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I Can't Stop You

by Emma Chanelle

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about

I Can’t Stop You is largely a response to current world events. I began writing it over the summer, and didn’t finalize it until the middle of fall semester of 2020. The beginning of the song is about my everyday life in my off-campus house, surrounded by my friends. “Half-faced” refers to the inner turmoil I feel sometimes, depending on my emotional state. I am very familiar with putting on a “good face” for others, to make it seem like I am okay. “I wonder when we all will bend” is an indirect reference to all of my friends and our mental health collectively. I felt like I was bending. I still wonder when all of “this” will end. “This” is referring to some of the most obvious things that have happened in the past year: a global pandemic, more frequent natural disaster, more frequent human-made disaster, chaos in government, mental health crashes, etc. The world, and our country especially, really seems to be pretending like nothing is wrong. We believe that we wouldn't want to be "anywhere else" when really, there is a lot we could learn from other countries and the way they govern.

When we refuse refugees into our country, when we prioritize profit over people, when we act like places and objects have more value than human beings, who are we? What country do we inhabit that sees the entire coast of California burning to the ground and doesn’t acknowledge the source? This song was an explosion of my frustration and anger at many people in power not taking action to fix so many of the vast and intense issues we face as a country and as a society. The “you” I refer to when I sing “I can’t stop you” is no particular person, but an entire system that has failed so many in our country. The strange feeling of inability to force those in power to make meaningful change, while realizing that these people are sitting on their inaction.

The composing of the song itself came from my first experiences playing with the “Pattern Sequencer” looping feature on the keyboard (Juno DS61) that I was lucky enough to receive as a Birthday/Christmas present in December of 2019. I learned how the recording loops/sequencers could work to my advantage to create simple looped songs and I relied on my vocal melodies to carry emotional meaning throughout. I purposefully incorporated a deep piano pedal tone throughout to create a feeling of NON-change underneath the whole song, underpinning the ultimate meaning I am trying to convey. I created the percussion beat with a drum kit in my Juno, and then recreated it in the recording studio with a drum machine. Maybe one of my favorite parts of the instrumentation is the swirling piano synth arpeggios that are panned to different ears, and how they mix with the bells that begin the song. I wanted to compose something interesting with two chords using sonic texture.

lyrics

Today I stepped out of my room again
Half-faced, say hi to my friends
I wonder when we all will bend
It feels it’s been forever, send
A letter to my own free self
I wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else
I wonder when this all will end
The world just keeps playing pretend

How can I be refused to flee?
Priorities...monopoly…
The whole west coast is crumbling now!
How can you say you’ll never know how?
When will you never be around?

And I can’t stop you.

Today I contemplated my whole year
Pissed off, full of so much fear
I wonder when this all will end
It feels it’s been forever…

credits

released April 9, 2021
Emma Chanelle

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about

Emma Chanelle Minnesota

Emma Chanelle is a songwriter, keyboardist, and classically trained vocalist.
St Olaf College graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree in May, 2021.

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