Don´t Look Down

I continued working down at the Nightbird studio at the Sunset Marquis. Jed and I started a collaboration, and he brought on his old time friend Jeff Barry. A part from being a super soulful and wonderful man, Jeff is also a songwriting legend. His creativity spans over long time and having songs like " Sugar sugar" or "Chapel of Love" from the 60´s up until today, the man is fanatic. Get accointed:  this is music history!!   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Barry

Jed Leiber, Me and Jeff Barry at the Sunset Marquis

A very close friend of mine was in trouble, and I wanted to write a song for him, to cheer him up and keep fighting the bad stuff. A song of encouragement and comfort.
I have always had the dream of me standing on a cliff, and in every dream different things happen on that cliff. I had the image of us standing up there, and it was awfully high.
I told my friend that if you look up, you won´t feel the fear the same way you do when you look up. As an experiment, try to look up to teh sky and think a negative thought. It is very difficult.
So, whenever your feeling down, Look Up!!
Jeff nailed the lyric with our hours of conversation and one night, we went up to the bar in the hotel. Jed introduced me to Billy Gibbons, who just happened to be around. He was in songwriting mode so he joined in to finish the song. It was a very special evening and one of those moments I love so much,  when things just fall into place and you are open for anything to happen. I mean, who would have known about this, when I woke that morning? Sometimes it is good to have no set plans, cuz it open sup to chance. I reckon it is also very typical for that hotel. I mean, where in the world would I end up having a drink in the bar  with Bryan Adams??

Coming down to the studio and time for vocals on Don´t look down, it looked like this in the vocal room. That´s love! The staff sure knew how to treat vocal chords:):)
When the song was ready and done, Billy invited us over to his radio show where he sends live every weekend.
That was the first time Don´t look Down was played, newly baked from the studio oven .  Since Billy love  classical cars, the radio show was held in the Classic Car center in LA.  Countless really cool, stylish cars were displayed, among them his huge private collection. I fancy old cars, and at the time I had a Morris Minor 58, so I kinda felt like one in the gang...:)

Billy Gibbons and Miss Meja

                                                             Back to the studio we continued writing more songs.
One of them is "Surrender". for some reason we did not finalize it, and I am still working on the lyrics. Some songs take longer time to mature, others are written in a heart beat. That´s just the way it is.
 Like Keith Urban once told me, so wisely " You can not force songs to be written, you just have to wait until they demand to be born"
So, "Surrender" is definitely on the upcoming album. I even have painted a huge painting for it.....symbolizing the open arms, surrender into the great wide open!