Out for Walking (In the City)

written in 1993 / recorded in 1994

Introducing programmed synthesizer into a live band to play together is not a novel idea. Apart from my personal demo recordings, this tune was the first attempt for my band Culotte to play with pre-recorded synthesizer part in a recording session in studio. There were some advantages for taking programmed synthesizer into our music. It could expand the range of music we play, and it could occasionally reduce the amount of effort I had to put into for writing music and making basic demo recordings for other members.

When I first wrote this tune, in early 1993, I also wrote lyrics to go with. At that time, I called this tune ‘Happy One’s Out for Walking’ because the lyrics were about a happy man, who goes out for walking in order ‘to seek for misfortune’ (Johnson, Jeri (ed.) (1998), Ulysses by James Joyce, Oxford University Press - P. 575). Apart from this subtle quotation from Joyce’s character Stephen Dedalus, the lyrics had little things to talk about. The tone was dominantly pessimistic because the ‘Happy One’ weighs misfortune and suffering over positive things like just being happy. Now, as a middle-aged man, I can hardly sympathise with the ‘Happy One’ or with the author of the lyrics… my young self.

For making this video, I rather focused on emphasising its inorganic atmosphere embedded in urban life. You see many people moving and walking in big cities, but if you see these movements are utterly meaningless and irrelevant to your existence, then, you would be able to share the pessimism and isolation the composer originally put into this tune.