Short post to note I’ve released a new quickie-demo, because apparently I’m not done with the mandocello just yet. Check it out via Bandcamp here or Youtube here. This tune is a special limited-release bonus track from the forthcoming Bandcamp-only “hang on, it hasn’t even been three years, why are you reissuing this?” version of my “Lost Songs for Lost Singers” E.P. Yep, some unearthed mando-goodies will be back on the menu starting March 6. You’ve been warned.
I’m choosing to associate this song with the mandocello EP—or rather the reissued version—because by itself it’s much more niche-specific and goofy than even that release. See, while “Lost Songs” was about/written by my D&D bard character, this new song is specifically about his Baldur’s Gate 3 incarnation and a romance plot with the drow character Minthara.
Stick with me here, because yeah, that’s very silly in any non-fandom context—but really, who cares? Most people who know me already understand I’m a massive nerd about this stuff. I was initially inspired to start my first fanfic based on these two pixel dolls, but I’m way better with three verses and a chorus, so in late spring of last year I came up with the lyric in a surprisingly short time.
The music took longer, because with me it always does unless I’m collaborating with someone else, but after a few false starts in late 2025 I spun up a worthy vocal take in January. In the past, if a tune wasn’t working, or if it was feeling a bit overcooked, I tended to get good results if I burned most of it down and started over from a not-entirely-blank canvas. Singing the melody by itself, in my key, was a good step in the right direction.
The recording overall was relatively slapdash and unprofessional, though. Aside from doing vocals through the usual SM58 mic, everything else went straight into the Mac via the laptop’s own mic. Not optimal, but not a problem if this was just gonna be a bonus track. I layered other instruments and some percussion over it for a “tavern take” (as if these two characters were performing it live), but those elements seemed superfluous almost immediately.
So I stripped it back to a few mandocello parts and vocals last week, mixed the bastard until like 12:30am on Valentine’s Day, declared victory, and uploaded it to Bandcamp. I like to finish projects, and while I’m proud of what I made, my ears are tired and I’m a bit burned out on it at the moment.
Unlike the seven “lost songs” it’ll eventually be attached to, I’m counting this one as a “found song” because the lyric focuses on “we” instead of “I”, documenting shared direction and purpose for its beleaguered protagonists, even though it doesn’t guarantee (or even care about) “happily ever after”. I like the idea of this lyric being a semi-private thing between two people, but also able to transcend its initial inspiration and context, because then it can mean anything to anyone.
Does it matter that it was quicker and easier to make than the others? I don’t know. For the first time in almost three years, and maybe the last time for a good long while, a song is out of my head and into the world, so I can’t complain.
