On December 25, 2024, a Christmas day, local Spotify artist Graham Blotter dropped a song that instantly became a personal favorite: “Renee’s Song.” Judging from the caption of his Instagram post for the release—“happy late birthday, happy holidays, happy new year” –– it was an end-of-the-year, cozy tune for everybody and one Renee –– me.
Blotter had mentioned making a song for me a month prior. I remember I had been sprawling on the beanbag in his room—a go-to spot for our friend group because of its enormity—when he asked, “Can I borrow your guitar? I want to make you a song.”
“Why?” I sat up.
“For your birthday,” he shrugged, “and I want to play with your guitar.”
It felt like I was in a high-end department store, someone holding up a gorgeous designer gown next to me, saying, “Try this, you would look lovely in it.” I knew I did not deserve the gown, nor would it suit me. Later that day, I gave Blotter my guitar and comforted myself: at least I had this to offer. By the end of the week, I’d forgotten the moment, my mind already occupied with something else.
In Taiwan, Christmas is more performative than real. However, as I lay in bed scrolling my mind away that night, I saw that Blotter had tagged me in an Instagram story: “Finally finished. Happy late birthday.” I became a kid, seeing a gift under the tree for the first time. I scrambled to Spotify, opened his profile page and right there, New Release: “Renee’s Song.”
I put on my earphones and hit play, acoustic strums flowing into my ears. Blotter’s low voice blended pleasantly with the chords and in an instant, I was transported back into that room, me in the beanbag, a cross-legged Blotter on the carpet playing my sticker-covered guitar, singing:
Nineteen
Another year that passes, you’re still waiting
At a teller, asking for a fortune
Never mind, you found out where to go
I met Blotter on Instagram three months before freshman year started. His love for Herman Melville and the year 1925 matched my obsession with Greek mythology and the 1960 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. We both did yarn work and creative writing. School started, and there began an incredible friendship, one of late-night milkshakes and ghost-hunting videos while consuming ungodly amounts of Albanese Gummi Bears.
When I asked Blotter about his production process for “Renee’s Song,” he mentioned that he wanted it to feel “homemade,” like his first album, Homemade Homesick. “It’s essentially just a recording on Garageband,” he said, “I sat down, hit record and started singing.” The unfiltered sounds of steel strings and lack of autotune feel so organic and unpretentious. Blotter also mentioned a mistake in the chord progression of “Renee’s Song.” “There is actually a chord that I did not press properly at the end of the song, but when I replayed the recording, it sounded so perfect that I decided to leave it in.”
There is something so beautiful about an unpolished piece of art. Blotter expressed that, especially with the prevalence of Artificial Intelligence in the creative world, he wanted to counter it by producing a work of his that is so unapologetically human. “That was the idea behind my first album, and something that I will still be carrying on. I want my music to scream, This is made by a real-life, breathing human being.”
From Blotter’s inspiration, to his lyricism, to his production –– everything is genuine and original. His most recent album, Border as Breakfast, is a temporary departure from his typical folksy, cozy vibe, incorporating heavier distortion and synthesizers to create a techno-sound. It is a critique of technology’s control over us in the postmodern era; it makes reference to fake news, biodata and the increasing polarization in current politics. As for his future projects, Blotter confirmed he is planning to make more “silly stuff.”
“I’m doubling down on the homemade, human-made vibe,” he said, “I will also keep on donating whatever amount of profit I make to organizations like True Colors United. I would like to think that on a micro-scale, I made a difference.”
“Music is moments.” This is something Blotter said that sticks with me, and I think it encompasses the sentiment of his musical endeavor well. “I see my music as my own time capsules,” he said, “ones that I can listen back to when I am 70 to see what I was up to when I was 18.”
Personally, I feel that the best part of “Renee’s Song” is its universality. The song is for all the polar bears out there who struggle to sleep and wake up sometimes:
Maybe
You’re a polar bear in global warming
Hopping from the icebergs as they’re melting
The world tries to drown you but you won’t
Stream Renee’s Song.
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