Singled Out: Simplified's Shall We Begin

When Clee and I sat down to write "Shall We Begin" as a band we were facing some challenging transitions within the band and personally. Clee and his wife just recently split up, our original drummer recently left the band, and overall we were just feeling burned out.

Last summer Clee and I spent a lot more time performing acoustic as we continued looking for a new drummer. During our summer shows at The Rusty Rudder in Lake Norman, NC we rediscovered that spark we felt when we first started playing together. The Rudder shows are always a great time because it's a more intimate setting with our fans which are mostly our friends that have been around since the beginning. Even though we were in this kind of melancholy state�the music, the good times at The Rudder were extremely therapeutic.

It was around this time that a bunch of new ideas began to gel. In essence, those hot, summer shows at The Rusty Rudder served as a launching pad for what would eventually become the bulk of material on Brighter Days. Shall We Begin is symbolic of the beginning of a new chapter of Simplified. It kind of turns out to be a party song geared towards crowds and it is becoming a very good live song to perform! It's a "pick me up" tune!