"OBJECTS FROM THE PAST" - [demo]

Inspired by Virgil Abloh’s use of quotation marks as a way to reframe language, "OBJECTS FROM THE PAST" uses the quotes to make the title feel like a museum label, as if two lovers are later preserved as artifacts. The lyrics are shaped by the feeling of time passing inevitably, and by the way some moments, even as they become memory, still feel timeless. Much of the song was written during my recent evenings on a rooftop terrace overlooking the coastal town of Opatija. The sun, the heat, and the beauty of those evenings made me want to keep those moments forever.

Torches are burning
Heat upon our lips
This evening is golden
And the night begins

You in linen, kissed by sun
World beneath our feet
Bet it all on love tonight
No price on a love like this

Love you, want you
Like the last two lovers
Put on me the blame
But forever takes your name

Ashes over city
Fire in the sky

Tomorrow is a rumor
Yesterday's a lie

It’s funny how the good life
Feels just like a fever dream
It’s funny how your body
Makes me want to believe

When it all comes down
Pull me closer, babe
If this is the last dance
Love me for the night

Love you, want you
Like the last two lovers
Put on me the blame
But forever takes your name

Ashes over city
Fire in the sky
Tomorrow is a rumor
Yesterday's a lie

If our world must vanish
Let it burn with style

If this is the last dance
Love me for the night
Love me for the night

You were just you
And you were just mine
Centuries later, statues
Behind the glass

They’ll label us as:
"OBJECTS FROM THE PAST"

When only ruins remain
Put on me the blame
May they know I loved you

Ashes over city
Fire in the sky
Ashes over the city
Fire in the sky

Love you, want you
Like the last two lovers

Put on me the blame
Put on me the blame

Lyrics: Renata

VIOLA, BY THE LAMPLIGHT - [demo]

A touch of influence from “The Weight” by The Band, which inspired the lyrics. This is about the weariness of the world and the longing to come home from it. The narrator has seen ambition, conflict, pride, money, fear, and loneliness, but in Viola he finds warmth, music, safety, and the quiet grace of home. Viola can be read both as a beloved person and as an instrument, a source of tenderness, resonance, and song.

I came down from the old road
With the evening in my eyes
Saw Viola by the window
Where the little lamplight lies

Then I heard her voice in the doorway
Soft and golden, sweet and low
She said, “Hide in from the evening,
You look tired to the bone”

I said, “I’ve been learning
All the world and all its ways”
And the world was gentle
In the place we called our own

Lie down, lie down
Leave your worries by the door
Hold on, hold on
Let the morning carry on

There was talk down in the city
There was thunder in the square
There were men who spoke of justice
With a hard and hungry stare

And the night was dark and stormy
But her voice was sweet and near
Singing, “Love is not for keeping
If it’s only kept by fear”

Lie down, lie down
Leave your worries by the door
Hold on, hold on
Let the morning carry on

I have seen the proud grow weary
I have seen the wise grow cold
I have seen a man lose heaven
Just to count the coins he holds

But the beautiful and beloved
Need no crown and need no throne
When she laid her hand upon me
I no longer was alone

Lie down, lie down
Leave your worries by the door
Hold on, hold on
Let the morning carry on

I have seen the proud grow weary
I have seen the wise grow cold
But I knew my heart had wandered
Just to find your hand to hold

And all the years behind me
All the names I used to be
Were only dust and distance
Till your song came back to me

So I left my lonely learning
By the turning of the lane
And I lay beside my Viola
By the lamplight, far from rain

And her hand was warm upon me
And her breathing soft and slow
In the hush beside my Viola
I found the home I used to know

Lyrics: Renata

VIRTUES - [demo]

Inspired by The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). I’ve always loved its soundtrack, especially “Everything (... Is Never Quite Enough)” and “The Windmills of Your Mind,” while “Sinnerman” and Magritte’s The Son of Man became stronger influences on the lyrics and atmosphere.

I began writing with the line I had on my mind “all my virtues look like sins”, and then created a world of cat and mouse: pursuit, temptation, and someone always being one step ahead, much like in the film. It shaped the mood, but I wanted the lyrics to become their own thing.

This song is dedicated to my husband, for our tenth wedding anniversary. Ten years of marriage, through everything life has brought us, feels worth celebrating.

