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The Elephant and the Seahorse

by Alex Wong

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1.
Show me what you've seen What did you discover On the other side Before we met each other Every time you see the stars You’ll remember what you are Don't you cry my dear The plan is set in motion Gather all your tears Drop them in the  ocean Always staring at the sky Now I know the reason why Oooh Go to sleep my love Before the night grows colder And I will ask you more Maybe when you're older 
2.
Beyond the blinking city lights We search for signals in the sky We all look up alone together We scan the faces in the crowd For something we can’t say out loud But we’ve followed it forever Wherever you are I am racing through the night Wherever you are I will make the stars align And I promise we’ll remember Even if we don’t understand Wherever you are I’m coming as fast as I can Old friend what if we’ve always known That theres a map that guides us home We’re all returning to each other So look up look up look at the ancient lights There is one you recognize I’m coming back for you my lover And after the bones dry out After the treasures have been found After the sun goes down Darling we’ll change our names And start this game again
3.
If it’s a crash let it be quick gone in an instant no time to think I hope I never see it coming only bright light filling up my eyes If its a crash Let it come right on time (CHORUS) I don’t wanna know too much Just enough just enough If it’s a fall let it be fast into the darkness where the future meets the past I wanna feel just like I’m flying I wanna sleep before my body hits the ground if it’s a fall  I don’t wanna make a sound (CHORUS) (BRIDGE) I keep having the same dream Is it a message or a memory It's a photograph of a Cadillac somethings happening People gather round to see Is it me? Is it me?
4.
I close my eyes and I count to ten You vanish just like you did back then Beneath the branches of the banyan tree Oh why do you still hide from me The sun is low in the Southern sky Our shadows stretch into the night I close my eyes and I count to ten Do we have to play this game again Show yourself Show yourself Come out come out Wherever you are The monsters we keep out of sight Still scratch at the door go bump in the night But wild things will not be tamed Until we call them out by name I miss the sound of my father’s Chinese Fading in the suburban breeze Why do I run from what I used to be Why am I hiding from my history And ready or not the morning comes It shines a light on everyone And ready or not you see the truth There is nobody chasing you
5.
Nocturne 03:50
6.
In LA there are no shadows There are no shadows in LA Our memory’s written backwards Getting shorter every day Here in a city that doesn’t talk back Sing for the future run from the past Oh the water’s rising fast We followed the sunlight as far as we could Were looking for heaven we found Hollywood Where nobody’s selfish they’re all just misunderstood Well it’s still so hard to tell you Oh telling you is so hard We’re as empty as the sidewalks On Venice Boulevard Oh I heard the angels singing That Spanish siren call Her flowers bloom in winter If you survive the fall Here in a city that doesn’t talk back Sing for the future run from the past Oh the fires fading fast And we tried to concentrate But the warmth of the windshield made it hard to stay awake We followed the sunlight as far as we could Were looking for heaven we found Hollywood And the Japanese maple that watched patiently As we lost our voices as it lost its leaves And we followed the sunlight as far as we could And I’m sorry the sun didn’t set where it should But nobody’s selfish here we’re all just misunderstood
7.
You’re the smell of the toast you made in the mornings You’re the page in my book I keep to myself You’re the unlocking sound when I turn my door key You’re the scar that I have from the time that I fell I can’t describe the faces And I can’t recall the names But you remain I keep you in the creases I hide you in the folds Protect you from the sunlight Shield you from the cold Everybody said they were glad to see you go But no one ever has to know You’re the part of the moon that blends into blackness Even though we know it’s really still there You’re the song that I sing and I don’t need to practice  You’re the green shirt I keep though it’s too small to wear The things that I refuse to see And all the nights I still can’t sleep I curl between the sheets  The creases where you used to be Once love wakes it never sleeps Even when you love a dream
8.
It used to be a movie now it's a script on a page I could describe every color could replay every scene frame by frame The way that the orchestra swelled all around every word that we said Now all I see are black and white typewritten lines in my head. It used to be a movie now we’re just frozen in place Golden Tokyo morning as the Japanese light licked your face I barely remember the words that exploded outside of the frame Now only the shot of your smile and your faraway eyes remains Did it ever really happen  Did it every really happen Did it ever really happen at all I’m sure I would recall Sometimes I catch myself remembering part of a dream And I can’t tell the difference except that you're still there with me The scientists say it all looks the same inside of our head Maybe someday I’ll only remember this version instead When I think of your picture That we hung by the stairs I can still smell the ocean and the breeze in your hair I can still taste your laughter and the salt in the air And I swear I remember But I wasn’t there
9.
Me, Forever 05:49
My sacred heart swells Through cathedral bells A lover forsaken The carousel drones Down the cobblestone And something awakens I hear you calling, I remember, I remember This feeling follows me forever, me forever The sidewalks I’ve known Play an undertone Of memories escaping They echo down the canyon walls As the streetlights dissolve Into shadows I'm chasing Somebody told me I've been here before But I’m not the same anymore Through the starry night a younger light is racing Could it be a sign or a satellite we’re chasing The signals never fade away 

