"The Maze" (2008)

Today, I'm looking back to the post-2005 period when I was, for the first time, really trying my hand at writing both lyrics and music for stand-alone songs. I was very interested in experimenting with different stories, styles, and arrangements.  For the most part, I was scoring all the songs out as sheet music. This time and these songs provided me with such a learning experience.

Perhaps the strangest piece to come out of that batch of songs was one called "The Maze."  As usual, I wrote the lyrics first. For the subject, I set out to express the feeling that often comes in a relationship (of any kind) after the newness fades, before comfort and trust are completely established- the place where insecurities, jealousies, and uncertainties can cloud thinking and behavior, and if we aren't careful, lead to long-lasting emotional distance. I was experiencing some of this in both my personal and spiritual lives at the time. I chose to approach the subject through an extended metaphor. The result was "The Maze."  Here it is in its original incarnation: LINK

Lyrically, it's a narrative in which the singer and the person he addresses never move forward in any real way, and the separation between them seems to be growing.  They continue to face metaphorical obstacles and take wrong turns.  Confusion reigns.     

I purposely didn't identify the sole problem behind their conundrum. It's less about the stage of a relationship where love is in question; it's about the stage where seeing and finding one another becomes more difficult.  Where clarity becomes compromised. While it's about drifting apart unintentionally, being blinded by insecurities- about questions and uncertainties- the song never says that directly. I meant for it to share the experience of the maze rather than to describe it.  

I filled it with an abundance of imagery (which may be off-putting to some). At every turn, the singer encounters signals, mirrors, beasts, temples, wolves, facades, walls, haze, etc.  It's meant to be disorienting and to create a liminal space in the listener's imagination (a somewhat claustrophobic and anxious one). 

The most important thing that I hope doesn't get lost in the unconventional approach is that it's a song about relationships. No matter their nature (with a partner, a family member, or even a higher power), relationships don't remain easy; they require work if we want to avoid getting lost. It's about continually finding one another. 

For the music, I opted for something unusual, with pop, theatre, and classical influences and no eye toward commercialism. It's theatrical, but not overtly so. It's weird by design, particularly the arrangement I wrote. 

I believe it was in 2010 that I sent the score to Jon Statham (and got it back in early 2011), the Nashville-based artist I often used for acoustic demos, to make a guitar/vocal recording. Jon was tasked with the challenge of interpreting the arrangement I'd written for piano and cello on guitar- a feat he pulled off astonishingly well.  As I mentioned, the arrangement was unusual, with trills, strange chord sequences, wildly varying articulations, and other effects. It also included a long instrumental coda/outro, which he followed note-for-note. You'll find his original demo of the piece below.

Later, in 2020, when my frequent collaborator, Matt Glicksetin, and I were toying with writing an album of stand-alone theatrical songs, we briefly revisited this song, with Matt giving it new music. I don't believe we ever came up with a full demo of the reworked piece-only ideas, and we abandoned the album project. Like a few other old tunes of mine that resurfaced during that time, "The Maze" remains with the original musical setting I gave it over fifteen years ago.

For the new, updated demo, my original arrangement remains largely intact, though the cello line takes on many of the piano bits, with added embellishments characteristic of the instrument. There are some added harmonies backing up the lead vocal, and some rather experimental percussion parts for effect. For this recording, some of the coda/outro section was incorporated as a brief instrumental section before the final chorus (it's also used as the outro as in the original). I was also able to tweak a few words and lines here and there.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the new recording of the old, strange piece. The atmosphere it creates is very close to what I had always envisioned.

New 2026 Demo

Original 2011 Demo

*a screenshot from my unedited 2009 piano/vocal score in Finale

THE MAZE
*updated lyrics

There's a cold wind blowing in the desert tonight.

Shadows are haunting the houses of light.

Silence has stolen the song from our lips

and extinguished the fire in our fingertips.

Did I miss the signal when the lines came down?

Were you watching the stars falling from my crown?

Now the house is shaking, but the walls won't fall.

A beast approaches through a mirrored hall.

In a maze of thorns and secrets,

lies can cut like razor blades.

We are running from deception

as the world around us fades.

Heaven can't shine bright enough

to light a pathway through this haze.

We're searching for our souls

and moving blind through

this maze.

The seats are empty in the temple of God.

There's a wolf in the chapel—the devil's façade.

We're locked in a battle being waged by time,

pawns on a board fighting faceless mimes.

We're locked inside a maze.

Each turn reveals more walls.

I feel your hopeless gaze.

God, hear our broken call.

(shout)

In a maze of thorns and secrets,

lies can cut like razor blades.

We are running from deception

as the world around us fades.

Heaven can't shine bright enough

to light a pathway through this haze.

We're searching for our souls

and moving blind through

this maze.

*The updated demo was created from the original demo recordings and sheet music using a combination of virtual instruments and AI-assisted production and vocal recreation. The recording follows the original melody, harmony, and arrangement and is intended as a faithful, expanded recreation of the original composition. It is presented here solely as a demonstration of concept and as part of an ongoing effort to curate, catalog, and preserve the work.