INCEPTION:

“Adam the Astronaut Pt 2: Splitting the Adam” follows our cosmotic journeyman spinning out of control into deep space with only his imaginary friend to keep him company.  In Adam, Pt 1, the idea was that he might go on through the vacuum for eternity.  Adam, Pt 2 follows the idea that, even in the vast emptiness of space, he had to collide with something at some point.  From there, the theme of “change” began to emerge.  Change, in a few different ways…  

I remembered an interview I saw with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  He was talking about theories of what happens as you enter a Black Hole and move beyond the Event Horizon.  One that always stuck with me was, “Spaghettification”.  If you’re not familiar, imagine falling into a black hole, feet 1st…the force of gravity increases so quickly that there is a drastic difference in the force you feel on your head as opposed to your feet.  The further in you fall, the intensifying force of gravity stretches your body out on an atomic level and ultimately turns you into long strands of atoms.  At these depths, the rules of time and space and light and gravity no longer operate in the way we experience them.  This was all very fascinating and terrifying to me.  

What happens here, and how/if you get out is unknown and entirely theoretical…which is where I took some liberties.  I imagined Adam being pulled apart, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, by some incomprehensible (but deliberate) force.  After being pulled apart, Adam is reconstructed anew.  Reconstructed the same, but different.  

I believe that we are always changing in some area or another.  I have changed since writing this song back in 2019, and I hope to be different by the time I wake up tomorrow.  The idea that change means we “leave behind” a former self, feels too simple and short sighted for me.  I believe that change represents the culmination of our life experiences up to this very moment that you are reading these words.  It is inevitable…fear it, run from it, pray against it…it (ironically) is one of the few consistencies of this life we have to lean on.  So, let us embrace it, and try to be more curious of progress and moving forward into the unknown.

MUSIC:

Much like “Adam, Pt 1”, I really wanted this song to be unique.  Structurally, it’s not all that odd, but I did manage to throw a few time changes into it, and an extended moving bridge.  When I thought about both songs (“Adam, Pt 1” and “Adam, Pt 2”), I wanted them to be experienced together as one story.  At the same time, I wanted them to be able to stand alone (which is why I made them 2 separate tracks on the album).  

If we are getting more precise and technical about it (which is not exactly my forte)…Here is how I counted out the different riffs/parts…

The verses are alternating measures of 5/8 and 7/8 timing…The chorus is 7/8…And the bridge moves to a 4/4. 

While “Adam, Pt. 1” took years to come to fruition, “Adam, Pt. 2” was built and completed within a few weeks. The momentum of completing “Adam, Pt.1” made flowing directly into “Adam, Pt. 2” almost effortless.  If only all things in life could be so ease, amiright?

INFLUENCES:

Interstellar (film)

The Abyss (film)

Tool (band)

Neil DeGrasse Tyson (scientist)

Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” (book)

Rush (band)

• Cygnus X-1 (song)
• Hemispheres (song)

Radiohead (band)

• Paranoid Android (song)

Sturgill Simpson (artist)

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: Enjoy the playlist I put together that includes a number songs related to “Adam” and/or inspired “Adam”…

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6b1nAXrso2hq3yxQU7K2IZ?si=Sa5FR4P-REib5EyGjK0shw