Mental Maps from Mental Maps by E.G. Phillips

Mental Maps is the title track for the EP of the same name (out Oct 21, 2022)

The notion of the mental map has always intrigued me — that our subjective and fragmentary geographical knowledge effects how we interact with the world. As my geography professor David Lanegran explained, the reason that people don’t stray from the familiar paths they know when going somewhere is because there are vampires in those unknown areas.

This is song about how our individual mental maps may or may not intersect — and what can happen as a result of world views being too far apart.

In addition to producer Kenny Schick, this rollicking folk rock recording features Peter Colclasure on piano. Peter is a musician/composer based in San Jose, California who plays piano at the New Ballet School and teaches at Evergreen Studio of Music and the Arts. The way his piano line builds to a crescendo in the final verse is reason enough to give this track a listen.

Tracklist

5.	Mental Maps	2:58

Lyrics

VERSE 1:
Silk road through the roof of the world
Flowed to the spice lands of the East
A persistent belief
In a Northwest Passage
Tempered fears of the Kraken and
Other beasts of the deep

That’s the stuff of history books
Dreams found in an atlas from the past
Yet still live at the intersection
Of our mental maps

VERSE 2:
We both sketched the city in the dirt
Drew landmarks from our memories
We clearly referred
To all the same places
Yet shared no ground in common
As far as I could see

We set a course for the morning star
The sky fell and we lost the path
Which direction is the intersection
Of our mental maps?

BRIDGE:
The compass rose is in full bloom
Let’s get the lay of the land
You insist we stick to the forged trails
Lest we step into a mess of quicksand

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

VERSE 3:
Last week you set off on your own
A voyage of discovery, a walkabout
One of those journeys
Where you delve deep though the self
And drift as far as you can from
All of your doubts

I had a vision — we arrived at a point
Where space and time had collapsed
And there we met — at the intersection
Of our mental maps

Credits

from Mental Maps, track released September 23, 2022
Vocals - E.G. Phillips
Piano - Peter Colclasure
All Other Instruments - Kenny Schick

Written by E.G. Phillips
Produced by Basement 3 Productions

License