I'm Not Content

There's a 12 minute track on my 2017 instrumental album 'Detrimentals' called 'Stream', which is essentially a medley of many different musical ideas/sections. I knew when I recorded it that several of these sections had the potential to be full songs in their own right - in 2024 my single ‘Summer Of Song’ became the first one, and the following year I began work on the second.

 

The section that became ‘I’m Not Content’ starts 1 minute and 33 seconds into ‘Stream’ (which, when we originally worked on it, my producer Joe Lonsdale and I nicknamed the ‘Funky' section). On ‘Summer Of Song’ I turned the existing music/melody into the verses and chorus of the song, but with this song I did something different - I turned the ‘Funky’ section into the intro and outro of the song, and wrote an all-new verse and chorus.

 

Although these new bits were in a different key, we maintained continuity by keeping the same tempo and by using the same instrument sounds - in the video above you can hear examples of how the new electric keyboard and guitar parts continue the style that was established in the ‘Funky’ section. Some new instrumentation was also added in the form of additional guitars by my producer Joe, as well as a trumpet part by my friend Tim Pannell and a guitar solo by my friend Spencer Segelov.

 

Lyrically, the song was inspired by Gary Larson’s brilliantly surreal comic strip ‘The Far Side’, and as such, the lyrics are very bizarre! I created a music video for the song featuring the individual comics the lyrics were inspired by, but even without knowing what they’re referring to I think the song can still be enjoyed as an ‘I Am The Walrus’-style nonsense song. The artwork for the single was similarly inspired the ‘The Far Side’ - I made another video showing how I created it, which was a fairly complicated process.

 

I’m very pleased with the final song - I think the newly-composed parts flow into and out of the updated funky sections very well, and it feels like Tim and Spencer’s trumpet and guitar parts were always meant to be a part of them. ‘I’m Not Content’ was released on December 19th 2025, and in 2026 I aim to expand at least one more section from ‘Stream’ into a full song - watch this space!