Where We Call Home - The Demo Journey

How does a song come about? Do you come up with lyrics first or a melody? How quickly can you write a song? These are all questions songwriters are asked quite frequently. I thought it would be cool to share the process of how the three Where We Call Home songs came about. Complete with tons of audio examples!

How it began: So it was Christmas day 2019 and I was in QLD with my extended family (we were living in Darwin, NT at the time.) I remember hopping in the car to drive down to the grandparents place when an email popped up on my phone. Something along the lines of Jon-san! Would you be interested in writing a theme song for a documentary…from a company in Japan. Surely this was a prank? How could a business lead come in on Christmas Day from a person I’ve never heard of.

Well, it was a real offer and a great adventure that lay ahead.

The Brief: We want a theme song that follows the journey of foreigners trying to navigate their lives and establishing families and businesses in Japan. Now it happened that I grew up in Japan for the first 18 years of my life so I had a bit of insight into some of the emotions an immigrant may be having as they set up a new life or felt like being an outsider. Just so I didn’t go too far down the track. I think I did a zoom call in the car!

Start now!: My first idea was on the day after the first email. I knew the show was called “Where We Call Home” so I already had enough to begin sketching ideas. So that’s exactly what I did. Vocal/Melodic/Lyrical sketches. Nothing to write home about, but it was the beginning. It wasn’t until Jan 3rd (so many days later) that I finally picked up an instrument to begin crafting some harmonic ideas. It wasn’t until I was six sketches in that I begin to hear what eventually became the song.

First sketches sent from January 6th: You can begin to hear some of the themes coming through.