"Keep the Lines Open" from Somewhere Else

This song had its start, like so many of my songs, amidst my daily life in London, England.  During my year overseas, I resided in a graduate residence by the name of Goodenough College in the borough of Bloomsbury.  On this occasion, I was arbitrarily walking down the corridor near my dorm room when someone in a conversation unrelated to me said the words “keep the lines open.”  That was all it took to start the wheels in my head spinning.  I returned to my dorm room, sat down at my small Roland JV-35 Keyboard, and began to sing the melody of the chorus with only the words “we’ll keep the lines open” in place.

The title “Keep the Lines Open” would seem to be quite a provocative one, inviting one to speculate as to its meaning.  Many times I have asked friends of mine who are unfamiliar with the song for their inclinations.  Almost always, the answer is, “Keep the lines of communication open?”  This of course would be the correct answer: the song is simply about communication.  This may or may not be an unintentional exteriorization of my experience, but as a very forthright individual, I do hold honest communication in high priority with any kind of relationship.  In that sense, the song is very much about me, though the specific story of a romantic relationship slipping away from what it originally was is not.

It is surprisingly appropriate that this song be the first track of the album due to the nature of its subject matter.  As this song deals with communication in one sense, so does the rest of the CD—“Somewhere Else” deals with the discourse of a breakup, “How Long Will You Deny” with the problem of beating around the bush, “Something to Say” with trivial but relatable difficulties in conversation itself, or “Sweet Dreams” with a lack of any real communication altogether.

Further credit to its introductory position on the CD lies in that “Keep the Lines Open” sets the stylistic mood for much of the rest of the album.  Its Adult Contemporary-styled lyrics along with its powerful but beautiful production qualities place this track (and the rest of the CD) in something close to a dignified Pop genre.  The track also encapsulates much of the recurring instrumental consistency found throughout the album.  The piano plays a central role in this instrumentation, more so than in any other similar artist’s music in my judgment.  For instance, while my music has been compared to that of Billy Joel, Elton John, Bruce Hornsby, Ben Folds, and others, none of these artists utilize their primary instrument (the piano) in such a bold way as may be heard in my studio recordings.  Without going into the technical side of related production techniques, the piano in my recordings fills out much of the proverbial base or becomes much of the foundation of a given song, on top of which the rest is built.  Contrarily, in most current Pop music, one finds the piano offering delicate compliments to the body of the song which is comprised mainly of guitars and other sounds.

The fact that the piano is so central to most of the album’s tracks also allows for the music to be appreciated solely for its pianistic qualities.  I have been able to appeal to a wider audience because of this in that the younger crowd is captured by the subject matter and contemporary sound while others are more enthralled with the attractive pianistic figurations.  Much of the unique quality of my pianism is due to my solid roots in classical piano performance—which when compared to Pop piano playing is a Goliath mocking a simpleton David.  That said, there are moments, as in the next song, where in a piano solo I attempt a bit more than my already advanced Pop pianism does in its accompaniment role.

~Scott MacIntyre

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