Song Breakdown - "Sativa"

Song Breakdown - "Sativa"

Jul 09, 2022

Sativa is a song I recorded in early April of 2020. It was right at the start of the pandemic, I had just released "Emotional Labor" and I was feeling pretty done with the expectations I was putting on myself for how my music should sound. I did the "indie" thing with the songs I wrote in Denton because that's the sound I soaked in while I was there. Moving to Dallas, however, opened up a lot of new sounds for me.

At the time, I didn't know too many people in Dallas, so I would frequent a dive bar called Lakewood Landing to pass the time and meet people. They have a jukebox there that probably hasn't been changed out in at least 20-30 years, and it has CDs loaded into it from soul singers like Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and my favorite, Curtis Mayfield. So every night, I would start my night like I always did - grab a drink, get some change, put it into the jukebox and play "I'm Still In Love With You" by Al Green. Then as the night progressed I'd put on anything by Otis Redding, "Flying High In The Friendly Sky" by Marvin Gaye, and then I'd run out of change and go home.

Point being, I was giving myself the freedom to go back to things that weren't necessarily new or "cool" in my past friend groups or music scenes I'd played in. So when I started writing "Sativa", it felt good to use simple 7th chords that I've always liked, and to not feel the need to complicate them. This was probably the loosest I'd gotten my vocals to sound up to that point. I always thought the music and vocals sounded like a mix Curtis Mayfield and Pavement.

Lyrically, this song is about that point in a courtship/relationship where you start to realize, "maybe they're just not that into you anymore," but somehow being okay with it. Simple as that.

Hope you like it.

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