13. Architect of Dreams
Genre: Americana, rock, blues-pop
Length: 4:55
Writer: Ryan Ross Hernandez
Producer: Ryan Ross Hernandez, Chad Fairweather
Song SynopsisFor any old school Ryan Ross Hernandez fans that may just be missing his older style of music with the smartly crafted love song
Architect of Dreams. It is the second to last song on the record, and the track that comes closes to the RRH heard on previous albums while still keeping in tone with the feel of
Break in the Clouds. There are many brilliant facets to this song. First off, it combines a lot of musical genres and ambitious ideas and balls them up into one in a thoughtful way. The intro with the guitar harmonies is very Allman Brothers/George Harrison-like. The opening seconds of the song sound very 60s/70s with the faint violin in the background. Once Ryan starts singing, the song begins to sound a bit more current, but not too much.
The song keeps this slow, down-tempo until the middle of the song where things erupt in a way that may just catch the listener off guard. The drum pattern rises and becomes loud and powerful, when out of nowhere, the song has a breakdown that emulates Coldplay's
Fix You. The sound becomes loud and anthematic, taking a page out of the rulebook of the likes of U2 and the aforementioned Coldplay. The percussion/vocals/harmonies/guitar sounds all sound as if the biggest rock band in the world created it.
Providing both the backing vocals in the chorus and bridge of the song, as well as the violin throughout is session musician Amanda Williams. Ryan eyeballs a hopeful future, filled with easy domesticity that compensates for any of the past tumult in his life. Sweeter and poppier than the rest of
Break in the Clouds it swells in volume and ends with a fully drawn arrangement that conveys both triumph and relief.
LyricsI am an architect
Of dreaming outcomes inside my head
We've only had the wheels churning for a month I guess
You see this beating heart of mine
The one I built with crayons and stones
It likes to imagine things that have not yet come true
And its regained rhythm is telling me
The ink has dried and you have broke its walls
With a tear in my eye I have to plead with you
To not hurt me as much as you could, 'least for the night
I came here alone and I don't mind leaving alone
I'm just trying to find a place to call home
So won't you please just go easy on meYou came into my life at an interesting time
I'm no longer the man your friends whisper in your ear
Still not the man you'd be proud to have holding your hand
I can't blame you when you look at me with the corner of your eyes
These girls will never think of me as a liability
Well that's fine, I don't think that much of myself either
With a tear in my eye I have to plead with you
To not hurt me as much as you could, 'least for the night
I grew up alone and I don't mind leaving alone
I'm just trying to find a place to call home
So won't you please just go easy on meI'm not quite as strong as I seem
You should keep your truth
Every girl I talk with put up a guard
They decline my charm and belittle my words
Please go easy on me
'Cause I mean you no harm
My tongue is no longer a sword
The war of the words doesn't move me
See my heart barely works, it's covered in dirt
My heart still kinda hurts, so go easy on me
I think I wanna build my own home
I think I wanna build my own home
I think I wanna build my own home
And I'm thinking about building it for two
Maybe baby, I can stay sometime
Maybe baby, I can spend the night
Maybe baby, I can sing you to sleep
And I'm thinking about a song for two
Day by day
Step by step
We'll fix the cracks in the pavement someday, if you'd like to help me
And our garden in the yard will be a place to call home
'Cause we'll build it together with our respective hearts
And I know right now I don't seem like much
But a start is a start
To get you swaying with me to the sound of love prospering
If you don't want me, that's alright
I'll build a house next to yours wherever you are
Bring you freshly cut roses from the garden we built in the yard
Every morning until you trust me enough to let me in
This is the start of something real
Ryan Ross Hernandez's CommentaryThe Music"If anyone has followed my career from the start, there are two songs I wanted to create ever since I got into this industry. For one, I wanted to write a 'real' blues piece, which I accomplished on the 'Let a Man Be Lost' record with the song 'Medication for the Blues.' When I recorded that song, it was important for me because I always wanted that and I finally felt like I had done it. The second thing, was that I wanted to capture or create that U2 or Coldplay sound, but hadn't been able to do that until this song, 'Architect of Dreams.' I finally felt like I had that song that I could play at a festival or something and everyone would be singing it. I finally captured that moment on this song and I'm so proud of it. It took me four records and too many years to count, to achieve this sound on a song. This song is huge, climatic and it fits so well within the album despite being different. I wouldn't have included it if it didn't fit into the other eleven songs that come before it. In my honest opinion as the dude who made this record, I'd say that breakdown in the middle of the song is the most magical moment on this entire record."The Lyrics"'Architect of Dreams', broke my heart. When I wrote it, it just hit me hard. This is one of the earliest songs I wrote for this record, in November 2010, around Thanksgiving actually. I don't see it as being either a happy or sad song, but a hopeful song. At that time of my life, I had been seeing this woman for about five months, we were just dating it wasn't something incredibly serious yet. This song revolves around yearning to jump ahead and start a life with someone, when you're in the 'getting-to-know-you' stage. I felt that way because there was a period of about six months in early 2010, where I would just talk to a woman I met at a bar and they'd put this shield and act really cold. I can't really blame them for acting that way when I enter a room, but it hurt. And last year around the same time, I tried my hand again, and the same pattern occurred where women wanted nothing to do with me. This generation of women have a certain way of thinking that talking to me is going to end up with me buying them a drink and giving them a card to my hotel room. Even now when I go to bars alone and I'm not trying to, I'm not talking to anybody it still happens. Women still come up to me, and instead of telling them off, I just give them a face like, 'go easy on me.' I'm more vulnerable then people think, so I have a tough skin when someone is saying terrible things about me on the internet, but not face to face. Yet, people ask me why I go to therapy. "Sounds Similar To: