Behind the FAWM Series #13 - "Bankrupt Heart"

*These blog posts are a peek into the stories behind each song I have written for the February Album Writing Month. There are 43 songs total, and TEN of these will be on my full length record. If you want to help fund the new record, there are only a few days left to pre-order through Kickstarter!

My friend Jeff is a songwriter.
As in, he gets paid to write songs.
(He is also a CRAZY talented pianist who travels the country playing for folks like this)
I called him to see if he'd do a co-write with me for FAWM and of course, he already had several song ideas and titles in mind so he let me have this one.

You may be thinking employment as a songwriter sounds like a pretty sweet...and easy career.
But after our session I quickly realized that writing a pop song is anything but easy.

Someone who is primarily a songwriter, writes material that most people will enjoy and relate to. Someone who is primarily an artist-- or at least, how *I* operate as an artist, is to take my own experiences, poems, etc. and craft them into songs.

People generally can still relate to my music because everyone's worldview and experience flavors the things they take in, but there is often a story or meaning to the song that they'll never know.

Of course there is crossover and every songwriter and artist is different, but the point is that it was HARD for me to set aside me, the "artist" and find my inner songwriter, writing a song that had a clear meaning, that a large population could relate to, but that wouldn't be too cheesy...or complicated.

So, hats off to songwriters.
Those songs on the radio took a lot more thought than you can imagine and I now have a much greater appreciation for pop music.

Bankrupt Heart

Suggested and co-written by Jeff Pardo

Can’t cash in and I can’t cash out
Can’t move on, can’t hold you now
I’ve been filled up and I’ve been bled dry
‘cause I can’t leave the past behind

Got a bankrupt heart
Got a bankrupt heart
Keep tryin to fix
What’s fallen apart
Got a bankrupt heart

Heard you’re happy being free
Wish I could say the same for me
But every time I meet someone knew
These chains keep pulling me back to you

CHORUS

I’m broke like I’ve never been
And I’m not owed anything
Stuck in the in between
Of what was and what could be

Can’t cash in and I can’t cash out
Want so bad to let go somehow