Maybe It’s Me

As featured in Playbill’s Track-By-Track Breakdown Feature (03/27/20):

“MAYBE IT’S ME”
Early in 2019 I got a request from a TV showrunner asking if I would be interested in writing a song for a musical TV series. Because I knew the song needed to sound very pop, I called my friend Justin Goldner and asked him to help me make a demo that was more highly produced than the acoustic orchestrations I usually write. The demo we submitted was Justin’s track of my song with Jessica Vosk’s amazing vocal (which she learned overnight, by the way—and then caught a cold and lost her voice for the next week). After all of that… the studio said no. Now I had a truly homeless song that I really liked, and it was in danger of disappearing. Honestly, I think that rejection was the nudge that finally made me invest the time and money into making this long-overdue album. I hired a drummer to replace the electronic drums from the demo, I wrote a cello line to give the track some more breadth and counterpoint, and I hired Jeffrey Lesser to mix it all together. And that’s how I started making this album.

LYRICS:

DAY ONE OF REHEARSAL
YOU WALK IN WITH JUST A NAMETAG
AND A BINDER FULL OF POSSIBILITY
THERE, NOBODY KNOWS YOU
YOU’RE A FACE LIKE EVERY OTHER –
AND A PILE OF NERVOUS ENERGY.
TRY NOT TO SHOW THE PANIC YOU BRING.
NO ONE EVEN LOOKS UP
UNTIL YOU SING.

MAYBE IT’S ME
IN THAT SPOTLIGHT –
MAYBE IT’S ME
ON THAT STAGE.
MAYBE IT’S ME BREATHING LIFE
INTO THE WORDS ON SOME NEW PAGE.
DON’T WE ALL WANT SOMETHING NEW TO SEE?
MAYBE IT’S ME.

EVERYONE HERE KNOWS ME
KNOWS MY FAMILY, KNOWS MY BUSINESS,
BUT THEY’VE NEVER REALLY SEEN WHAT I CAN DO.
NOW THINGS ARE CHANGING,
THERE’S A FIRE LIT INSIDE ME,
I’VE GOTTA SHOW THEM SOMETHING NEW!
IF I COULD START AGAIN SOMEHOW,
WITH A CLEAN SLATE,
I’D START RIGHT NOW.

MAYBE IT’S ME
IN THAT SPOTLIGHT –
MAYBE IT’S ME
ON MY OWN!
MAYBE IT’S ME BEING BIG ENOUGH
TO FACE THE GREAT UNKNOWN.
DON’T WE ALL WANT SOMETHING NEW TO SEE?

MAYBE IT’S ME…
STEPPING OUT BEYOND THE FOOTLIGHTS…
BEING BRAVE ENOUGH TO TRY…
OTHER PEOPLE TAKE CHANCES.
WHEN WILL I?

MAYBE IT’S ME
IN THAT SPOTLIGHT –
MAYBE IT’S ME
AT THE FRONT OF THE LINE!
MAYBE IT’S ME WHO’S THE DISTANT STAR
THAT FINALLY GETS TO SHINE!
WHAT IF I’VE GOT SOMEONE NEW TO BE?
MAYBE IT’S ME.
MAYBE IT’S ME.
MAYBE IT’S ME!