As part of the indie rock band Beige Shelter, I collaborated with our lead singer Adi Aman on a song encouraging men to be more open about their feeling and issues.

The song was inspired by Movember‘s tagline for their 2018 campaign. The movement asked all men to be “A Man of More Words.” Their message resonated with me, as there have been many times I haven’t been entirely open about my feelings or things that bother me. The few times I have been, the results have always been better. You feel more connected to friends and family, and you realize you’re not alone. Compassion is out there if you’re willing to risk being vulnerable.

I was first introduced to the Movember movement by Adi. He encouraged me to join in 2017, after we collaborated on a mental health positive song called Light Your Way.

The songwriting process

I started by writing the chorus hook of the song. I hashed out the lyrics, melody and chords on my piano and made a quick recording to send to Adi to say, “Let’s work on this song together.”

We got together shortly thereafter and worked out the other parts of the song. We wanted to explore themes like suicide and the consequences of silence.

Adi did a great job exploring the themes through the verse lyrics, with strong melodies and powerful vocals.

In the first draft, both pre-choruses were lyrically the same. A few days later, I changed the second pre-chorus because we still hadn’t addressed the issue of men hiding from their vulnerabilities.

Band arrangement

Having the basic song down, we took the song to the band. They introduced neat melodic guitar lines, rhythmic breaks, and a powerful rock ending.

As the drummer, I didn’t really think about the drum part until we played it as a band. Certainly I’m using some beats in this song that I don’t use in any other Beige Shelter song.

Taking it to the audience

We debuted the song live in December 2018, and many of our fans commented how they found it to be a powerful and uplighting take on a sensitive subject.

I made a lyric video out of our performance of Man of More Words at the Rivoli in Toronto:

Download the lyric / chord sheet.