This song is an instrumental song that got it’s start in 2006. It is currently slated to be track 3 on “Hindsight”.
(The following was originally posted in a track by track breakdown on the Reinvision Substack page on Jan, 9 2023. Original post here Looking In – Substack Track Breakdown Entry)
Background
Work on this song started on November 13, 2006. Initially it was just sort of an experiment with the music software Reason. Mikey had just recently turned me on to using it, and this was one of the first things I did with it. I programmed the basic keyboard pad and chord progression.
My only notes from this are: “1st experiment with Reason…2012 concept idea”.
For clarification, around this time, sort of tied to Reinvsion, and sort of tied to SkyBorg (stuff just James and I would work on), James and I had tossed around the idea of doing something related to the concept of the world ending in 2012.
(Remember when the end of the Mayan calendar 12/21/2012 was going to be the “end of the world”?? Y2K v2.0…)
We kicked around the idea of utilizing that whole idea as a basis of some proggy/conceptual stuff. Upon creation of this piece, I had intended to utilize it into that concept somewhere.
The image above was chosen at that time to represent this track for that very reason. I also used this image in conjunction with this track back in the MySpace days.
(Remember MySpace??)
After the initial keyboard pad was completed, I threw down a quick solo guitar lead over the top of it. I’ve always loved doing the “epic” open leads over keyboard pads like this. I feel like this largely comes from my strong Brian May and Nuno Bettencourt influence, as well as a healthy dose of the Boston/Tom Scholz influence as well. I mentally put this piece in the same mindset and place in my head along with Queen’s “Bijou”, the end of Extreme’s “Rock A Bye Bye”, and Boston’s “The Journey”. I had a song from my old late 90’s “Jake Skylyr Demos” called “Just Wanted To Say…” that was also in the same vein as this. I also have a few other ones kicking around that may see the light of day soon as well.
Once I had the scratch lead down to get an idea of how the piece would sound, I initially had the idea of expanding it out further, to continue the “2012/End Of The World” concept. The original demo continued into a spooky atmospheric silence, followed by a menacing futuristic synth-thing. My original thought was for that keyboard riff to evolve into it’s own whole new section, but it never did. It just meanders for a bit, and is capped off by a deep doom-y voice saying “You’ve Gone Too Far”. That’s my voice slowed down and dropped an octave or two.
Since the end of Nov 2006, the 2 versions of this; “Looking In” and “Looking In (You’ve Gone Too Far)” have pretty much just been hanging out on my hard drives not doing much. When I decided to start putting together the “Hindsight” album, this was one of the tracks I resurrected. For the current working demo (2022 Hindsight Demo), I went with the shorter more concise “Looking In” version. I edited the scratch lead guitar to take out a few of the flubs/noises that were in the original demo to make it more palatable for listening.
Who would have guessed that the “You’ve Gone Too Far” message was to my future self to help me realize the full track was too much and to scale it back a bit? 
For the album, I’m going to leave the keyboard/pad as it is, and just re-record the lead guitar through my live amp lead tone for some more energy. That said the current working version isn’t bad in and of itself. It gets the point across at least!
I felt this track was a good breather after the insanity of “Look Around You”, it gives a chance to reflect and relax, and is a good segue into the softer intro to “Losing Control”. I’m not sure the initial apocalyptic aspect applies much at this point, but it could. I feel like in this context, it is rather open to interpretation. You can tell me what it means to you, and how it makes you feel.
Demos
As I mentioned, there is a longer version of this that I had titled “Looking In (You’ve Gone Too Far)”. Here is that version for you to listen to, dated November 16, 2006.
Fundamentally, you’ll hear it’s the same as the current “Looking In” demo, with the couple of guitar flubs still intact, and the different extended ending.
Fun fact for the guitar geeks, gear heads, and potential “haters”: the lead guitar here is my Universe through….. wait for it…. sit down, if you’re a purist….a Zoom 505II.
Yes. A multi-effect box that was less than $40 new in 2005. I actually still use it a lot for teaching. I’ve actually done shows with it direct to the PA. Is it an amazing piece of gear? No. But hard to beat bang for buck. With a little patience, you can get some quite usable tones out of it. I dialed in usable clean, rhythm, and lead tones when I bought it, and you are hearing the lead tone here. The lead tone may actually be the most usable tone you can get out of it honestly. So yeah, it’s not always about cutting edge top of the line gear!
As of late 2022, “Looking In” is slated to be track 3 on the upcoming album “Hindsight”.
Links
Here are some links to hear the 2022 demo of “Looking In”: