It was this twitter/facebook post from Joey Ryan from about a month back “Stop messing around and watch this video of @GarrisonStarr – this is what it’s all about, kills me” and before the video was over we were tracking down Garrison. Very simply hers is the kind of soul, the heart, the kind of voice we feel privileged to have involved in this little experiment, one who through the power of music can relate an empathy to others in a way that maybe we can all learn, even if it’s just a little bit, that we’re all in this together.
Lyrics: Ugly
Well I’m a little awkward at times
And I don’t always say the right things
But that doesn’t mean, that doesn’t mean anything
Hey what does it mean, what does it mean if anything
Ugly I’ll be
Ugly i’ll be
Ugly so you won’t…you don’t have to be
(audience: spontaneous exclamations about the awesomeness of that lyric and the thought behind it)
So I realize what you’re saying
You think I don’t know, but I know what you see
You want to hurt, I know you want to hurt me
But what do you gain, what do you gain by hurting…
Ugly I’ll be
Ugly I wannna be
Ugly so you…you don’t have to be
yeah
(audience: spontaneous applause)
And ugly I’ll be
Ugly yeah, I wannna be
Ugly (audience: YEAH!)
So you…you don’t have to be
Don’t you worry
Ryan caught up with Garrison at a friends place in LA for this shoot. We just saw Joey in NY last week – he was excited, saying that Garrison had already passed him the Broken Headlights clip, and just kept saying, “maaaan” and nodding his head quietly, I think in the tone of voice you say a word like that when someone has just taken the song you wrote and played it back for you, taking it to their own different level of beauty from where you started it. It’s a nice tone of voice.