Book 12: WRITERS & LOVERS
Back in the summer of 2025, our family did a big trip to Italy (same trip whose Slovenian portion inspired The Art Of Letting Go. Not only was that trip one of the most magical experiences of my life, but it also acted as the catalyst for two bookstore songs that could not seem further apart, both in their themes and overall vibes.
While all of Italia is undeniably bella, there is something particularly breathtaking about Rome. If you’ve ever been there, you will know that the city is an unimaginably remarkable visual display of the history of human civilization . Each new era, each new society quite literally built on top of the previous one; turning the citadel into an immersive museum. Instead of tearing down architecture, it was repurposed as a new society took shape (ex.: stones from the ancient Roman Colosseum were looted in the middle ages and used for building new structures). History in Rome isn’t adjacent, it’s superimposed - and the psychological magnitude of this particular quality is a deeply fertile ground for a wandering mind.
A perfect example of this is Piazza Navona.
In Roman times, Piazza Navona was the Stadium of Domitian (also known as the Circus Agonalis), a massive, open-air athletic arena built in 86 AD.
The piazza's signature long, narrow, oval shape is not a Baroque design choice - it perfectly traces the exact outline of the ancient Greek-style running track. After the fall of the Roman Empire, houses and churches were built directly onto the foundations of the stadium's tiered stone stands, keeping the central track open to eventually become the public square we see today.
I came back from this trip fascinated, eager to know more, and unable to stop thinking about the Roman Empire. I watched many Youtube videos and documentaries (this is a great video if you’re looking for a general overview, and this channel dives deeper into significant events and battles). I felt that all of this newfound knowledge, coupled with the visceral experience of seeing all of this in person has a song hiding in it somewhere, but my mind took me to the tragedy of impermanence instead, so I dove full into writing and finishing The Art Of Letting Go.
Fast forward nearly six months later and we’re in January 2026. I have The Art Of Letting Go and How To Grow Lilies On The Moon both finished and produced, the music videos done. But that’s it, no other song after that. It being the beginning of a new year and all, I decide that it’s high time I kick my butt into gear and work on putting together the rest of the book songs I plan on releasing in 2026. As is the case with most of my song ideas, it was once again the responsibility of Pinterest’s algorithm to try and endow me with some inspiration. As I was scrolling through photos of different book covers, I stumbled upon this one that immediately made me stop. My subconscious kicked into overdrive and upon reading this Writers & Lovers title, I knew immediately what I wanted to write about: the two driving forces behind civilization.
Grouping types of people together under these two categories seemed both memorable and meaningful: the perfect vessel for a potentially exciting song. Because my original idea was essentially the chorus of the song, I was done pretty quickly:
some people just know what to say
philosophizing on a page at a café
I loved using ‘philosophizing’ here because it’s a mouthful in a satisfying way when paired with the melody (and yeah, I’m absolutely not biased here - why do you ask?).
With the writers portion down, I now needed a mirrored part of the chorus for the lovers:
some people just know what to do
perpetual running, always chasing the view
Philosophizing, meet perpetual. Perpetual, meet philosophizing. You guys are now wordy chorus sisters! Once this was done, I needed a few more nuggets of Pop wisdom that sound interesting, but also carry significant meaning that can deepen the song’s message. I was looking for familiar turns of phrases that I could poke into, and came up with:
don’t blame the players
blame the builders of the first town
This really should’ve been my mental hint that the song was meant to use ancient Roman imagery, but what is obvious to current Anja was frustratingly hidden to past Anja for over two weeks after writing this chorus. I really like this line because it alludes to the idea that humans inevitably fall into behavioral patterns - the way our society is organized was built and decided upon way before our iteration of civilization came around.
I was live laugh LOVING this chorus but was immediately humbled by my unfortunate obstacle of having absolutely no idea of what to do with the verses.
The chorus already summarized everything I wanted to say and I let myself down the wildest of paths on how to elaborate on these themes in the song’s verses and pre-choruses. To prove my point, here are some screenshots of lyric options I played around with:
Not only was I fully ready to do a callback to Juliet, I was also shamelessly rewriting and butchering Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing HAHA
Juliet was going to be my lover archetype and the point was she was…. free-spirited and traveling? Paris was involved??? The more I tried, the clearer it became that I was just making The Many Lives Of Juliet 2.0.
Here’s a voice memo from this profoundly puzzling time lol:
This went on for what seemed like an eternity at the time, but looking at the dates in my voice memos, it was actually just two weeks - me, dramatic? I was driving myself crazy with these verses - I felt SO strongly that the chorus had significant potential, which infuriated me even further that I was able to do that, then completely froze up when it was time to elaborate on my theme. I was brainstorming lyric and melody ideas when I was taking a shower, when I was trying (but failing) to fall asleep, when walking, when eating - it was completely consuming me. It felt like my brain was running at 3x speed, scanning options and playing them out, arguing against itself why a specific idea is good or bad. This usually happens to me whenever I’m working on writing or producing a new song - for the duration of that process, it envelops everything I do until the song is complete.
