BLAME GAME | Summer Winter
About me + this song
From me to you:
Hi! I'm Summer Winter. I'm an indie-pop singer/songwriter from Maui, based in LA. Hopefully you're reading this because you liked this track. If so, thank you for listening! All of the songs I write are about my personal experience with love, grief, gratitude, sobriety, growing up, and all the sexy things life has to offer us. I've written hundreds of songs and I'm so happy at least one of them is resonating with you. It makes my whole day to know that my pain/processing can help others. Please reach out and say hi. I always love to know which lyrics/moments in songs people like most. <3
About Blame Game:
Like all my songs, this was written on the dilapidated classical guitar my dad gave me when I was a kid. Something about the soft, off-tune strings unprecedentedly match the feelings I try to express in my lyrics. Perhaps one of the more adult songs I've written, Blame Game is a personal reminder to take responsibility for my feelings and my life. I spent years pointing fingers at him, her, them, parents, anyone really. It occurred to me one day (after years of therapy) that I had the key to my own reality. I got bored of my own anger. Any resentments I harbored were my responsibility and blocked me from enjoying my life.
I tried scrolling my feelings away on the internet – didn't work for long. I tried blocking out my fears with distractions – didn't work for long. I tried anything except sitting still and getting honest – until it all stopped working. Blame Game is a reminder that gifts come from navigating what I call The Speechless Place – the deep, silent place inside all of us that is connected to source, to god, to whatever you want to call it. Fun fact, Blame Game is the first single on my third record called The Speechless Place.
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I encourage you to look at your part in things. Ownership can set us free. "If we ain't the problem, then we can't be the solution."
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Big love and aloha from me to you. I invite you to listen with a cup of tea and follow along with the lyrics <3
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It’s the blame game
Every single note stays the same
And you’re on your train
To the same
Feeling that you’ve always had
So just stay in your lane
You weren’t mean to break away
There’s a chance that you could change
Reading on the finer prints of the page
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Why shy away
From anything that knows you
In the brightest of day
You can’t explore these things about you
and stay the same
You gotta see it face to face in plain day
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And don’t scroll it away
Or leave it up to heightened to states
To open up faith
Take the coat off
Navigate the speechless place
Shhhh ahhhh
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Don’t play the blame game
The blame game
The blame game
The blame game
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Don’t play the blame game
The blame game
The blame game
The blame game
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Why shy away
From everything that knows you
In the brightest of day
You won’t explore these things about you
and stay the same
Come to see it face to face in plain day
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Feel your way
Into the sunny skies
Up above
Watch the music video
About this music video:
Who wants to shoot 3,000 images on an iPhone and meticulously plan every micro movement with a color-coded spread sheet to make a 3 minute music video? Apparently me!
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The preparation to make this final piece took longer than the actual shoot did. I made a mock version of this on my kitchen floor and was blessed with a small team that helped prepare all of our props – from painting, to cutting out rain drops, to creating fluffy clouds. We felt like kids again.
Stop motion is HARD. I knew that if we made one mistake, we'd have to start the series or "scene" over again. If I moved too swiftly, it would ruin the rhythm of the picture. Sounds cheesy, but this was a very spiritual process. I prepared as much as I possibly could and then on the day of the shoot, I had to trust that it was all going to work out. While I did direct this, I was also on camera so I had to hand over the power to my crew. When we made mistakes, I started to blame others and then quickly laughed at the irony of it all. "Don't play the blame game" I said over and over. Not everything went to plan, even with a spread sheet. While this video is far from perfect, its got character. Isn't that life.
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