"you caught me in the middle of dreaming..."

so there i was, minding my own business and looking at my bank account transactions (like a good responsible money-haver for once!) when i see this funny line item called "ASCAP" show up in my bank.

it was for a hundred-some-odd dollars.

hmm, that's strange.

is that a mistake?

for those of you who don't know, ASCAP is an entity responsible for paying songwriters royalties. you register songs you've written there, and then when someone performs or streams them, blammo, money in the account!

that's how it's supposed to work, anyway.

but in my decade of existing as a singer-songwriter, i've never seen an ASCAP transaction more than a couple of bucks every few years, mostly as accrued deposits for the random super-sad fractions of pennies that Spotify pays songwriters.

so... what happened?

i logged into my ASCAP portal and check the statements.

no, no spike in music streams.

no random viral moment i was unaware of.

wait, what's this?

holy shit...

one of my songs has been placed in an NBC TV show!

i had cowritten a song with producer Andy Thomson some years back for one of his projects. (you'll remember a few months ago, the song Inner Light was a Song of the Month.)

turns out his project is picking up steam, and i'm along for the ride!

it shows up for about 20 seconds on an NBC reality television show called Open House NYC that i have admittedly never heard of before, but i guess it's been running for like 16 seasons? yeaaah, it's been a while since i've watched network reality TV. but if i helped create something that serves a project, that's fine by me.

the episodes aired last year, and now they're in syndication overseas (and let me tell you, Europe pays WAY better than the States). the turnaround for royalty payouts is slow, so that's why i only found out about it now.

but this marks my first paid song placement - one of the reasons I moved to LA, and one of my big goals for my creative work.

andy did some editing for the official release (available on Spotify and wherever you stream), but i'm sharing my original version here exclusively for paid Substack members.

may this be the start of many more placements!

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Middle of Dreaming
@ Lyrics @

Sky above me
Ground below
Never thought I'd catch myself in the middle of it all

Caught me in the middle 
In the middle of dreaming
Dreaming
In the middle of dreaming
In the middle of dreaming
Caught me in the middle of dreaming

(In the, in the middle in the middle of dreaming)
(In the, in the middle in the middle of dreaming)
In the middle of dreaming (in the, in the, in the)
Dreaming (in the, in the, in the)

Things are clearer
Every day
My eyes wide open and my mind keeps slipping away

You caught me in the middle of 
Dreaming
Dreaming
Oooh
You caught me in the middle of dreaming

(In the, in the middle in the middle of)
Dreaming (In the, in the middle in the middle of)
(In the, in the middle in the middle of)
(In the, in the, in the, in the middle of)
(In the, in the)
Caught me in the middle of dreaming

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Paid Substack subscribers: here is your song of the month: 👇