Before They Were Night Vale: When We Went (unfinished) (Patreon)

Welcome to "Before They Were Night Vale", our feature in which Night Vale creators Jeffrey and Joseph share writing from before their Welcome to Night Vale collaboration, along with commentary. Come explore their early writing, both good and bad

I have a folder on my computer where I keep all the music I write. Most of it is unfinished, or scraps of ideas.

My father was a professional musician, and I inherited some of his ability and most of his instruments. But I just don't have the consistency needed to really get better than "ok". I'll play every day for a few weeks, and then not touch an instrument for eight months. I don't know why, but it's fine. I don't need to be great at music. Occasionally I write songs, and it's an enjoyable hobby for me. 

When I write a full song and get a recording I like of it, I'll often stick it up on my bandcamp. Rough demos or stuff that I don't plan to make polished versions of sometimes go up on my soundcloud. But a lot of this stuff just never gets finished at all, and it sits in the "Joseph Music Demos" folder forever.

This song, called "When We Went", is a little bit silly and a little bit sad. It's a story about tragedy and revenge, but it's delivered in a kind of community theater tone that maybe undercuts the gravity of the tale. I liked it though, and so in 2018 I decided to really give it a nice recording, adding some accordion and back-up vocals. And then: I dunno, as happens with me, I just didn't finish it. The accordion only shows up on one verse and then disappears for the rest of the song.

So here it is: An almost finished recording of a song that I never quite finished. I hope you enjoy it for what it's worth.

-Joseph