AI tools helped me imagine what my lyrics could sound like, but one day I’d love to hear them brought to life by real musicians. For me, nothing replaces the soul of live music.

Oh, you are the perfect crime
Burned your fingerprints to hide
A stranger, a painting, an apple
What you did was a heist

All your virtues look like sins
And the way you know me
When you shouldn’t know a thing
You shouldn’t know a thing

Where you gonna run to
When I’m everywhere you’ve been
Where you gonna run to
When I’m the one who let you win

Turn the lights low, steal the room
Let them wonder what we do
I know what you came to prove
False names, stolen dance
White lies and alibis

All my virtues, they are sins
And the way you know me
When you shouldn’t know a thing
You shouldn’t know a thing

Where you gonna run to
When I’m everywhere you’ve been
Where you gonna run to
When I’m the one who let you win

And the way I know you
When I shouldn’t know a thing
I’m the one who let you win

Lyrics: Renata

SPOOKY ACTION - [NEW VERSION, MALE VOICE, demo]

Inspiration: Part of the inspiration for the lyrics is the movie I watched years ago, Only Lovers Left Alive, part of it is spooky action, as in physics. The song came out much stronger and different than those references. I won't limit myself into publishing songs exclusively in woman's voice, as I focus on songwriting, not singing.

Apparently, my inner songwriting voice is a man sometimes. It doesn't surprise me, as I do almost exclusively listen to songs sang by men. And I do enjoy mostly modern soul and blues last few years.

Where the old song sleeps
If the world has lost its soul
When forever bores you
Waste the night with mine

Come and play me something slow
On my Gretsch Falcon White
The one that makes me remember
All the years I let you go

Spooky action, in the corner
Touch my shadow, move my body
Cross the distance, bend my mind

For the tricks we played
For the friends we lost
For the centuries
Worth the cost

Come and play me something slow
On my Gretsch Falcon White
The one that makes me remember
All the years I let you go

Spooky action, in the corner
Touch my shadow, move my body
Cross the distance, bend my mind

For the tricks we played
For the friends we lost
For the centuries
Worth the cost

Lyrics: Renata

BEYOND LOVE, 1972 - [demo]

Inspiration: This demo began with an image of château gates, my lifelong love of surrealism, and Erving Goffman’s writing on society. The image stayed with me: those gates, and the feeling of stepping into an unknown world. As with all my songs, it became its own story.

Cut through smoke and mirrors
We are walking side by side
Through the gates of wonders
In those silver linings
Of the night

Come walk with me to find
Many faces under masks
They never stay
They never leave
None of them is mine

Freedom is desire
And love is like a bite
Things I want from you
Are what you want

From me too

Up the stairs
Forget your manners
To reveal is your art
To know you so deeply
Honey, it is more than love

To know you so deeply
It goes beyond love

Our bodies become fluent
In the language of the two
It’s the only way you know me
Our secret language of the soul

Freedom is desire
And love is like a bite
Things I want from you
Are what you want
From me too

Up the stairs
Forget your manners
To reveal is your art

To know you so deeply
Honey, it is more than love
To know you so deeply
It goes beyond love

This world is full of wonder
And our love is just us two
It’s those fickle moments
And someone just like you

Was it written in the stars
That you never needed to possess
It was always something yours

Up the stairs
Forget your manners
To reveal is your art

To know you so deeply
It is more than love
To know you so deeply
It goes beyond love

Lyrics: Renata

SUNSET STRIP - [demo, live version]

Inspired by The Viper Room, the Sunset Strip, and that eternal blues I can sometimes tap into; deep and existential rather than romantic, but always good for writing.

The Sunset Strip in the ’90s was the scene I had in mind when I started writing the lyrics, but the song itself could happen anywhere: in hazy summer days, unnamed towns, silence, and memory. The repeated line “what you tame is yours to stay” holds the emotional centre: how we leave something with everyone we meet, and how they leave something with us.

I made some changes and added a live concert effect, so it feels more like a song being performed on stage.

