Matthew Alexander

 

MIDNIGHT DREAM STATION CONTAINS 12 ORIGINAL SONGS BY MATTHEW ALEXANDER AND A COVER OF "SPANISH HARLEM"

 

BELOW YOU WILL READ THE STORY BEHIND EACH SONG!

 

 

“ A FEELING IN MY BONES” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

There have been times in my life when I knew I was on the right path because I had a deep intuition that I was doing the right thing – a feeling in my bones. The more I practice mindfulness, the more I am able to tap into this energy. Sometimes it emerges in my dreams, sometimes during my walks. But what I feel when I feel it… is that whatever the thing is that I am doing, it is the right thing– I can feel it in my bones. 

Hope is something we can feel in our bones. Hope is an activating force that propels us forward. The loss of hope is debilitating. I lived in Los Angeles for three years and while there, was in an unhappy relationship with a toxic live-in partner. While she was traveling, I had a brief romantic encounter with a fellow singer-songwriter who had been a friend. This brief blossoming of our friendship filled me with hope that I could exit my doomed relationship and break free and eventually find happiness with another partner. Many months later, a career opportunity emerged on the other side of the country and my hope was realized. I could feel it in my bones. 

 

“AN APOLITICAL MAN” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

Mask or no mask?  Insurrection or protest? Democrat or Republican? CNN, Fox or Newsmax? Climate activist or climate denier? An endless assortment of black and white choices in constant conflict with each other. 

But what about those who just want to be left alone, refusing to be pigeonholed into taking one side over the other? Those who really don’t give a damn about empty slogans such as “the Brotherhood of Man”? Those whose hearts have been shattered a long time ago?  Finding comfort and solace in the endless distractions offered by Netflix, Showmax, HBO, Prime, Hulu, Philo and fubo, the misunderstood and maligned “Apolitical Man” retreats into the comfort of the couch. 

Personally I don’t like to fight. I would make one hell of a lousy soldier. When my son Ethan was a child, he and I would look at maps of Civil War battles and fantasize about observing from a safe distance – the house at the end of the field, for example. Cowards? Pacifists? Only Siri can understand! 

 

“A MOURNING SONG” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

My first experience of death was when my grandmother died. She was a kind and loving soul who used to spend hours playing cards with her grandchildren and listening to us practice the piano. At the time I couldn’t understand or grasp the utter finality of death. 

Many years later, my mother was slowly vanishing from Alzheimer’s disease. I remember sitting on a park bench with her on Columbus Avenue in New York City and trying to slow down my awareness of time to make the moment last. I refer to this as “vertical time”, stretching a moment vertically so that it lasts for a long time. After all, if we were to view Earth from Pluto, we would currently see Columbus discovering America. 

During the pandemic, almost everyone has either lost someone to COVID or knows someone who has had a loved one die from this disease. We certainly can’t escape the reality that in this life, everyone eventually dies. What lives on after death, however, is the memory of the person we lose – and if we are lucky, the love that they showed us. I feel my mother’s love every time I interact with my own children, trying to show them the same love that I remember receiving from her, my father and his mother, my grandmother. 

As for the title, my most profound insights occur to me in the morning. And thus a song about grieving i.e. mourning contains many references to the earliest part of the day. 

 

“MOONSHINE” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

There have been times in my life where I withdraw from the world and resurface after a period of isolation and internal reflection. The re-engagement is happy; being in the presence of people I love and, often, playing music with them. Sometimes these social re-engagements are enhanced by the consumption of chemical substances. Often they can be further enhanced by being in the presence of nature. 

I have always loved the moon and named my publishing company Rising Moon Music as a tribute to the beauties of that orb. Being with friends and playing music outdoors under the evening moonlight is certainly one of the great pleasures of my life. 

As for references to the “Lord” in the song, I have no idea as to whether or not a higher power exists. I certainly do not believe that we are judged by whether or not we believe in such an entity. Historically certain religions have played on people’s fears of going to Hell by promising eternal salvation if they subscribe to the tenets of the religion. I am not one of those souls. If I end up in Hades, then obviously I was wrong (although I also believe I would be in good company). In the meantime, I will continue soaking in that precious moonshine. 

 

“COOLING DOWN” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

I have lived in the South for almost forty years. There are many aspects of the South I love - the friendliness of the people, the charming small towns, the proximity to mountains and ocean. But the one thing I do not love is the humidity. Maybe it is because I grew up in the North, maybe because I have hair all over my body (except the top of my head) which is like a fur coat in some ways. I have struggled to find ways to survive. 

One way I have learned to  survive is by reframing the heat by recognizing its benefits, namely that because of the humidity, the forests are green and the ocean is warm. 

I spend many weekends in the summer at Holden Beach in North Carolina with my family. Because my extended family owns a beach home, we get to see the weekly renters come and go. When my children were teenagers, they would form close connections, sometimes romantic, with these renters and not see them again for another year. 

When autumn comes around, I am delighted as the weather starts cooling off and the humidity disappears. Autumn means campfires in the backyard, down jackets and anticipation of the cascade of holidays between late October and early January. If we are lucky, it also means a few snowstorms.

 

“The Upside of Down" 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

I was asked to write a wedding song for two dear friends who met in rehab. They have both struggled with addiction for much of their adult lives as well as mood swings. Their "ups" in life had often led them to make bad decisions. Had it not been for their "downs", however, they never would have met and found a partner that truly makes them happy. As it turned out, there was an "upside of down" just like previously there had been "a downside of up." It seems to occur like this often in life -- good things come out of bad, and sometimes bad things come out of good. The dance of life requires that we temper our highs and weather our lows...and maybe learn a thing or two in the process.

