I have some bad news. I’m not going to tell you the meaning behind this song. I normally love talking about the inspiration behind my songs but in this case, I’m going to leave it open to interpretation. There’s just too much emotion built into these lyrics to have the meaning of the song be defined by my vision of it only.
I’d love to talk about the music though! Dark Planet began life as an acoustic guitar driven singer-songwriter song. In fact, I never intended for it to be on this album. When I started shifting the direction of the album in a different musical path however, Dark Planet kept coming up as one I wanted to do. I just really believed in this song.
The instrumentation on Dark Planet starts out with many layers of synths and then brings in some electric guitars on the chorus. My friend Alan Romberger who is something of a metal guitarist by nature contributed guitar tracks on the second verse and ensuing choruses. It was fun having him play on the song because his style is very different from my own.
The instrumental bridge on Dark Planet is one of my favorite musical moments on the album. I’m not much of a piano player but I think this turned out really well. As a whole though, I’m not sure this song will ever be anyone’s favorite. One reviewer said it was “too experimental” for their tastes :). I’m not sure I’d call the song experimental but I understand that there’s probably a very specific audience that will appreciate it. And that’s okay! Not every song is meant to be a fan favorite. Hopefully it means something to someone though. I know it does for me.
I actually released Dark Planet as a single a couple months before the album and the single had one of the coolest album covers I’ve ever done. I almost didn’t release it as a single just so I could use the cover for the main album but I didn’t feel like Dark Planet was representative of the overall sound on the album though so I eventually decided against it.
Joe Crow mixed this song and as mentioned earlier, Alan Romberger contributed some of the guitar tracks.
