Singled Out: Susan James' Time In Now

Susan James just released the title track to her forthcoming album, "Time is Now" (out June 17th), and to celebrate, we asked her to tell us about the new song. Here is the story:

There's a point in meditation where you can actually sit in the knowledge that time is NOW-it is only the absolute present moment, and that 'now' is all you really have. And The past is exactly that- the past. and it cannot be changed. The future moments are not here yet, but you can influence the future by what you do right now.

So what if we influence our present moment to bring the best of humanity? Emit the most love and beauty we can from ourselves instead of the worst?

The song started with the verse chord progression for me and then developed from there. The subject was kind of a big subject to cover so I broke it down to what I would call sound bytes instead of lyrics. Where every verse stands on its own like some sort of message being sent from a satellite or pings from a black box, with the chorus tying it all together.

I recorded the guitar and a scratch vocal first, and then I put on the keyboards. After I had those, I had my bass player Bobby and drummer Christopher come in and record. I then added electric guitars and felt like the song had really come together- but needed one more anarchistic element. So I invited my friend Morley to come in and do the wild piano on the bridge.

Ultimately it sounded good just as a rough mix and needed only some dialing in at the end. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. It's a call for everyone to use their presence and present moment to create more good in the world which is desperately needed at this moment.

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

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