about

In his forthcoming full-length solo album, The Elephant and The Seahorse, Alex Wong grapples with his complicated relationship with memory as it pertains to identity. To bring the album to life in an authentic way, he had to mine his own experiences, fears of memory loss, and even cultural conditioning throughout the writing and recording process. Wong found himself directly addressing his upbringing as a second-generation Chinese American for the first time in his artistic career, something he had been hesitant to do, partly because his cultural conditioning discouraged him from wanting to stand out too much.

On the new record, Wong offers the line, “I miss the sound of my father’s Chinese / fading in the suburban breeze.” He says it was one of the hardest lines to write, because he was afraid no one would understand that feeling. “Growing up, there was a lot of shame surrounding the idea of losing your culture to that of America, when, at the same time, there was a lot of pressure to assimilate,” he says. “We were taught that our experience as second-generation Chinese Americans was not ‘the norm,’ and therefore not ’marketable’ in popular culture. Learning how to own that story and claim that space, without apology, felt absolutely necessary to discovering who I am, both as an artist and as a person.”

The result is an album that evokes half-remembered landscapes and emotional vignettes of past, present and future. Wong set out to achieve this anachronistic feel by creating a sonic world that sounds cinematic, almost electronic at times, but using only organic, acoustic sounds. Even the album’s title offers a layered meaning: the elephant’s relationship to memory is well-known in popular culture, but as Wong was researching the album, he learned about the hippocampus, the part of the brain believed to control emotion, memory, and the automatic nervous system. Scientists thought it was shaped like a tiny seahorse, and so they named it after the genus for seahorse… hippocampus.

credits

released February 21, 2020

Produced, engineered, and mixed by Alex Wong at Angelhouse South Studios, Nashville TN

Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, Nashville TN String arrangements by Alex Wong

Creative hand-holding by Vienna Teng and Martin Rivas

All instruments/vocals performed by Alex Wong except:
Vienna Teng: vocals on track 1
Elizabeth Ziman: vocals on track 3
Megan Slankard: vocals on track 6
Amber Rubarth: vocals on track 7
Avery Bright: Violin/Viola on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9
Matt Nelson: Cello on tracks 2, 4, 5, 8, 9
Dave Eggar: Cello on tracks 6, 7
Alicia Enstrom: Violin on track 5
Lydia Luce: Viola on track 5
Matt Wigton: Upright Bass on tracks 4, 9
Tyler Summers: Bass Clarinet on track 9
Jennifer Kummer: French Horn on tracks 4, 9

Track 1 written by Alex Wong/Elise Hayes
Track 2 written by Alex Wong/Micah Dalton
Track 3 written by Alex Wong/Ron Entwistle/Korby Lenker
Track 4 written by Alex Wong/Josh Benus/Matt Kass
Track 5 written by Alex Wong
Track 6 written by Alex Wong/Tyler Lyle
Track 7 written by Alex Wong/Amber Rubarth
Track 8 written by Alex Wong
Track 9 written by Alex Wong/Amber Rubarth

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