Meet Me at the End of the World, Tuesday
Pre-save my song on Spotify or Apple by clicking this button. Listen Tuesday.
I’m releasing several new pieces of music this year. One song at a time. It’s like when you’re in the hospital and the IV bag is hanging up there beside your ear and the nurse says you can push this button if it hurts too much and you think Yeah, it hurts plenty so you give it a squeeze and watch a single beautiful drip glide down from the bag through the clear plastic tube and disappear into your arm and suddenly you are flooded with a pleasure that makes you feel like you could go on living after all.
That’s how we’re releasing these songs. Drip drip drip.
The first drip has a big fat feeling rolling all the way through it: longing, laughing in the face of death (or watching someone braver than you do it), how love feels both eternal and fleeting at the same time. It’s called Meet Me at the End of the World.
It’s got references to Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Melville’s Moby Dick, my favorite John Steinbeck story The Pearl, and it’s infused with the cataclysmic feeling more commonly described as falling in love. I’m including the lyrics below. See if you can find the references.
So after many months of behind-the-scenes handwringing and nail-biting, Meet Me at the End of the World is finally coming out. Tuesday March 18. As you know, everything I do on this channel I give away — the short stories, the weekly podcast episodes, the music. There is no paywall, nor do I plan on erecting one anytime soon. But once in a while I have an ask. This is that ask. It will cost you 10 seconds of your life.
On Tuesday you’ll get a tidy reminder, when you can then listen and add it to your playlist, and you can share it with someone else you think will enjoy it. Why not do all three!
We are at 54 pre-saves right now. If we can get 200 (out of the 4500 of you who are on this list) and if indeed you listen to my song on Tuesday, that will give Meet Me a tremendous nudge out of the gate.
Thank you for helping us get my music out into the world!
We have big plans, including the Meet Me at the End of the World Official Video, slated for release next month. I won’t get into the reasons why we’re holding onto that one for the time being (trust us there is a plan), but I am releasing a visualizer to go with the song. If you’re new to this, a visualizer is basically a simpler video to give folks something to watch as they listen. You’re not supposed to spend more than a few hours on it, but I got carried away: I borrowed my buddy Travis’ green screen and found all the stock footage I could find, of tidal waves, mushroom clouds, kissing, asteroid collisions, earthquakes, and rare footage of Leo Tolstoy’s funeral from 1910. I cut it all together with the help of my friend and producing partner Jared Hammond. Here’s what it looked like before the explosions:
The visualizer debuts this Tuesday March 18 at 2pm CST/3pm EST on my YouTube channel. If you are around a computer during that time, I’d love to watch it with you. It will be the first time anyone sees it. Click this link and watch the 10 second trailer. It’s totally badass! Then just hit the ‘notify me’ button and you’ll get a reminder when it goes live. I’ll be hanging in the chat to field questions, accept praise, or parry any well-phrased derision. What a fun day this is going to be.
Lastly, we produced a very limited run of T-shirts for this release. Once they’re gone, that’s it. Get yours now by visiting the newly refurbished Korby store that Randa worked so hard putting together. It’s a family effort over here guys. We currently have every size from XS to XL. Shirts are on a premium Bella + Canvas 3001C Unisex Jersey T-Shirt in Silver. I wore mine all day yesterday and I can’t tell you how many compliments I got.
On a family note, this week we celebrated Zuzu’s Baek-il. It’s a Korean tradition to mark a baby’s 100th day, as it signifies a transition out of the most vulnerable phase of infancy (as well as the end of the widely known 4th trimester).
We went to our favorite Korean restaurant in Nashville, and Randa finally let me post a picture of my favorite person on earth, on my IG.
If you get over there today, swipe my stories and see an event that happened Friday aka Randa’s Mamabear moment, captured live on ESPN. She and Zuzu had courtside seats at the SEC men’s basketball tournament (why wasn’t I there is the question). Let’s just say not every pass lands where it was pointed.
Meet Me at the End of the World
words and music by Korby Lenker
It was an on afternoon
There was an asteroid
We all watched the simulation
It fell from the sky
In a trail of fire
I hid my eyes from the explosion
But I saw you smiling
You were laughing quietly
When you leaned in close I wasn’t sure I heard
You said ‘Meet me at the end of the world’
I got a love like a pocket watch
I got a love like an albatross
You got a love like an unknown destination
But I’m a pretty good guess
I found you on the manifest
All dressed up for the occasion
They say its a fairytale
Sad as sailors chasing whales
But I’ll hold my breath and dive down for this pearl
Singin ‘meet me at the end of the world’
Meet me at the end of the world
Meet me at the end of the world
Meet me at the end of the world
I touch you
And earthquakes shudder
I kiss you
And the oceans swell
I feel you
Next to me when the sky and sea
Meet upon the ending earth
Blur into the curvature
On the other side of heaven, or hell
It was an on afternoon
There was an asteroid
We all watched the simulation
Korby, promise I will buy your new release on Spotify on Tuesday. But I can’t save it as a presale without giving permission to the linking company to have access to my previously saved songs and giving them the right to delete some. What? That’s crazy. See you Tuesday!