I was ready to red card myself (terminology exclusively thanks to the FIFA World Cup 2026 that is unfolding at the time of me writing this) and put an intentional pause on brainstorming ideas for this song. Then one evening, it occurred to me: instead of the trying to personify the writers and lovers archetypes via everyday people, maybe I use historical figures! And what’s a great historical period that people are familiar with AND is fundamental to the kind of world we live in today? Ancient Rome. NOW we had the proverbial ball rolling:
The general idea was finally taking a shape I didn’t entirely mind. I was frantically researching prominent Roman figures and trying to add their stories to melodies you could sing along with. While this specific verse didn’t make it, it was part of the funnel that eventually led to the final opening verse of the song. In fact, the line “Ovid with a pen in the heart of Rome” is meant to serve as double entendre: being ‘in the heart’ captures both him being in the centre of civilization at the time, but also alludes to his prolific work Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love - hence ‘heart’).
It was at this junction that I started reminiscing about our trip to Italy, the majestic wonder of Rome. All of the sentiments I had left Europe with a few months ago, came rushing back in. The inescapable patterns we always seem to fall into as a species, the societal organizations we re-label and iterate in perpetuity. The drivers behind this human engine: the people who are bold and adventurous and fearless, those who push progress forward and dare to go (literally and figuratively) where no others have dared before. And the people on the sidelines; the quiet observers, the dutiful note-takers who absorb all of this action and turn it into tangible proof of existence, a documentation and preservation for the generations to come. THAT was my song.
With Writers & Lovers now fully written, it was time to tackle its production. Since the ditty turned out to be heavy-handed on the lyrical density, I felt it necessary for the surrounding instrumental to lighten everything up a bit; make it feel danceable and approachable. I had set aside an afternoon in the week before Valentine’s Day, rolled up my sleeves, and to my complete surprise, had the song fully produced by the end of the day. If you’ve ever heard me rant in one of my ‘How I’ Youtube videos or read any previous additions to The Book Club, you might know I usually take my sweet time with the production; starting with a verse + chorus, then ingesting and rearranging it in my head for a few days before opening up Logic again. But with this one, I found myself completely lost in time, adding new instruments and ideas without even noticing. I took a step back a few hours later, and a full song was staring back at me.
Here’s what I had by the end of that day:
You can hear all of the main elements in here already: the Gloria slash Jump synth hook, the drum groove, the pizzicato strings in the background. Listening back to it that evening, I was simultaneously very excited that I was done so quickly and very, very perplexed at how it all unfolded. Little did I know, an eerily familiar process of creation was about to unfold again, for the second time with this song.
Just like when I was writing it, the initial draft came together seamlessly, effortlessly, fueled by an unending stream of ideas. Then, just as I felt like it was all in the palm of my hand, the process turned effort-FULL. For the next month, I was obsessing over this demo; adding new elements, instruments, and tracks - deleting a lot of them, keeping only the ones I felt contributed something meaningful to the overall sonic portrait. I made it messy and over-the-top, then removed too much and made it overly simplistic. As I did when I was writing the song, I was entirely consumed by it: adding ideas in my head, playing around with mixing and volume automations, exporting the new track, then doing it all over again the next day.
After a few weeks, I consciously forced myself to finalize the production: it was time to send it off to the live musicians who will fill all of the gaps that I felt the song was missing at the time.
Here’s the demo I sent out:
In it, there’s an opening synth motif that serves as the main melodic hook and comes back in every post-chorus :
The sound is built from layers of different synth instruments - here’s another one that covers the top end (high frequencies):
Then there’s the intentionally synth-sounding pizzicato strings in the pre-choruses:
And a synth countermelody that I came up while brushing my teeth one evening, then proceeded to run to my bedroom to add it to the production session at 1am because I thought the melody was solid enough (and thank GOD I did, because it absolutely lifted and completed the chorus):
Since the song was all about human history and civilizations building on top of one another, I thought it was a cool nod to the concept to have the production be an intertwining of the modern and the old / classic. I placed distorted synths alongside MIDI and live strings and kind of pulled back the curtain on the idea in the bridge breakdown:
With the production done, I got to work on recording the final vocals, while Yoed (strings), Victor (guitar + bass), and Chris (drums) got to work on recording their parts live in their respective home studios. :)
Victor sent over incredibly groovy, shimmery guitar tracks that immediately sprinkled magic into the song and completely erased all of my previous concerns about the song’s production:
He layered this on top of:
Meanwhile, Chris recorded this ridiculously groovy live drums for the song:
And Yoed sprinkled in some gorgeous live strings:
Back at home, I got to work on creating a brief for Vida Igličar, based on which she would be able to illustrate / design the cover art for the song. This time around, the process was reversed as I had already filmed the music video, so I could send her reference shots and colors from the shoot. We had done this with the previous two book songs The Art Of Letting Go and How To Grow Lilies On The Moon and I think it helped the process immensely. It also allowed me to have a better grasp of the direction for the cover so there could be a tighter connection between it and the song’s music video.
