The title of the EP is a reference to the song " Look at me I'm Sandra Dee" from the movie Grease. To symbolically bookend that concept, I've played the parting melody of the Grease song, "Good-bye to Sandra Dee" on an old broken accordion at the end of the EP.
This EP was actually meant to be my last recording as 'Krista D'. Between my personal inability to juggle a music career while being a mom and the difficulty of connecting to musicians after moving to a new province; I had completely abandoned music about 10 years ago and, although I had no hope of rekindling anything at this stage of my life, I just really missed singing. So, I divided up my songwriting catalogue, new material and selected old material, separated it by genre, planned to release it all, mainly for myself, and then I intended to go back to focusing on my visual arts career.
To my surprise it's gotten a warmer reception than I'd anticipated so I guess it may not be 'good-bye to Krista D' after all. I may, at the very least, release a follow-up single.
For what the songs are about; they are mainly based on stories that women have shared with me and my own feelings and experiences.
Land Mine
This is a song about trying to untangle myself from a toxic relationship by jumping into a convoluted new situation and how it was emotionally comparative to dancing through a field of land mines, and made as much sense.
Run Jane Run (Remastered/re-released from Janes' World)
This was the main story track from my last album, Janes' World, referencing the writing style of the 'Dick and Jane' teaching series. Essentially about how kids mimic our behaviors; following what we do, not what we say- highlighting the necessity of how we should face and heal from our traumas so it doesn't trickle down to the next generation.
Penny for your Thoughts (Remastered/re-released from Janes' World)
This was inspired by a woman named Penny that I worked with when I was a teenager. She was a much older woman, and the other workers tended to avoid her because she was always kind of bitter and snippy. I made a point to be extra nice to her to make up for how everyone else avoided her. Eventually she became friendly and she shared that her husband had left her for someone else and she was working to be able to support her adult son with special needs.
I wrote this song based on her and it's dedicated to any woman who has had to deal with the pain of being abandoned and replaced, and still managed to find the strength to fight through it on her own and do what needed to be done to take care of her kid(s).
Simple Social Tragedy
This song is about an obnoxious guy who relentlessly harassed me in a bar. I still think it had to have been a bet or something... maybe a buddy put him up to it, because I find it difficult to believe that people like that exist outside of comedy sketches. Even after I stated I wasn't interested he just kept hammering away. He tried a cheesy pick up line. He tried to be flattering. He paid for my drink.
He tried peacocking about his accomplishments. He just kept coming back with a new approach... it was although he might die if I didn't have sex with him. Eventually he turned aggressive and I probably can't repeat what he said to me in an interview, but it was pretty crass. He was just such an alarmingly stupid, tragic person who lacked even the most basic social skills. I wish I could remember his name; I would have named the song after him.
Black Eyed Susan (Remastered/re-released) from Janes' World
Loosely based on a woman I knew named Susan. 'Black eyed' isn't a reference to physical abuse in her case (that I knew of) - more a reference to how mascara smudges when you cry. Lyrically it's been written to cover both types of domestic abuse because although I knew her to be sad, and witnessed her husband being a jerk, it wasn't confided in me if it was ever worse behind closed doors. Regardless, the point of the track is that no one should tolerate any type of abuse within a relationship.
You & Me (Remastered/re-released) from Janes' World)
Written like a love song or a 'let's go on a fun summer vacation' song, to a significant other, but honestly I didn't feel that way about anyone when I wrote it. There's actually a morbidly funny fan video for this track- and it pretty much represents where my life was at when it was written.
To this day I still don't know why this song popped into my head- but I always try to keep lyrics and melody as close to how they appear in my mind as possible. So I guess this is my sarcastically perky love song to no one.