of actors, egos manifest,
How is time alone a lavish request?
CHORUS
So please, please, please let me be alone for 10 minutes
Some press about it
“The vocal additions, specifically Dear Kristin’s ardent performance on the funky “Multicam Behavioral Health,” play convincingly throughout as well.” – Obscure Sound
“Guest vocalist Dear Kristin brings an expressive edge to “Multicam Behavioral Health”, lamenting the claustrophobia one can experience in the overly social film industry. “In a room full of actors, egos manifest. How is time alone a lavish request? I need to process, but I can’t in this excess,” she spits in poetry-jam fashion. Her appearance lends to the variegated theme of the album, introducing conflicting though refreshing emotional contrast.” – Jay Honeycomb, notransmission.com
Next song: Alone for 10 Minutes
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