The Sun Watts

“Beginner’s Mind” was originally inspired by the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. When my older daughter and I formed The Sun Watts, she suggested rewriting the lyrics to better reflect her own experiences as a child. Instead of drawing on the book’s philosophy, she wanted the song to capture what it was like as a young actress and singer in musical theatre.

Written on piano, the song is built around a repeating arpeggiated chord progression that never quite resolves into a traditional chorus. The vocals were treated with heavy reverb and delay, inspired by the psychedelic sound of Tame Impala.

The original version ran for more than three and a half minutes, but my daughter thought it was “too repetitive and boring.” She suggested ending the song immediately after the instrumental guitar break in the middle. I pointed out that doing so would leave us with a track barely two minutes long. Her response? “So what.”