I'll do just about anything to postpone doing dishes.

One Christmas eve, I wrote this song. It was the end of the year, a time I'm a bit more reflective than others. Day-to-day, I'm focussed on the future. What's next? What will I do tomorrow? Where's my life headed? But it's good to look behind as well. Where you're from informs where you go.

I'm always amazed how at time moves. Days pass slowly but years fly by. I'm 23 until July 6, 1999, but I'm the same guy as I was at twenty. Or eightteen. Right?

Well, a quick glance at my diary would say otherwise. I was in a completely different headspace then. Maybe my core values are the same, but what I did with them and what I do these days are worlds apart. Consider this: This coming January is only the 2^nd anniversary of my starting guitar. I've only been involved in the Toronto music scene for three years. But it feels like I always have.

The really interesting about this song is the varying tempo. Verse slow, chorus fast. Seemed appropriate in a song called "Fast Forward". The first and last time I've done that. Usually, I vary the dynamics and the rhythm. Back then, though, I was just a Ukulele kinda guy. And on Uke I try so hard to be heard that I barely vary the volume at all.

I seem to have stolen a lyric or two: in "Peace and Confusion" on his Stoolfinger-RIP album, Shawn Santalucia describes life as being "left to build a fortress without tools", suspiciously similar to my "building houses without tools". Especially since we both rhymed "tools" with "rules". I had heard Shawn perform before I wrote this song, but it wasn't a deliberate theft. I didn't think I knew any of his lyrics. Subliminal plagiarism?

Most of my songs are about being upset in some way or other, so this one's unique in that way too. A nice one to do when I've already got the audience's attention.

Questions, comments or suggestions about this web site? Email me at aaron.bentley@utoronto.ca