Singled Out: Roger Street Friedman's The Strange Shape Of Love

Keavin Wiggins | 04-26-2020

Roger Street Friedman just released his new album "Rise" and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the track "The Strange Shape Of Love". Here is the story:

So one of the songs with an interesting back story is "The Strange Shape of Love." I actually wrote this song in 2018, and it's a song that looks at the arc of a relationship with nostalgic remembrances of, shall I say, intimacy from the early stages of love, when everything is exciting and wonderful and new - that incredible phase when you just can't get enough of each other, or keep your hands off of each other for that matter - juxtaposed with the more mature stages, let's say once the kids come along, and life gets more complicated, and the intimacy waxes and wanes a bit and isn't quite so intense, and the physical encounters are perhaps not as frequent (he he). The love shifts from this overwhelming can't get enough of you kind of love to a more omnipresent feeling: you know it's forever and for always, and it's not quite as exciting as it once was, but it's much, much more solid. Not better or worse, just different!
Well anyway, back in 2018, I recorded the demo for this song and filed it away and forgot about it, really. And then when I sent Larry Campbell (who produced the album) about 30 songs to choose from for the record, this was one of the ones he chose. We started recording, and this track had such a great feel, the instrumentation he layered on was so cool. And then I sang it, and all of a sudden remembered that the lyrics were pretty damn descriptive and personal, and that I actually hadn't ever played the song for anyone and especially not my wife. I told Larry I was a little scared about doing so. The whole time we were working on the record, Larry would ask me if I had played if for her yet, and I would sheepishly admit that I hadn't but that I knew I had better do it at some point before the record came out! Well, I finally did play it for her, and she loved it, but she told me in no uncertain terms, under penalty of death, that I wasn't allowed to play it for the kids!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here