I think “Catch Your Eye” I actually based off a piano idea. I was lent a synthesizer and I started writing more by basing ideas off melodies I was coming up with on the synth. SHAUF: Yeah, I was making a disco record previous to this. The album bio talked about you listening to vaporwave, how you thought about making a dancier record. It’s present in a few songs, but the album has some different instrumentation for you, particularly a lot more synths. A little prayer under the breath, that shows that Norm is recognizing the love of God. There’s a line: “Words under my breath/ Float through the ceiling.” That’s how I initially tried to tie the character of Norm to a relationship with his God figure. You realize this person is following someone all around the grocery store. I just wanted it to be really nice-sounding song, a nice melody, a little bit of a sinister undertone. SHAUF: I was vaguely getting at the idea of someone following someone. That’s a good segue into “Catch Your Eye,” which on first glance could be a straightforward lovelorn, pining song, but there’s something a bit creepier going on. When the idea for Norm came around, this was a good way to have an omniscient narrator to summarize the theme of the record - misunderstanding what love is.
I was reading the Bible a bit, and I was trying to write songs about those stories from the perspective of God, using his voice as the narrative. Originally this album was not going to be a conceptual/narrative album. God’s expectation with his creation is that they recognize his love and that’s how he’s going to show favor. Jesus is like “What’re you making?” and he’s like “Here, I’ll explain it to you.” It’s more related to the terms of creation. SHAUF: It’s kind of like God has just created the world and he’s filling in Jesus. So is this not necessarily in chronological order? I guess it could’ve been before the events of the album, but it struck me as looking over the whole thing.
But at the same time, it’s capitalized to differentiate from the other “you” on the record, which is the pursued person, who is only referred to as “you.” The “You” is capitalized because the conversation is God and Jesus. This is a pretty granular thing to start with but in the lyrics there are specific capitalizations, “You” and “My,” etc.ĪNDY SHAUF: “Wasted On You” is narrated by the god of Norm’s universe. This feels like a sort of overture for the album. Now that you can hear the album for yourself, read our track-by-track breakdown below.
#Andy shauf okc series
On the occasion of Norm, we caught up with Shauf to talk about how a failed disco album, true crime fascinations, and getting sober all led to his latest collection, a series of songs that might seem gentle and pretty until you see just how dark the narrative turns. But it doesn’t take long to realize Norm does something terrible by the album’s conclusion.Īny Shauf album invites analysis, parsing of his storylines and the ups and downs of the characters’ lives. This time around, Shauf has intentionally left things more open-ended, and even analyzing each track will leave some things to the imagination. But rather than pick up with his old beloved characters, Shauf follows a new one - Norm, the guy who might seem like a hapless stoner with a crush but is something much worse. It is all characteristically beautiful singer-songwriter material, with some slight evolutions in his compositions and arrangements. In some ways, Norm extends logically from Shauf’s past. Now, after all, there is another Andy Shauf concept album in the world - but it’s not like the other ones. It would be called Norm, i.e., a “normal record.” But instead, a character named Norm emerged, and the songs began to move closer to one another. He was writing songs about small thoughts and asides, imagining a collection of unrelated tracks. He was reading the Bible, writing stories from God’s perspective. Andy Shauf wasn’t trying to make another concept album.
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