“Tomorrow,” a single off Mark Schirmacher’s Losing Things album, begins with a chime-y acoustic guitar intro. When Schirmacher begins singing, he describes seeking someone out. “Tomorrow,” he announces, “I’m gonna go looking for you.” Just who this “you” is, however, is not entirely clear.
The name of Schirmacher’s album, Losing Things, may give us a clue. Yes, the title refers to losing “things.” However, people also lose other people too, even though it would be cruel to refer to a person as a mere “thing.” Sometimes one person loses another person because of lifestyle changes. For instance, when a member of a friend group becomes wealthy, the rest of the group may now have trouble relating to that rich one. Wealth often leads to different values and desires. Hey, if most all your friends drive Toyotas and Hondas, while one lone person rocks a Mercedes or BMW, well, one of these things is just not like the other.
One of this song’s lyrical cues is how Schirmacher recalls what this person said in high school. This could be an old flame. Or, it could be a former best friend who went a different direction after high school. Schirmacher reminds this person of something the person once said to him. “You’ll never leave me/No matter how blue.” And now, these words are “ringing true.” You get the distinct impression that this person did leave him, and that – one assumes – he, indeed, became too blue. We say a lot of things, and make a lot of promises when we’re young, that we’re unable to fully keep when we get older. In high school, we many times live life like a Bruce Springsteen song. We have big ideas, grand plans and hard promises. However, we assume we’ll always be the same person we were in high school. Yet, when we get older, we change. What seemed so important at 16, may not be as relevant once we reach adulthood. In Schirmacher’s mind, however, his feelings haven’t changed. He still wants to uphold his end of the bargain now.
Stylistically, “Tomorrow” can best be described as moody folk music. Schirmacher layers his acoustic guitar parts nicely to create a kind of six-string orchestral arrangement. Of course, what Schirmacher may be looking for, might not be a person. Perhaps he’s going after an ideal he once held to in high school. That person may have challenged him in a way that he’s just now ready to take on.
Schirmacher’s voice is fragile and sincere. This is a highly personal song. He’s not attempting to make any sort of universal statement with his song. He could also be going on this quest to make amends. Might he be out to set the record straight? To tie the loose ends that were left untied after school? It’s possible.
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Whatever Schirmacher’s aim is for this song, he makes the listener feel his uneasy restlessness. We all have situations in our lives that, if we had it to do over again, we would. The fact that he says he’s going to go on this quest of some sort “tomorrow,” tells us it’s urgent. Let’s hope he found what (or whom) he sought.
-Dan MacIntosh
