"Sand and Sentiments EP" by Andrew Cos Band

Welcome!

2007-04-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings!
Thanks for checking out this site for "Sand and Sentiments EP" by Andrew Cos Band (formerly "Debtor).

Click around to view lyrics, behind-the-song-writing info, and behind-the-recording info.

Some interesting info about "Sand and Sentiments EP":

-->The "bass" used in "Somewhere In The Scraps" is actually the low strings on a guitar with the EQ set really low.

-->The percussion sounds in "Somewhere In The Scraps" includes flick a pop can tab, and drumming on the side of that can with a pencil.

-->This album was written in just a few days' time, during my Spring Break trip to San Diego to visit my Grandparents.

-->Music for this album is mostly inspired by Ben Folds. The story-telling lyrics also drew greatly from his influence.

-->I'd never tried a slide on a mandolin before recording it on "In Piano Years."

-->The entire album was originally recorded on my MP3 player, mostly on the same piano I sing about in "In Piano Years."

-->That same piano is the one in the 500 Lounge at my grandparents apartment building. Obviously, my song "500 Lounge", from the yet-to-be-recorded "Belay On" album (based on the book of Romans) was also written on that piano in that lounge.

-->Release date was March 17, 2007.

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1-Somewhere In The Scraps

2007-04-16T17:51:00.001-07:00

(Words: 3/8/07 on the whale watching boat in San Diego)

(Music: 3/10/07 at home on piano)

Lyrics:

She twists open the glue with her fragile hands/

And pours it like a Polluck piece/

The photo is then centered and pressed/

Above the caption “My Neice”/

I think she has spent more or less/

Two months in making this book/

Of her labors of love, I love these the most/

She’d say every page is deserved/

She works on her own to encompass time flown/

And survey the last eighty years/

She made me one, says “To you, my grandson/

With love from your grandmother, dear”/

With whistles and hums, another page comes/

To life like the life it’s about/

With the colors and quotes and a letter they wrote/

To her, and of which they forgot/

She keeps a box filled to the top/

With pictures and old artifacts/

From years of watching, collecting, and marking/

Time’s passing by what she collects/

She checks the time as she lets the glue dry/

And notes how much time has elapsed/

Until now as each vestige breathes in the life that she’d say/

Came from somewhere in the scraps/

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2-In Piano Years

2007-04-16T17:50:00.001-07:00

(3/8/07 in my grandparents' apartment)

(3/5/07 at piano in 500 Lounge)

Lyrics:

The keys stick a bit but I don’t mind/

And for the most it’s still in tune/

My wandering’s resulted in this find/

An old piano in this empty room/

This song I began when I sat down/

Unsure what it might produce/

Imagination’s got me wondering aloud/

The history of this piano’s use/

(*) How many songs have been played on you?/

Which notes were played the most?/

What kind of tunes? How old are you?/

In piano years, how old?/

Perhaps an old gentleman sat down/

And played an overture on it/

And maybe a lady taught lessons/

To many kids who could not sit still/

It might have been played on wedding days/

And for hymns within some church/

But now it’s just me on this rickety seat/

Singing to it like it’s a person/

(*)

The clock ticks on without relent/

As I sit upon this piano bench/

Feeling all the hour-glass sand/

And sentiments that fill my head/

(2^nd *) This body is fading fast/

Just like this piano has/

But there’s a tune or two still left/

In this old piano, and in this young man/

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3-Leaving San Diego

2007-04-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

(Words: 3/9/07 mostly on plane flight back to St. Louis, and 2^nd verse and bridge written next morning at home)

(Music: 3/10/07 at home on piano)

Lyrics:

In the peace and quiet of this flight/

Non-stop to St. Louis/

I’ve time to think of many things/

About my life and what I’m doing/

‘bout my life and what I’m doing/

Grandma cried as we said bye/

“Always too short,” she said/

And my grandpa said, “Well, guy, so long,”/

As he gently patted my head/

(=) One week in San Diego/

Gave me four songs thus far/

And plenty of thoughts/

(*) Life slips easily by, I know/

So I soak up all I’ve got/

As I’m leaving San Diego/

These are some of my thoughts/

All the folks at the retirement home/

Are looking back on life gone by/

They well know that leaving San Diego/

For them means leaving this life/

Many books from which we could learn/

Might have been written ‘bout their lives/

But their memories fade as they’re less breaths away/

From waving San Diego bye/

(2^nd =) One week in San Diego/

Has me hoping I’ll/

Live well, live right/

(*)

Touch down on the runway strip/

Still journaling about the trip/

The splendid paintings I walked past/

And my own half-blank canvas/

In the peace and quiet of this flight/

Non-stop to St. Louis/

I got time to think of many things/

About my life and what I’m doing/

Sometimes what it takes to know/

Is leaving San Diego/

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Some photos during the writing of this album

2007-04-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

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