Presley Sullins Rains

-Day 10-

Track #4 - Bother Me

This song is one of my favorites, but it’s long. It has 5 verses, each verse being made up of two parts, so in a way it almost has 10 verses, and it repeats the chorus 5 times. This probably seems excessive, at least that’s what I thought when I finished it. It’s just that, every time I finished a verse, I felt that I hadn’t said everything I needed to say. Most the time when I finish a song, I get a definitive feeling that it’s done. I was having a hard time achieving that feeling while trying to contain my message into a few verses. When I wrote the final verse I felt that satisfaction, but I also looked at two and a half inked-to-the-max notebook pages and a nearly six minute voice memo and felt defeated. Nobody’s gonna listen to a six minute song, especially one that has so little to offer instrumentally and is so lyric-heavy and repetitive. But the issue is, as I went in with scissors, ready to trim the fat, I realized that every verse said something different, and said something that was important to me. So here we are, with a track 4 sitting at just over 6 minutes. If you’re not into long, wordy songs, skip away. I really won’t be offended. But if you want to try sticking it out and listening to a long-worn-down and finally resigning narrator give a bitterly playful assertion of her feelings in a complicated human relationship, give it a spin!

I feel like this is a good time to talk about a kind of obscure issue as a person who writes songs. People always assume you’re writing from personal experience, and in most cases, you usually are. But people, especially in your personal life, also always assume you’re writing about a particular person. Especially people who don’t normally care about or attempt to understand the depth of song lyrics, they find it a lot more interesting to speculate about “who the song is about.” I don’t want to sound too annoyed about this but honestly it is a little bit tiring after a while. Is that really all that matters to you, is that all you got out of this? Yes, a lot of times the idea for a song is sparked by a person or situation, and sometimes entire songs are entirely about those things. But sometimes they’re made up of a combination of experiences and inspired by a combination of people, and they simultaneously apply to a vast array of the writer’s experiences. I don’t ever feel the need to comment on or share who or what my songs are about. Some of them are about a lot of things, or inspired by other people and their lives, or, yes, referencing a particular person or situation in my personal life. But that shouldn’t be what matters. What matters is if it has meaning to you, if it connects with you, if it makes you think of something that you need an outlet to process and relate to. This song is one that I have no doubt friends will be interrogating me about, and I just want to say that I’m truly not upset by that. I’m so grateful that anyone would even listen to my songs, and if that’s something that makes people more interested in my music I have no qualms with it. I just always want it to be clear that I don’t make music to send a message to a particular person. We have plenty of other tools for that - a plethora of words and communication skills that don’t have to rhyme or be set to music. I don’t do subliminal messaging. I just write what’s on my heart. And if you ever ask me if a song is about you, it’s probably not 😂!

Thank you, Little OkieLand!

It’s an American Summer for Presley Sullins Rains — Little Okieland 17-year-old Presley Sullins Rains is ending her junior year of high school with her sophomore album release, American Summer. Her debut album, Catching Up came out last year, you can read about its release here. Another year older, another year wiser, this album is a little different than

-Day 9-
Track #3, Red High Tops

I’ll start by adding what I wrote for Day 4, since I was also talking about this song.

“Almost all of the songs on the album have been written, or at least finished, in the last year. The only exception is called Red High Tops. I wrote it in 2020, at the age of 11. I wrote the chorus myself, and I asked my dad to help me finish the verses. We sat down at the old piano at my nan’s house and he played along to it on the piano and helped me write the verses and the bridge. That will always be such an amazing memory to me. I’ll link the video of it here or in the comments when I find it. At my mom and nan’s insistence, I decided to rework some of the cringier lines and give it a new life on this album, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a darker, more mature take on the original themes, but it still maintains the sweetness it had when I wrote it. My Nan was a bit sad when she heard it, saying it was “the grown up version” which is probably true. I’m so glad I brought it back and I think I can appreciate it more now.”

I want to add on and say that this is one of the songs that surprised me the most. I was expecting not to like it very much to be honest with you. But after me and Ryan worked on it for a while and it started to come together it started growing on me. By the time it was finished I ended up being really happy with it, and it has some really special memories attached.

-Day 7-
Track list reveal!

American Summer
Only Girl
Red High Tops
Bother Me
Sinking Ship
Chose Me
Lone Ranger
Orange Flowers
Like I Did
Mend
Pinewood Angel

UPDATE: Due to other bands moving inside because of the weather, I will be playing from 1:15-1:45 in room 110 in the community center 🤗

-Day 5-

Today I wanna highlight “Chose Me”, which will be coming out as a single on Father’s Day. Instead of writing a big sappy paragraph, which I’m sure I will do on the day it comes out, I will just let the lyrics speak for themselves. I will say one thing: Any man can become a father, but it is a choice to be a Dad.

-

It was me and my mama against the world
A real strong woman and her blonde headed baby girl

And when she told me she liked some guy
I really couldn’t help but asking “why?”
Life couldn’t get much better in my mind

Well you had kind of a goatee
And some real starched up blue cowboy jeans
And you let me watch cartoons on your TV

We rode around and looked at cows
Before you knew it we were movin’ in the house
And your bachelor-pad peace got drowned right out

Chorus:
You chose me
Like it was easy as breathing
Every day without speaking
A word about it
You show me
What love is, and you know me
Up and down, and you slow me
When my head starts to spin
Let that sink in

I decided you were quite alright
A few years later she’s wearing white
And when we came down the aisle my smile was a mile wide

You didn’t just promise to love her forever
You took the both of us together
And I know now that it was no accident

Chorus

It feels like a lifetime since then
I have no favorite memory you’re not in
And I smile when strangers say we look alike

May not be your blood running through my veins
But they ain’t wrong to say we seem the same
I’ve got your thick skin, your accent, and your last name

Sometimes we say the same thing at the same time
I know your restaurant orders and you know mine
And if you ask us how we are, we’re always fine

We always do what needs got done
But if it ain’t last minute it ain’t no fun
And we like movies with cowboys, crime and guns

Well I know I’m half of what I am
Because of an excellent man
Who made some changes to his solo plans

Thank you for everything you are
Even on the days that I made hard
I hope you know how high you’ve set the bar

The judge asked three times are you sure
And you would have said yes ten more
I used to think that loving me must be a chore

But
Chorus

Now it’s the three of us against the world
A patient man and his two crazy girls

-Day 4-
Almost all of the songs on the album have been written, or at least finished, in the last year. The only exception is called Red High Tops. I wrote it in 2020, at the age of 11. I wrote the chorus myself, and I asked my dad to help me finish the verses. We sat down at the old piano at my nan’s house and he played along to it on the piano and helped me write the verses and the bridge. That will always be such an amazing memory to me. I’ll link the video of it here or in the comments when I find it. At my mom and nan’s insistence, I decided to rework some of the cringier lines and give it a new life on this album, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a darker, more mature take on the original themes, but it still maintains the sweetness it had when I wrote it. My Nan was a bit sad when she heard it, saying it was “the grown up version” which is probably true. I’m so glad I brought it back and I think I can appreciate it more now.