Maytag Land

The song was mostly composed, arranged, and recorded within my van amidst travels down to Los Angeles in February 2026.

The song began from a Reddit prompt: “Write a song about the happy land where socks are escaping to. But try to write it in a minor key, and add some twist.”

It’s rare that I write from a prompt but I always appreciate prompt writing for pushing me to write something that otherwise most likely never would have been considered. It provides a kind of safe distance from what I’m writing – I don’t have to feel too attached. It’s a pure creative exercise with just enough structure to give me a direction and enough flexibility to be creative within it.

I found this particular prompt interesting and a bit curious. I struggled at first to find an approach that made sense to me. I started writing about the many socks without pairs I’ve got in a drawer and a few other things that felt too concrete. Eventually I removed myself from the story and focused instead on it being a sort of recruitment song – from the socks to the listener. As I wrote those lines I started to view them as refugees, escaping a harsh reality to a place outside of time where they will not be used and abused, ripped up, chewed up and thrown away. For the darker twist, I wrote that there’s only one way in and no way out.

As a jumping off point I started from visualizing the laundry room at my house, which was once the studio, but now the cat room with, like the song says, litter boxes and a catio door.

This is an example of a song where I essentially wrote most of it away from the instrument. I started with the lyrics and then began to hear them set to a melody. The majority of the melodies were composed without even touching a guitar – I sang them into a voice note while driving. It was my second night on the road, waiting out a storm near Bakersfield, where I was set up in the van working out the melodies and harmonizing them on guitar.

I had no concrete idea for a musical arrangement at that point. I kind of imagined it being arranged for piano, or sort of toy piano – almost like a song that would be in a children’s show. But ultimately the song took on a more straightforward guitar and vocal arrangement. The melody was set before I even touched the guitar though. There are several different movements in the song and everything was driven by this changing melody.

Here’s the response I got from the Redditor who gave me the prompt:

“This is GREAT! Cool 70s-like sound, carefree and well-done lyrics! ‘Join us in the dryer and shut the door behind you’ 😅 And the dryer sound in the end. A fantastic choice. Thank you for making my prompt into something so nice! 😊”

I gave them a counter prompt in return: Write a song that tells a story in reverse chronological order – starting with the end, then the middle, ending with the beginning.

I’d like to do something with that eventually. But for now, here’s Maytag Land.

There’s a place
Down the hall way
Past the litter box and catio door

A magic space
There’s only one way
In and no way out

Where all is warm
And all is fluff
Theres treasure there
And softness in the air

Everyone’s an individual
Not a single pair
And you can join us there

In Maytag land
Come join our clan
We’ll throw a sock party for you
Be one of us
We are not lost
We have each other

Just get into the dryer
And shut the door behind you
Those socks, you thought were lost?
We’ll reunite you
The bills and coins that disappeared are waiting for you
Your guitar pick?
We got that too
You can play a little doodle loo

In Maytag land
Come join our band
We’ll play a sock party with you
Be one of us
Join our chorus
We’ll sing together

La la la

In maytag land
Time sits still
We don’t grow old
And don’t grow holes
Never stepped on never trashed
Never ripped up by the cats
We’ve left the cold hard world behind
And we can’t go back

Come join us in the dryer
And shut the door behind you