Dark except your nightlight
I see the outline in the sheets
You are laying with your body turned away from me
Faking sleep
I guess I'll just keep taking in the view from here
Where everything's exactly as it seems
Was this supposed to be some sort of an apology
For leaving
Turn over to me
And see
What you used to see
Dark inside the bus after the track meet
On the way to Chuck-A-Rama
When we sat down in the same seat and the whole ride we were touching arms
What do you want me to do
With the Christmas presents my family keeps giving me
To give to you?
Pinkerton is always what I've conceptualized as the genesis of Nighttime at Gardner Hall, but there actually was another one that came before it. Nightlight was the first full song that was ever intended for any sort of album. It, along with one other song, was what set the whole acoustic direction of everything. At some point early on though, shortly after Pinkerton and Only Child had been written, this song and the other one were cut from the tracklist. It wasn't until 4 years later, in the fall of 2022, that I started thinking the album needed another track, and Nightlight was brought back. When I added the intertwining guitar parts it finally started making sense. That was a big time Carrie & Lowell influence. I also really felt that the song after Can't Run Forever had to have an Exit Music into Let Down vibe.
The instrumental was finished in the couple months before I moved to New York, at the same time as the Young Death instrumental, both of which were missing complete lyrics. Over the next 2 years I tried so many times get the words right. I have like 20 pages of notes from trying to figure it out. In total there were at least 3 semi-complete drafts of lyrics before the final version. The only line that stayed throughout every revision was the christmas presents line at the end. I really liked that line. Honestly it was a burden being tied to it but I wanted to make it work and in the end I'm pretty happy with it.
Nightlight was also the reason I started playing trumpet. Way back when. Double bass too. I had the melodies and knew that they had to be on some sort of brass and some sort of string instrument. The trumpet outro of For Emma by Bon Iver was definitely an influence on the outro of this song. Especially the track sequencing. Like Blue-faced Honeyeater had to come after it. So much momentum.
This song is one of my favorite non-single tracks from the album. Which is funny because it was buried for like 3 years. I understand why I hated it cause there's not really a vocal melody but the instrumental just turned out so well. The crickets are real crickets in the background at my mom's house. I'm so happy with the organ part at the end. It sounds like bagpipes. And the chorus sounds just like The Microphones to me. The bridge vocals used to really bother me but it's definitely better how it is now.
The first recording of this song dates to September 1, 2018. There are also two recordings from the next day of potential other parts for the song:
The next recordings are from January 2nd and 3rd and are melody and lyrics brainstorming, including the "christmas presents" line:
Then it was abandoned. The next recording is from August 22, 2022, and is the final trumpet/cello/accordion melody at the end:
Here's an early Pro Tools demo with different lyrics from September 2, 2022:
Personnel:
Ibanez Artwood AC240-OPN
Jupiter JTR700 Trumpet
Steve's Stand-up Bass
Paganini WR70 Cello
Masterfonic Accordion
Melodica
Farfisa reed organ
Recorded at 16bit 44.1khz
Unmastered Version:
