Sadly, there’s no great story behind this song. I’d love to be able to say that it’s in reference to some past circumstance recalled with fondness, but it’s just a nice little tongue-in-cheek fiction. But let’s explore the story anyway: a guy has a thing that was obtained from Etsy; he’s not quite sure what it actually is, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter, because it’s main purpose is to remind our protagonist of his (temporarily?) absent love interest.
In case you’re not familiar with Etsy, it’s an online store that aims to be a marketplace for hand-made, home-crafted goods. If you’re into leatherwork, macrame, felt, shoes, vintage clothes, and myriad other things, it’s quite a sweet and lovely place, filled with people carving out their own little niches. Because people are people, some of the things you can find on there are very strange: the belly button cleaners, the potato people, the 8-legged stuffed chicken, the crochet digestive tract, the toesnail, clippy sculptures, and so on. It also suffers from occasional sellers that resell cheap goods obtained from Ali Express, Temu, and other large-scale Chinese commercial sites, which isn’t in keeping with the spirit of the place.
So I was just entertained by the idea of buying something without having any idea what it was. Later I was thinking about why you might keep such a thing, and the romance angle popped up, along with the phrases “I found it on Etsy”, and “it reminds me of you”, and voila – one song idea.
The song is a conventional structure that I’ve used before: cut-back intro, long first verse, short chorus, second verse, chorus, solo, ending, and all wrapped up in just under 3 minutes.
I really liked using UJAM’s virtual guitar instruments on previous songs, so I bought a few more, including Sparkle, a “pop electric guitar”, and it’s exactly what I was looking for — clean, sweet tones, smooth, funky strumming, and a great partner for their Amber acoustic guitar plugin; both are used in this song. Drums and bass are courtesy of Logic’s players, and the vocals are by my go-to plugin, Synthesizer V. I wasn’t sure on the timing for the vocal part, so I sang the tricky parts myself, then got SV to convert them to synthesised versions that I could fine tune.
I left space for a solo, but initially I wasn’t sure what instrument to fill it with. I’ve commissioned various musicians for guitar and harmonica parts before, but I was looking for something a little different. So after singing the song to myself and listening to early mixes, I decided that a trumpet would fit the bill. The style I had in mind for the trumpet part was along the lines of Pet Shop Boys “Go West”, their wonderfully over-the-top 1993 pomp-glam-pop rendition of Village People’s 1979 original, which features fantastic horn section and solo trumpet parts. As usual, Fiverr proved a rich resource, and I found Kelly O, an astonishingly capable Australian trumpet player based in Berlin.
Kelly provided three full-length takes, so I was able to pick the bits I liked (using a Logic take stack) to form a single trumpet part. I then split it up into the verse, chorus, and solo sections so that I could mix them separately. To make it sound more of a section I duplicated a track, and used Logic’s Flex Pitch to turn it into a harmony line for the choruses.
In all this was such fun to make. It’s just a sweet, funny, sentimental pop song with no pretensions. I hope the people at Etsy like it too!
I bought this thing
I don’t remember what it does
Thought it would go with my sofa,
or maybe store my shoes
But it’s kind of cool,
or at least it was
At some point in the last 50 years or so
I wish I could remember what it’s meant for
Should I hang it on my door
or wear it when I climb a tree?
It’s got new-age, vintage, hi-tech, flower-power
authenticity
I found it on Etsy
I can’t remember what it’s for
I found it on Etsy
I think I love it, but I’m not quite sure
I found it on Etsy
I don’t really care what it’s meant to do
I found it on Etsy
‘cause it reminds me of you
It’s fully reclaimed,
recycled but new
Completely authentic,
though I don’t know by who
It’s nothing like the one
on Ali Express
I’m not sure it’s quite my style,
The way that I dress
It’s one of the things that reminds me of you
Ooh, and it smells great at bathtime too
I was happy it was there when I knew I’d be late,
bringing back those memories of our first date
I found it on Etsy
I can’t remember what it’s for
I found it on Etsy
I think I love it, but I’m not quite sure
I found it on Etsy
I don’t care what it’s meant to do
I found it on Etsy
‘cause it reminds me of you
I found it on Etsy
I can’t remember what it’s for
I found it on Etsy
I think I love it, but I’m not quite sure
I found it on Etsy
I don’t care what it’s meant to do
I found it on Etsy
‘cause it reminds me of you
[solo]
I found it on Etsy
I found it
I found it on Etsy
Oh yeah, I found it
I found it on Etsy
I found it on Etsy
I found it on Etsy
and it reminds me of you
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