Reflection In Brown Eyes
- Dan Akinlalu
- Jun 5
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 6
The night before this photoshoot I took a late night walk.
Downtown Toronto on a Wednesday night still has a relatively active nightlife. Music blaring from speakers, cars slowing down as giggly women step out. I found myself talking to a woman who told me she left the world of runway modelling, to become a successful stripper.
She encouraged me to follow her to her place of work... a venue with lights that glowed neon red, deep purple and dark blue like an immersive lava lamp. We talked some more after I watched her dance... there's an interesting feeling when you make eye contact with a performer on stage where for a moment or two, it can feel like they are performing for you, this trance-like moment of recognition stayed with me as I made my way back home.
The city became a clock. Every street, every station, another tick.
Every woman another version of the same archetype appearing in different mirrors.
By the time I got home it was after 2 am.
Buzzing with leftover energy from the strip club, I remembered the lyrics I had been humming in my head and took a minute to write them down. You see, I had been circling around the concept of a new song... something different from my other musical projects, and something about the energy of that night kept me up long enough to record vocals. Instead of starting with the lyrics I had written down, I put the beat on, and just improvised adlibs.
"Tik Tok... Oh why... Tik Tok... Oh why... Tik Tok goes the clock."
"Two hands on the clock."
"Ratatatatatata."
Continued recording the adlibs for ninety seconds, reaching back towards the hypnotic energy of that strip-club, I could still remember the sensual look in her brown eyes... and I let these vibes feed the enthusiasm of my adlibs, improv over a dark, pulsating instrumental.
By the time I got around to recording the lyrics, the adlibs found their way into my recording, in the moments of silence between verses, lyrics, they became a leitmotif for the track, giving it a mind-bending quality, like a stream of consciousness leading audiences towards the inner ocean of my mind. Layering these vocals together gave the song a kinetic charm I was looking for. The excitement of creation was so strong that I didn't fall asleep that night.
I rode the wave of energy to mix and master the track... releasing a snippet on my Instagram story at around 5 in the morning. Time flies when you're creating. By the time I met Vira, for our photoshoot it was 6 in the evening, and yet I still had energy from last night, channeled through each moment I spent re-listening the song, that found it's way into our photoshoot.
The search for a new sonic identity can be as thrilling as the search for love.
Discovering the emotional architecture of a new song can be wild journey, learning that the Tik Tok adlibs were the core of the song was unexpected... and just like the search for love, sometimes the experience can feel more intoxicating than any drug. In case, you haven't heard the snippet... I'll include it over here... what's more is, during this part of the song, I was anticipating my photoshoot with Vira, who I first reached out to on Instagram randomly.
The editorial from this evening continues inside the Mirror Room.
Shadows In Paradise... coming soon.
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