One Step Lyric Breakdown

Why hello there, I appreciate you finding and reading this blog post! I thought it might be fun to do a series on each of the songs I’ve published. They will be done in order of release, so in this post I’m backtracking to well over a year ago in my memory.

BACKGROUND

One Step was officially released in the fall of 2019 and it was my FIRST official single. Not only was it my fist single, it was the first full song I had written since high school. That is about an 8-year gap. When in college and on the post-degree job search, I had taken a long break from my first love (music). Post-graduation was a stressful time where I spent many hours submitting countless applications with no results. It was frustrating and made me feel like an epic failure. Then one day I had an opportunity finally pan out. Enter my return to enjoying music.

Without the stress of complete uncertainty in life I was able to relax a little. This allowed me to properly reflect on where I’d been and where I was going. I finally saw hope in the potential stability in my future, allowing me to really grab a hold of where I wanted to go and actively work towards it – one step at a time.

LYRICAL BREAKDOWN

Grain of sand at the bottom of a river

Don't know where the current may go

Whittle me down like a stone on the beach

Basking in the ebb and flow

Kindling in the middle of a fire

Ready to burst in flame

Laying down like I'm trained on a leash

Pretending I'm oh so tame

The majority of the lyrics for One Step came to me while sitting on a pier in Baltimore’s Fells Point. When living there I enjoyed sitting by the water watching the sunset and tourists so would often be found listening to music, reading, or writing by the harbor. This is where the initial comparisons came from. At that point in time I compared myself to a ‘grain of sand at the bottom of a river’ in the notebook I had on me. It was an analogy to how the current pushes and pull objects within. It meant that I felt at one time I had no control over where life took me.

The other analogies in the song stemmed from thinking through what objects and interactions in nature could tell a story of transition from that passive state to one being more active. Kindling is in a passive state just waiting for a catalyst. A dog well trained follows order only up to a point as she has her own mind.

Migrating bird flying off course

Don't know where the current may go

Build me up like a dune in the sand

Basking in the ebb and flow

Later I reference a migratory bird. These animals have their patterns ingrained in them and would never go off course. Like with the grain of sand, I place myself as the bird and purposely choose to change courses.

Grapple with fate

As I make my own wake

Sit back and wait

I will make the earth quake

One step at a time

Won't be kept in line

One step at a time

Must be kept in line

The chorus and bridge then reaffirm my choice to take life into my own hands and made conscious decisions on where I go and what I do. In making these decisions I will arrive at the place I was meant to be, affecting the world around me in the strongest of ways.