Track 5 – “I’ll Be Here” – Behind the Song

Shortly after writing Photograph, I began to be more intentional about what kinds of songs I would write. Most of them started with an acoustic guitar (including Photograph–the piano made it complete, and it wasn’t until the Objects in Mirror recording of it that I removed the guitar altogether. You can hear it faintly on the Photograph single released to streaming platforms in 2023.

When I sat down to write I’ll Be Here, the guitar just fit. I recorded the guitar and first vocal, and decided to add a harmony to it. That led me to hear other harmonies, and so I ended up laying down four vocals–a lead, a bass, a harmony, and a second harmony that at times does call-and-respond with the lead vocal. At that point, I felt like other instruments would just get in the way, so only the guitar remained. Maybe it’s a consolation for it getting booted out of Photograph after all those years.

Oh, and the acoustic guitar that I used to learn to play, and then to write and record Photograph and I’ll Be Here all those years ago? It’s the same one used on the Objects in Mirror version. While it is used on a couple of other tracks on this album to double other guitar sounds, this song lets it get all the instrumental spotlight.