Stuart Benbow

Lyrics by Amanda West
Music and Arrangement by Stuart Benbow

During February Album Writing Month, one of the long standing traditions that makes the experience so great is that it really helps people experiment with musical partnerships. Lyricists can find a variety of instrumentalists and vocalists to work with and vice versa.

Amanda West is a long time FAWMer and musical collaboration partner. We've worked together on songs on and off for a while now, kicked songs back and forth several times over the years. I noticed she had a set of lyrics that needed some music and I offered to give it a go.

What caught my interest specifically, beyond the hey, I need a song and I've got a lot of incomplete's but nothing finished, let's see if a collaboration would get things moving kind of motivation was First, I like Amanda's writing, and Second, the song itself. It's dark, tackling the issue of a stalker. I've gone that route on occasion.

Why? Seems kind of an odd thing to write songs about, huh? Well, if you ever watch TV shows like Dexter, or any number of horror, SCI-FI, etc. you' may or may not have noticed, but shows need music to set the mood. I also love to do halloween shows, and creepy is perfect for that, and I've been working on an assortment of songs for projects designed to actually raise awareness and bring resources to the victims of various crimes, including domestic violences, human trafficking and other crimes against women. I have a criminal justice degree and these particular issues are still very important to me.