From the Outside Looking In

My first NFT!

I’ve been considering minting my music as NFTs since late 2020, but it took awhile for me to find a way that worked best for me.

I minted it as a 1/1 on Zora, check it out here: https://zora.co/collections/zora/7737

What is From the Outside Looking In about?

There are two themes in this song that stand separately, but also tie in with each other.

Theme 1

I try to operate with a your success is my success mindset. I love cheering on other creators, and deeply feel that any one of us excelling in life is only positive for everyone.

Unfortunately, there’s something that changes me in ways I don’t like when I spend time on social media platforms. I can’t help but compare myself to others, not in that I wish they didn’t have their successes, but by viewing myself as a failure for not yet having those same successes.

Maybe they have a better voice than I do, are a better guitar player than I am, a better songwriter than I am, have X number of followers, or Y number of Spotify streams, and so on. The comparing can quickly turn into resent.

I hate having those feelings, but I want to be honest with myself and recognize when they happen. This song partly serves as a way to keep myself in check when they do.

Theme 2

I had a great conversation with a loved one about young songwriters while creating this song. I vocalized how many brilliant young songwriters there are today, and we hypothesized that one reason could be because of how normalized therapy is now.

Discussing mental health feels far easier today than when I was growing up. It feels like young songwriters have a way of allowing themselves to be vulnerable, which may translate into brilliant songwriting.

It got me thinking about how I’ve achieved vulnerable states.

I noticed when I began using cannabis, for example, my songwriting improved. But was it really the cannabis, itself, or was it that the cannabis allowed me to become vulnerable enough to speak from my heart?

It’s hard to tell. Maybe it’s both? Either way, it’s not meant to be a judgement of any particular writing technique or substance, but rather as an observation that fascinates me.

Where Theme 1 and 2 Meet

From the Outside Looking In is ultimately about recognizing when I compare myself with others while on social media platforms, how frustrated I feel when it happens, and how perhaps it could change if I allow myself to be vulnerable enough in my craft.

Lyrics

From the Outside Looking In

I cannot stop comparing myself to you
You just seem to have it all in all that you do
Your thoughts flow on paper like flowers in nature bloom
Sometimes, my emotions can get caught at sea
Swept away in the undertow, all of my hidden feelings
But you wear vulnerable so effortlessly
At least from the outside looking in, that’s just how it seems

If I could lay my guard down
would my heart come pouring out
into the words I couldn’t express until now
without being envious of you?

At one time, I needed a push to open the gate
to allow myself to translate the feelings in place
But from my viewpoint, it looks like you need none of that
And though I know nothing you go through, I can’t help but question who I am

If I could lay my guard down
would my heart come pouring out
into the words I couldn’t express until now
without being envious of you?

Song Artwork

The blurred Instagram feed and inverted image within the glass sphere are meant to express how when I’m using Instagram (or any social media platform), I’m seeing a distorted version of reality. The vertical lines on each side of the feed have a rough texture toward the center, and smooth out as they get further away from it. This is meant to represent how difficult it is for me to get away from the distorted reality of social media, and how the more I separate myself from it, the easier it becomes to stay away, making everything become recognizable again.

Music and Lyrics by Mike Bass

Recorded by Mike Bass

Mixed & Mastered by Andy Harper

Song Artwork by Mike Bass