The Night Shift
One of my favorite “live band” songs that I performed entirely myself. I recorded the drums in Full Sail Studio A and I recorded the rest of the song in my apartment. Originally, this song was written about a prior love interest I had and it was supposed to be a metaphor for meeting up with a romantic interest late at night. As the song grew, it became a message to said interest about being busy with work all the time, and eventually it became a story about getting fired from said work. The speaker originally has an indifference attitude to the situation, feeling like they were better than the job in question. Eventually though, once they move past the job their life begins to fall apart. The importance of needing to focus on real jobs instead of passion projects and relationships is highlighted through the full story of the song.
“Well, I haven’t been at home forever
Working long nights with a quarter break at two
And you know that if I could I’d rather
Make this free time and live it up with you
But I’m not lazy or unemployed
Working this out on one big toy
Yeah, I’m on the night shift, I’m all alone
Until I’m sad and I’m walking home
Thinking it’s kinda funny I’ll never be here again
My boss said I should stay alert and ready
Whatever happens I am blaming all on you
But he’s a little paranoid and psycho
No matter what I did he said I’ve lost my cool
But I don’t really remember what I did that night
I think I might have started a big fight
Which led to getting fired
So now I’m lazy and unemployed
Working this out on one big toy
Yeah, I’m on the night shift, I’m with the boys
And we’re just gaming and we’re scoring some points
But now the bottom line’s falling through
I don’t know what else to possibly do
To pay my rent or eat some food
That’s when the bank took my room away from me too”