here are also a few references I sent her along with the brief:
Over the next week, we ended up with two cover contenders:
I LOVED the colors of the brighter one, but instantly regretted my idea of trying to use the actual lettering from the music video theatre. I did some brainstorming and sent Vida this doodle, which led to the final version of the song’s cover you know today. :)
Speaking of the music video and its theatre, that was the last missing puzzle of the Writers & Lovers story. I found myself once again seeking refuge and inspiration in my trusty old friend, Pinterest (cue dramatic choir sounds here). I loved the visual direction of setting everything inside a theatre, as it was a very natural extension of the pre-chorus 2 lyrics:
same book, different pages
iterated through the ages
different tools, different fools
but nothing ever truly changes
same roles, different actors
and spectators in the rafters
it’s a tale as old as time and now it’s also mine
This part really starts to feel as if human history is unfolding like an elaborate theatre performance you happen to be observing. I also knew I wanted to do something with chess - and not just because I’m currently on a 1100 day streak on Duolingo and am among the first 5k people to do the Daily Puzzle on chess.com every day at midnight. Not, JUST. :) Luckily for me, past Anja also included some sneaky chess imagery at the end of the first pre-chorus AND geopolitics is often likened to chess sooooo
cut the deal, cut the road
take the gate, keep the throne
move the pieces, name the days, etch the future into stone
I had all of the raw elements of what I wanted the music video to be, but couldn’t find a way to neatly tie them all together. I showed my mom my Pinterest board for the video and asked her if she sees anything here that could be both feasible to create at home AND interesting to look at.
Immediately, she was like: oh my gosh, you should do a video with you standing above a theatre and looking down at the figures inside! And so ladies and gents, the idea was finalized and it was time to move on to the realization phase, stat.
I did a lot of searching for mini children’s theatres online, but it quickly became clear we would have to make our own. The dimensions had to be very specific: I needed to film the outer shell of the video, with the girl looking down at the theatre. So the theatre had to be a bit smaller than me, still fitting into the main background. Then, it had to have a square cutout in the center into which I would later edit the chess performance scenes. Luckily for me, my dad can build anything so we did some measurements together to settle on the final size of the theatre, then got to work.
My job was to draw / decorate the theatre frame. I looked for some inspo pics online, thenk. I spent one afternoon drawing everything out with a pencil, holding the sides together to make sure they were as symmetrical as possible.
The next day, I went over everything with a black sharpie to make sure it would be visible in the video. Needless to say, this was the scariest part because I was in constant panic I would mess up a line and ruin the whole thing. :)
As I was doing this, my dad was building the theatre frame out of wood he got at Home Depot (very cool indeed). The bottom is wider because it acted as a little step that I stood on during the video.
We then attached the cardboard pieces to the wooden frame and ta-da, the mini theatre was done!! :)
The following weekend, it was time to finally film the music video. We got started early on a Saturday because we would need to change the entire set (background + floor) halfway through.
As I was getting ready, my dad was setting up the first scene and assembling the outdoor chess pieces we found online (yes, these had to be assembled one by one):
We filmed everything on my iPhone that was secured on a stand - it was imperative no one moved it so the perspective / angle would stay the same for the whole video.
This first scene was done in a single take that I lip synced to all the way through. That way, the chess performance that I would later edit inside the theatre would feel more immersive, like it was playing out in real time.
Once that was done, I quickly went inside to change and my dad started putting together the second scene. To save time, he put the chess floor on top of the blue one from before (it would be cropped out of the final video anyways).
We also added in some curtains and it was once again time to film - this would now be the scene that was happening inside the theatre. When editing, I scaled everything down so that these look like miniature figurines / puppets.
For the video outfits, I wanted to keep everything super light and whimsical, like you’re watching a performance in a children’s puppet theatre. :)
OUTFIT 1 - The Observer
For this one, I reused the headband from the Definitely, Maybe music video and the overlay see-through beaded dress from February. I wanted to bring together all of the colors from the video in this main character’s outfit: yellow from the chess scene background, blue and red for the chess figures.
OUTFIT 2 - The Writer
Since I knew the chess scene would be sized down, I wanted to keep the outfits very macro-oriented, devoid of any super intricate details. Since each character would be paired with a set of chess pieces, I thought it would be cool if I made the outfits monochromatic as well. This one features matching light blue tights and flats, as well as a homemade construction paper crown to delineate it as the king figure.
OUTFIT 3 - The Lover
Similarly to The Writer, I kept the outfit monochromatic (I traveled through the depths of my closet the week before to try and find matching tights hehe). Fun fact: I actually wore this dress during one of our days in Rome so I thought it was a cool little nod to the origin of the song. :)
I never set out to make a song about the Roman Empire, yet here we are. I had the time of my life researching historical figures and events, watching Youtube videos and listening to podcasts to try and understand the underlying setting of the song. The more I read and heard and learned, the more I realized how repetitive it all is: as hard as we try to move away and improve from our ancestors, we seem to be pulled by an invisible force into organizational and behavioral patterns that were laid out way before our current iteration of civilization ever came around.
I hope this can be song you can dance around to, maybe memorize its lyrics, and perhaps even start diving into the layers of meaning behind it. But above it all, I hope it’s a reminder of just how fascinating and remarkably intricate this life we’ve created on our tiny little planet truly is.