What Makes You You

Track eighteen on KŌAN, KŌAN C (June 2022), after 無門関. Luke solo; YouTube video.

A sensible-life daydream, twice. Quit music, move to the Midwest (Ohio roots, I Live in California in reverse), buy a duplex, get a dog, add to cart a six-month boot camp for an online tech job. Verse two swaps the catalog: sell the guitars, buy a wall-sized TV, fund a Roth IRA with all the cash I save deleting Pro Tools. None of it is mocked. The fantasy is detailed because that’s how the thought actually runs.

The hook breaks across lines so do lands alone: when you lose what you / do / that which makes you you. That pun is the song. Maybe what makes you you is the doing, not a fixed self underneath.

Written while recovering from Guillain-Barré, when guitar wasn’t an option and the question had time to sit. Same recovery season as 無門関, with the personal arc in The Bent Stick (essai #1). Pairs with Who Am I Really Fooling Anyway and a song to quit your job to, actually quitting.

I also like Yu Yu Hakusho a lot.

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Thought about quitting music
Moving to the midwest
Buy a duplex
Rent the other side

Live a sensible life
In a quiet suburb

Maybe I could get a dog
I'd probably have a backyard
Plastic picket fence
And a patchy lawn

Maybe I could find an online
Tech job
Add to cart
A six-month boot camp

Do you stay yourself
When you lose what you
Do
That which makes you you

Thought about quitting music
Selling all my guitars
Buy a tv
That could fill a wall

Dedicate my time
To fantasy football

Maybe I could fund a
A Roth IRA
With all the cash I save
Deleting Pro Tools

Do you stay yourself
When you lose what you
Do
That which makes you you
You