I’m gonna start out by saying something probably super polarizing, but here we go. At some point in my early teenage years, there was a guy who worked at my dad’s shop. He was an interesting guy, and there weren’t too many of my dad’s employees that I related w/ on a musical level - but he always took interest in stuff I listened to. Sure enough, one day he saw me rockin’ out to some glorious New Wave mix tape I got from a friend. He asks for a listen, immediately recognizes the song.

“Hey Koo, you like this song?”

“It’s my favorite right now!”

“You NEED to hear a different version of this. I’ll make you a mix”.

“OK thanks!”

A week later, I’m back at my dad’s shop (this is how I spent most of my childhood by the way - at my parents’ wholesale pantyhose shop - some of you know about that, but that’s a story for another day). Mr. cool employee walks through the door, pulls out a fresh Sony blank tape out of his pocket and hands it over to me. I excitedly pull the cassette tape out of its case and insert it into my walkman, and wait 5 seconds as clear ribbon turns to brown, so that I can hear this glorious version of my favorite song.

Three seconds in, I think “what is this garbage”? This is CORNY. How dare they take this song and make it acapella, and sing it all casual without emotion?! I hid my disappointment from his face, listened on, nodding, repeatedly saying “cool… cool”. Oh people pleasing middle school me!

Then, the strangest thing happened. A few months later I put that same version on someone else’s mix tape. I don’t know why! Maybe…. it had grown on me. The call and response “ba dah”s in the instrumental. I couldn’t the words that were coming out of my mouth as I gave the tape to my friend “There’s a cool version of that song”. That person hated it too.

The song you’re wondering about, which is of course given away by the title in the image up there is the song “Only You” by Yaz (or Yazoo). And the cover, I later found out was by a group called “Flying Pickets”. Now some of you think I’m out of my mind! How could one not love the Flying Pickets version? It after all has 19M views, where the original has a mere 5.2 M views on youtube! It’s not that the FP version is “bad”, it’s just that I love Alison Moyet singing it WAY better.

And speaking of Moyet, here’s a confession - I didn’t know it was a female vocalist until a few years ago! Not only did I not know Yaz had a female lead singer, but I vaguely remembered my friends taking about how this band had some kind of association w/ Erasure. When we were kids, we weren’t detailed enough in sharing this information with each other. We didn’t appreciate facts like these nearly as much. But as I look back on my favorite New Wave bands now - Yaz, Erasure, and Depeche Mode - they ALL had one person in common: Vince Clarke (insert “mind blown” emoji here). And Vince Clarke, as it turns out, was the one who originally penned Only You. Moyet took the song in the direction of a love song when it was originally about Clarke’s falling out w/ Depeche Mode! Wikipedia teaches you so much! OK, enough about the origin of this band/song, but I just needed to pause and give this man some serious props. That digital NEW New Wave digital synth sound that you are hearing now, so much of it have their roots in Mr. Clarke himself. Thank you Vince Clarke!

But aside from the musical genius of Vince Clarke, there was something very special about the song “Only You”. It is one of my absolute favorite love songs of all time. As a writer myself, it taught me how to describe love through visual imagery as opposed to just expressing the feeling itself. That’s the best art, isn’t it? “Looking from a window above..”, “It’s just the touch of your hand behind a closed door”. And more than it being a typical love song, it’s really about a relationship that has ended and the singer looks back on it with longing. Its energy can also be mistaken for unrequited love - which some would argue is the purest form of love! This is why I thought it would be fun to release this on Valentine’s Day. To me the phrase that really captures this day is “Will you be my valentine”? Yes, I know it’s all commercialized, and potentially makes some people who are alone feel bad. This is all true. Yet, what Valentines Day reminds me of as a kid is summoning up the courage to ask someone out! To take a chance!

I chuckle at the idea of 5th grade me listening to Billy Joel’s “She’s always a woman to me” at night, laying in bed, saying “So true, so true”. I can SO relate Billy Joel! Seriously what did we know about love at that age? And yet, “Only You” was the only song that understood me.. it GOT ME.. every time I got friend zoned! I didn’t have to be IN a relationship with someone to look back w/ fond memories of them. Just thinking about crushing on someone, or passing back and forth notes, the laughter - ALL PRIOR to making things awkward because I awkwardly professed my love - that’s the stuff you look back on with heartache soon after it happens, but with fondness now as an adult.

Fast forward to 2013. Immediately after I recorded the “A Little Respect” cover, I sat down with my guitar, and it’s entirety, sang the song “Only You” alone in the studio. It felt so fitting to sing it that way, and I told myself I’d record it one day. When Johnny and I tackled this song this past summer, we wanted to try so many ideas that paid homage to the original, so it ended up being a bit “bigger” than I originally thought it was going to be - but I love the direction it ended up going in - highlighting the many synth music chops of Johnny Chay - which felt appropriate since it was a cover of a synth pop song. As a nod to the original idea I had of singing it alone in the room w/ a guitar, we ended the song w/ a clip of just that: me and a guitar. When the song starts, it feels dreamlike, but it gradually sucks you into a huge epic story of the love that could have been, and at the end it - fades back into reality w/ a guy sitting in his room playing guitar and singing a raw and visceral vocal. I love how this came out! Johnny, you CRUSHED IT!

Aside from the magical production of Mr. Johnny Chay, the other reason I am SO excited to share this song with you is that I got two of my favorite musician friends to collaborate on this! My good friend JASON MIN, who is younger in age, but in so many ways a mentor I aspire to - stopped by the studio and graced the song with his tasteful electric guitar playing to add that incredible vibe that only The Jase can. It is effortless for him. For this reason I hate him. And I love him. :) All this in the middle of a busy schedule JUST having been ordained and to become the pastor of Citizens Church in LA. (If you are in LA, go check it out!)

Secondly, I’ve recently become good friends w/ an incredibly gifted up and coming artist. I knew her sister first because she ALSO is an amazing singer I get to sing w/ often on the worship team that I lead. But this little sis of my friend has become like a little sister to me as well! Please do yourself a favor and go listen to the music of SARAH KANG (on spotify, or better yet - BUY her music on iTunes) and give her a follow on instagram @sarahkangmusic. All those sweet background vocals you’ll hear on the song, that’s HER! I knew I wanted to have some harmonies on this song, and Sarah is the MASTER of harmonies. Really, go listen to her songs and you’ll know what I mean!

I consider it a privilege to have these wonderful friends I can create music with to reimagine the songs I grew up listening to. Hope it brought back some nostalgia for you 80s kids. I miss those days. I miss things being simple. I miss those days of school that seemed like they’d never end. I miss that sweet period of time when we all know we’re about to graduate, so everyone becomes a little nicer knowing that we don’t have that many days left with each other. We let the little things slide, accept one another more readily, and wish each other well. Maybe that’s why songs like these have stayed with me even after all these years. Musical totems that briefly take me back to a place where things are less complicated, and I have all the hope in the world for all that’s to come.

Thanks for listening to my versions of these classics and enjoying part of my youth with me!