so i came up with a few more title ideas and landed on " turning page." to make things even more bizarre/coincidental. a little while before the film released i got a phone call asking if i'd consider a different title because there was another artist on the soundtrack that had nearly the same title. my original submission title for " turning page" was actually "a hundred years." why is that funny? well, because christina perri's absolutely gorgeous single, from the same soundtrack is titled "a thousand years." crazy, crazy coincidence. Sidetrack: funny story behind that lyric " a hundred years". when you're in love, nothing is too dramatic or overstated. unrelated to twilight, i really liked the idea of the extremity and exaggeration of waiting " a hundred years" for someone. and this lyric sets the tone of the song being written from his edward's perspective. In a literal twilight translation, the character "edward" is over 100 years old in the story, so i liked the nod to that. "i've waited a hundred years, but i'd wait a million more for you" Lyrically, my goal was to subtly include some visuals inspired by the films but at the same time, write a love song that meant something to me first and foremost.
(after all, it is a vampire love story!) when i played/found those first few chords of the song, it felt like the right direction so i moved forward with it. within an hour or two or playing around, i found the beginning chords of " turning page." i was looking for something with a sweet tone, but also with a touch of somber in it too. I set up my ipad on my piano and let a couple scenes from "eclipse" play over and over on mute while i played piano over it, to see what worked, what felt right. it was obvious that the wedding would be up next, and in essence, the entire twilight saga is, at it's heart, a love story. after taking it all in, i did a little research on what was to come next in the story. a few months later, i sat down and gave it a shot and wrote " turning page," my submission for the twilight saga: breaking dawn - part 1.īut before i began writing " turning page" i bought all 3 twilight films on iTunes and watched them for the first time, back to back. In a random conversation early 2011, a close friend of mine gave me the nudge that i needed, suggesting that perhaps i should try to write something for the new twilight movie. in the back of my head i thought it'd sure be amazing to be a part of that incredible list of musicians myself, but for whatever reason (more than likely the fear of not making it in!), i didn't submit anything. they always have incredible, exclusive music and i always looked forward to hearing who was going to be on it next.
vincent, grizzly bear, iron and wine? come on. I had never seen any of the twilight films previously, or read any of the books, but i have always loved the twilight soundtracks. Although " turning page" was not a part of my " yearbook" project, i wrote it right in the middle of working on my "june" yearbook ep, so as i make my way through all of these yearbook "how it was made" blog posts, it feels appropriate to write about this song now, in the sequence in which it was written.