Through his musical project Seven Layer Piano Cakes, Justin Hoyt offers us his single “Remy” about his young son. Plenty of artists have written songs about and/or for their children to the point where it’s all but a subgenre. But Hoyt begins with “Hey little man, the clothes I bought don’t seem to fit” and later “did your growing up have anything to do with me” and for a moment you may think there was some kind of separation but it’s really about how quickly your kids can grow up and you as a parent are usually just doing the best you can without much in the way of having a map for doing things right and never certain if what you’re doing is adequate or appropriate or helpful or nurturing the way maybe you should be or which would be optimal. Hoyt ponders these insecurities while hinting that being concerned about all of these things probably means you’re at least trying to do things the way you should and that will always mean more and be more effective than giving up and not trying to be at least a halfway decent parent. The melancholic tone of the song matches the uncertainty Hoyt expresses so well and the dynamic of the song shifting from slow moments of contemplation to urgent passages marking the seemingly impossibly rapid passage of time is a great evocation of how the pace of being a parent feels in the living it. Watch the luminously beautiful visualizer video for “Remy” on YouTube and connect with Seven Layer Piano Cakes at the links provided.
Seven Layer Piano Cakes on Instagram
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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