After meeting The Apollo Affair through Twitter, I had a reaction that brought me back. I grew up with classic rock and St. Louis had a great radio station that implanted a solid blueprint of the sound. Checking out The Apollo Affair’s music on their site reminded me of the sound that I love. The group is a duo with Chris on guitar and Megan on vocals. Listen to “Coming Home” from the player, and check out some other tunes, as you read the story behind the song.
The Story Behind The Song
The back story is in Megan’s words.
“Coming Home” was the first song that I wrote independently of Chris for “The Apollo Affair”. At that point in our career Chris was usually writing instrumentals for new and potential songs first, from which I would draw inspiration for the vocals and lyrics. When I was young, I used to write music all the time but I didn’t know how to play any instruments. Words and melodies used to come easily for me. As I got older, went to high school and then college…that went away. Working with Chris in our band has helped me rediscover that part of who I am.
I spent most of my life moving from place to place due to my parents being divorced, so my sense of belonging to any particular town or “home” has always been skewed. But even when things were difficult for us, there was always one place we could go back to – my grandparents’ house. It always was and always will be the only thing that ever felt like home to me. I spent so much of my life figuring out who I was within those walls. It was precious to me. From an outside perspective, it wasn’t any different from any other house in a suburban development. But for me, that house was filled with my memories, my dreams, my pains, my identity.
“Coming Home” was written in that house. At the time, my grandparents had put the house up for sale but no one had made any offers yet. I was in denial…but at the same time, I didn’t want to take the moments I had left there for granted. I was measuring up every inch of every room and storing them in my heart. The melody came first, like a ghost emerging from the ether. I had just gotten out of the shower in the upstairs bathroom. Then I began to string together phrases. I was in the hallway, walking towards my grandparents’ room to get dressed. I sat in my favorite window, the one that looked out into our backyard and the fence that connected to my best friend’s backyard, and I wrote the rest. The words came like something remembered.
I showed the song to Chris as soon as I got back. It was so frustrating to try and explain what I wanted him to play, but in the end he said, “you want it to sound like a traditional blues tune, but busted up and broken.” And he was right. I was singing the blues, mourning for the loss of the only home I’d ever known in my fucked up, broken life.
No matter where we play, everyone seems to find something to love about “Coming Home”. It resonates with them in different ways I suppose. My mom sings along to it. When she does, I can’t help but wonder if she ever felt the same way about that house as I did.