"Brioche" - Jesse Johnson
“Brioche” lyrics
I dreamed that I was
In Paris, France
In the land of pastries
I even had on
My favorite sweatpants
Time to go crazy
Then my alarm sounded
And I awoke
To my dismay
I realized there was no French toast
Chorus:
Brioche, fluffy perfection
You’re made in France but from heaven
Maple syrup, load me up
Hand-squeezed with love
By moose from Canada
Soft in the center, golden brown top
Ready for action
I crave adventure, and I will never stop
Til satisfaction
I won’t pretend those
Frozen pancakes slapped
I just need to have French toast
None of that frozen crap (chorus)
Oui oui, let’s get it on tonight
By “it” I mean French toast
And by “tonight” I mean right now
Wait, did I just say that out loud?
Pull up a chair and stuff your face
Leave no evidence on your plate
Clear your calendar, don’t be late
And I can’t wait, I just can’t wait (chorus 2x)
I need French toast
And I can’t get enough
Notes:
Some back-story: The lyrics to this song were almost completely different, and they made a 180 at the last minute due to a perfectly-timed joke from my wife…
So when I started writing lyrics to this song, I got out the trusty old lyric tool box like normal and got to work (instrumental track, headphones, thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, notepad, Diet Pepsi, and a sense of purpose). I was about to go deep into the rabbit hole of sentimentality, when something happened the Diet Pepsi did not intend...
I told my wife what I was doing, to which she joked in passing, “is it about brioche?” This was a reference to a compliment I had given her cooking earlier that morning right after she made some mind-blowing French toast for us (her cooking is a whole other convo, amazing dishes). Before this banquet (which I killed in about 10 seconds flat), I knew nothing about French toast (except that I liked to eat it). So she enlightened me by informing me that good French toast is made with brioche bread, and that yes, that’s what she used. She has this bad habit of blaming other things for the great work she does. In this case, she blamed the brioche bread for how good it turned out. I always admire her humility.
Long story short, to answer her question, I carefully replied “no” it’s not about brioche with a somewhat lower, disappointed tone in my voice, sorta like a parent telling their child last minute that they’re going to the DMV that day instead of Busch Gardens. “Does she want me to write a song about her French toast?” quoth my inner voice. “Will she stop cooking for me if her dishes don’t inspire me to write songs about them?” After probably a few seconds longer than necessary’s worth of time realizing it was just a joke, I thought to myself, “Wait a minute. What if I actually wrote this song about brioche and surprised her?”
So I proceeded to take all I knew about proper Englishing (and bread) and banged out some lyrics. The result: I present “Brioche,” my skate punk song about French toast.
May this song be a perpetual reminder to my beautiful wife that yes, I am listening. In fact, I’m taking extensive notes to occasionally absurd degrees, perhaps in the wrong direction, but point being… I’m listening.
Software: Logic Pro X
Microphone: Apogee MiC
Drums: GetGood Drums (Invasion pack)
Guitar: Charvel DK24
Bass: YAMAHA RBX460
Plugins: Waves CLA everything (fyi, bass tone is CLA bass’s default setting), Toontrack EZmix, FabFilter Pro-L 2 (for mastering), and numerous Waves plugins for random things.
“Brioche" by Jesse Johnson
From the album Tomorrow (2022)
Album artwork by the talented Alex Nguyen.
DM Alex on IG for commissions:
/ alleggsendher