One of those evenings
Sunset Strip was to blame
There was something in the silence
Humming tunes and touch of hand
Salty skin and hazy days
In the town that I won't name

Past the hills under bright lights
I wore black and you were blue
By the boulevard and the jazzers
Past The Viper I saw it say

What you tame
Is yours to stay

In this town that holds their secrets
If they knew the past from present
They would never act this way

As for River we ran empty
Fully clothed as if censored
In the sky you write his name

Past the hills under bright lights
I wore black and you were blue
By the boulevard and the jazzers
Past The Viper I saw it say

What you tame
Is yours to stay

Lyrics: Renata

BLACKBIRDS - [rough demo]

Inspiration: I’ve always wanted to write my own version of Wicked Game, one of my all-time favorites. Some music resonates with me physically and pulls me into a very specific state of mind. Not many songs can do that. Even in early form, this demo carried the lyrics in a way that feels close to what I had in mind.

I love this piece. However, I've changed it to fit more my current style. As I've mentioned, I needed some time to see what can be done to make it more personal and closer to my sound evolution.

Come closer

Let the trouble start

Look me in the eyes

Set my soul on fire

When the room gets heavy

And our skin drinks all the light

When my blackbird song comes on

Make me cross my every line

My heart is offbeat, baby

One side steady, one side wild

We’ve done a wicked thing

For this restless love we found

Out of rhythm, out of time

Synchronized, sinful, divine

If we’re falling, fall in mine

Out of rhythm, out of time

When the room gets heavy

And our skin drinks all the light

When my blackbird song comes on

Make me cross my every line

My heart is offbeat, baby

One side steady, one side wild

We’ve done a wicked thing

For this restless love we found

Out of rhythm, out of time

Synchronized, sinful, divine

If we’re falling, fall in mine

Out of rhythm, out of time

Lyrics: Renata

AESTHETICS - [demo]

Inspired by life, aesthetics, and love. I’ve somehow always avoided strong sentiment in real life, but music and the lyrics I write have given me a way to express it.

Like most of my songs, this one isn’t purely autobiographical. It’s about a different kind of love: less dramatic, less obvious, but still intense in its own way. It could belong to a person, a feeling, an image, or almost anything. It’s about restraint, beauty, and the things left unsaid, like closing lines written in white.

Where closing lines are white
One can always read between
Or move as if read ahead
Anticipate what’s never said

Less excess, restraint at play
Like masterpiece of rare design
You can lean in close, to know
How far refinement dares to go

I do love you like aesthetics
All sharp edges, reckless but poetic
Love does hold some primal truth
Depth does not require proof

Sound and breath and light
The language of the few
To make an art of living
In everything I tend to do

No mutes that scream in silence
Or lovers underneath the veil
Leave some sentiment unframed
Put some perfect forms to stay

No deep hunger, or in urgency
Only some performed intensity
I love to leave my worlds intact
Discipline as choice, not an act

I do love you like aesthetics
All sharp edges, reckless but poetic
Love does hold some primal truth
Depth does not require proof

Sound and breath and light
The language of the few
To make an art of living
In everything I tend to do

Lyrics: Renata

IMPERMANENCE - [demo]

Inspiration: Getting lost in thoughts, movement and moments alone.

There’s this feeling I can’t name
Not the path that leads you there
Not the kind that lets you stay

If I tried to keep it mine
It would slip me every time

And my mind, has it's habits
Of deciding what things mean
It can turn a passing moment
Into something never seen

If I tried to keep it mine
It would slip me every time

So I let it come and go
I let it come and go
As it does and always will
I let it come and go
Wash all over me

Five horizons, wrapped around me
And the steps I take when no one looks
Every moment lived in truth
Shapes the air I'm moving through

What is timeless you can borrow
From this stage of life we play
Where empires fall with flow of sand
We're breaking this hourglass
Changing molecules our way

So I let it come and go
I let it come and go
As it does and always will
I let it come and go
Wash all over me

Five horizons, wrapped around me
Steps I take when no one looks
Every moment lived in truth
Shapes the air I'm moving through

If I tried to keep it mine
It would slip me every time

So I let it come and go
I let it come and go
As it does and always will
I let it come and go

Lyrics: Renata

"OBJECTS FROM THE PAST" - [demo]

VIOLA, BY THE LAMPLIGHT - [demo]

VIRTUES - [demo]

SPOOKY ACTION - [NEW VERSION, MALE VOICE, demo]

BEYOND LOVE, 1972 - [demo]

SUNSET STRIP - [demo, live version]

BLACKBIRDS - [rough demo]

AESTHETICS - [demo]

IMPERMANENCE - [demo]

PRODIGAL DAUGHTER (SLIGHT RETURN) - [demo]

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