 

“MY CHILDREN’S CHILDREN” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

As a late-in-life father, my children are more like others’ grandchildren. In other words, I have a very hard time saying no to them and instead lavish attention and gifts on them. One can only speculate the excesses to which I might go with their children! In this song, I call out to my potential grandchildren to be kind and to be good stewards of the earth. If we are to save this planet from climate catastrophe, our children’s children will be the ones who will have to make it happen. In the final analysis, only if our planet survives can all of our hearts dance, and all of our spirits sing. 

 

“H.A.P.P.Y.” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

I married late in life. I am glad I did so because as a late-in-life husband, I had a more realistic view of love. It IS hard work to sustain a relationship. Scientific studies show, however, that couples who stay together and work through their issues are happier later in life than those who throw in the towel. This ditty espouses the joy of committed love, perhaps an unpopular subject these days given our throw-away-culture, and touches on several key aspects of successful partnerships – knowing how to fight fairly, committing oneself to building up rather than tearing down one’s partner and engaging in rewarding physical intimacy. Combine these ingredients and add a little luck (“I guess I'm a lucky man”) and you have a winning recipe for meaningful monogamy. 

This is one of those songs that began with a title. I saw it as a challenge to figure out how to expand on H.A.P.P.Y. so that each letter begins a new word that describes my positive feelings toward my spouse. 

 

“LOVE WAS” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

I was on a songwriting tear during the pandemic and wanted to write a tune about love – focusing on what love is. And then I realized that that particular topic has been done to death. I thought, instead, about writing a song focused on what love was.This song combines three different “failed love” stories in my life. The first was a teenage crush who broke my heart right before I went to college – leading to months and months of painful days and nights filled with remembrance and longing. The second was an ill-fated rendezvous with a former love who drove to Washington DC to meet me for a romantic encounter and then left early. And finally falling for a girl at a conference in San Diego who was off-limits because I was married. These images do continue to haunt me to some degree, even though I consider myself to be happily married. Like all of us, however, I occasionally wonder what would have happened with love that… once was but was never realized! Like songs from a jukebox, I can take these memories out of my memory bank and relive them before they recede back into my  brain. 

 

“SPANISH HARLEM” 

Words and music by Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector

ABKCO Music, Inc.; EMI Blackwood Music, Inc.; SONY ATV-Tuness, LLC (GEMA)

I grew up on the West Side of Manhattan. There were many Puerto Rican immigrants in my neighborhood. Rather than fighting our cohorts with knives and chains, however, we would throw eggs at each other. 

To me, this song evokes the romance of the fifties and sixties in America. Black and white tv, “see the USA in your Chevrolet”, Ike and Kennedy and pop songs all rhymed and filled with innocence and romanticism. 

The lyrics to this song make that “long ago” world come alive in my mind’s eye. I imagine the golden glow of sunrise in Spanish Harlem, the shouts from the boys playing stickball, the families hanging out on the stoop and the black eyed beauty that radiates deep into your soul. “Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la”. 

 

“GRAY SKIES” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

I have struggled on and off with depression and loneliness throughout my life. A few years ago I was at the beach during the fall which, for me, is a very evocative, moody time. There is, after all, much melancholy once the summer revelers have gone home and the days start to get shorter and colder. I have always been a fan of the Irving Berlin song “Blue Skies” and thought I would write a downbeat version of that song based on how I was feeling at the time i.e. “Gray Skies.” 

I had been working on the song for several days, completing three verses, but didn’t know how to end it and went to bed. During that night, I had a vivid dream in which my wife came to my side and lay down beside me as if to say “it is OK, you are not alone.” I added the fourth and last verse the next day. The diminished chords in the song remind me of a French love song. 

 

“WINE FROM BORDEAUX” 

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI) 

My son Ethan grew up with a UK flag over his bed. I enjoyed taking him, my daughter and my wife on trips abroad as part of my job as a medical educator and lecturer. We had wonderful vacations to England, France and Switzerland. By doing so, I was taking seriously the advice I had been given by a colleague to take as many family trips as possible with my children when they were young as these would generate life long memories and family ties. What I didn’t anticipate was that I might have gotten them hooked on international travel. A great example of “unintended consequences”. 

My son chose to go to college at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Because airfares in Europe are cheap, his real education was traveling to over 16 countries when he was in college. He now lives in London with his French girlfriend. A few years ago, he was traveling to Bordeaux, France and told me how much he loved this city. He vowed to send me and my wife a bottle of wine from Bordeaux. He never did…but his promise inspired this song. 

 

“ON A PERFECT DAY"

Words and music by Matthew Alexander 

Rising Moon Music (BMI 

I met with a very learned minister once and asked him what he made of death. He told me that he considered death a placeholder between two mysteries – the mystery of life and the mystery of life after death. I have never forgotten this conceptualization. 

We are the only species that can contemplate their own individual demise. What does it all mean? Where are we going? The best answer I can come up with is that there is a continuity beyond death. And furthermore that time itself is an illusion and that all that exists is the “eternal now” (“there is no beginning, there is no end”). When we slow down time, we can tap into a transcendent state and notice signs of and windows into eternity…the voice in the wind, the beautiful colors we see with our eyes and the love that we feel for one another. 

My hope is that our soul remains intact after death. And that if our soul remains, my further hope is that we can in some ways reach out to those who we love who are still on this earthly plane.