Making of..."THE PROTECTOR"

Hi. Okay so when I was jotting down a bunch of ideas over the last couple of weeks, I came up with this. I really liked the possibility of having The Protector as a theme for the entire piece. It presented me the opportunity to take it in so many different place in regards to protecting yourself over emotional pain. I guess you can call that suppressing true feelings. So as far as relationships are concerned, it still left many possibilities to write about. Do you protect yourself by staying away from relationships completely because of the pain it could end up costing you? Do you get involved in a relationship, but put up an emotional wall for fear of feeling vulnerable or exposed? I liked the title, and knew how the format should be, but was conflicted because of all these options. Finally, my heart was feeling something a bit more specific and I decided to follow that instinct. And that was to protect yourself when dealing with a break up and how seemingly impossible that can feel these days. With technology, for better or worse, we are all connected in a way like never before. It's incredibly tricky and takes a whole lot of will power to ignore some of the excess of information that's out there. But when you finally do that, and follow all the constructive advice that is given to you to get this person off your mind, you're STILL not out of the clear. With some practice, you can tune out a lot of thoughts that can depress you and make you long for this person But you can't control what you think about when you're asleep! What a low blow, right?
So I decided to make this song about someone that works so valiantly to get this woman out of their head, but when they finally do, discover it's all for nothing because of all these dreams and/or nightmares that occur in his head overnight.

It's interesting because I've heard two completely different opinions on dreams from two people I really respect. One says that their just like junk that's processed through your mind and they mean nothing. The other says that they can have much deeper meaning as we explore thoughts we tend to be too apprehensive to have when we're awake. I side with the latter, unfortunately, because these dreams have done their damned best to destroy my soul. It's rough that the one part of the day that represents rest can be the most difficult. Honestly, I've woken from a couple of these 'dreams' and they've threatened to wreck my whole day and worse, the work I've done to move on. Sucks. But hey, it makes for great writing.

I'm glad I decided to go this direction with "The Protector" because it gave me the opportunity to write about a familiar topic, but present a whole new and creative spin on it. And that's all I could've asked for. Also, the relatable factor will be high for this one. It's done and it's quickly becoming a personal favorite. It expresses everything I just discussed in an emotional way and I hope you enjoy it when the entire project is complete.

Thanks.