Welcome to The Meaning Of, a series of blog posts exploring the meaning behind each song from my 2020 album, Heirloom. I’ll explain the stories that inspired the songs, and reveal some of the musical roots and references that helped shape my musical and lyrical choices. If there’s something particular that you’re curious about that I haven’t revealed, leave me a question in the comments below, and I’ll be pleased to answer it.

Only You & Me is one of of the seventy-plus custom love songs that I’ve written since 2016. If you aren’t familiar, I take peoples’ true love stories and turn them into love songs that I deliver as professional recordings. It started as a lark one Valentine’s Day, and has since turned into a cornerstone of my livelihood, resulting also in a 2017 TEDx talk, Love Songs For Hire.

So, with permission from Adam Castle, who requested the song for his new bride Beth, I’m pleased to explore the origins of this song with you!

In order to write a custom love song, I first need to know quite a lot about my subject, and so, each commission begins with the completion of a questionnaire. One of the very first questions that I ask is, how did you meet? Adam explained that he’d met Beth at a wedding, where he was working as the DJ. “From the minute she walked in, with a beautiful red dress on, and the world's most amazing smile, I couldn't take my eyes off her.” Right there are the first lines to the song: From the minute you walked in the room, I couldn’t take my eyes off you.

Later in the questionnaire, I ask how you truly feel about this person. He said that he’d been happy before, but didn’t realize how much better things could be until she came along. “Before we met I knew I was happy and I had a full life, but then there was this whole extra level I didn't know existed, and it revealed itself when I met her.” He told me about their first kiss, capping the story with “The rest, as they say, is history.” There’s the rest of the first verse: Thought that I had all I could ever need, until you kissed me - the rest is history.

I especially love the song’s pre-chorus, which touches on a story he shared about one of their first weekends together at her apartment in Toronto. A legendary storm passed through, but they were so focused on one another, they didn’t even notice what had happened until it was time for him to leave. “We cooked and watched movies and talked, and when I left we both realized there had been this massive ice storm and the entire city was basically shut down. That was when I became acutely aware of how important our relationship was to me, and how I always wanted that kind of love, where the whole world could be chaos outside, but we'd never even notice.” We can let the whole world disappear, there’s only you and me here - always wanted this kind of love…

In his questionnaire, Adam reflected on how circumstances led to their meeting. “There were a million choices made that lead up to me meeting her, and us dating. Choices that maybe didn't have a lot of thought put into them, and ones that I sat and deliberated for hours, all along not knowing of what they would be leading me to.” I loved this little reflection and started the second verse with it: A million choices led me to you.

When I asked him to describe her more, he told me that “her love language is quality time.” I had never heard of love languages at this point in time, and it just struck me as such a poetic concept, so succinctly worded, that it landed into the second verse, verbatim.

Beth’s song was one of the first twenty custom songs that I ever wrote. Knowing that he had been a DJ, I thought it might be safe to make this tune sonically edgier than the previous ones I’d written, and so the verses are imbued with more of a minor feel. When I started to write the bridge of the song, I heeded the advice I was given at a songwriting seminar years ago, to make the bridge feel like a vacation from the rest of the song. In this song, I actually drew the chord progression and picking style from my interpretation of a jazz standard called “This Year’s Kisses”, which is quite a departure from the vibe of the rest of the song.

Right away, “Only You & Me” became a constant in my live repertoire, and I’ve probably played it at over a hundred shows since writing it. Naturally, when it came time to record an album, I wanted to give this tune the star treatment and hear it performed with brass, strings, and back-up singers. It has become one of my very favourite songs on the album, and is also the first song on the album to receive its own remix (coming summer 2020!).

only you & me - crissi cochrane

From the minute you walked in the room
I couldn't take my eyes off you
Thought that I had all I could ever need
Until you kissed me
The rest is history

We can let the whole world disappear
Always wanted this kind of love
Can't let it go
I've gotta let you know

There's no going back to who we used to be
There's only you and me
There's no turning around now, all I see
Is you and me, you and me
You and me, you and me

A million choices led me to you
You're my dream come true
Your love language is quality time
Yours and mine, when the stars align

We can let the whole world disappear
Always wanted this kind of love
Can't let it go
I've gotta let you know

There's no going back to who we used to be
There's only you and me
There's no turning around now, all I see
Is you and me, you and me
You and me, you and me

We can let the whole world disappear
There's only you and me here
Always wanted this kind of love
Can't let it go
I've gotta let you know

There's no going back to who we used to be
There's only you and me
There's no turning around now, all I see
Is you and me, you and me
You and me, you and me
You and me, you and me