Where to Begin

Prints of Her Lipstick

I don't know where to begin
It feels like it never ends
She says that she's into drugs
And I think that I'm love

It's the way she moves her hips
And what she does with her lips
Each time she blows me a kiss
It leaves some prints of her lipstick

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Imaginary Friends

Ooh that girl is fine
And she knows what's always on a man's mind
But I don't care where she's been
Or with whom she's been
After all we are just imaginary friends
For as long as we pretend
But I wish I were more than just an option to you girl
And I wish I had known to use caution with you girl

A serpent's word was clearly heard and set to disturb
This course that has occurred
But even if you were the first to commit sin girl
All that occurs is a result of what's been girl

"And I will be your guilty pleasure
And you could be my forbidden treasure
And you could be mine"

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Rocío

The morning dew forms on every blade of grass
The day is new, another season has passed

Passing through changeable states of being
How can you believe anything you're seeing?

The sky is blue, you fill my world with color
The wind is cool, you make me feel like no other

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About

Where to Begin is the debut acoustic EP by Tim Delaney, released March 19, 2021.

In his own words…

I recorded Where to Begin largely in my closet between late 2016 and throughout 2017. At one point in 2017, I was working three different jobs, which slowed progress considerably. By 2018, I began working with Andre Moran on mixing, with Mark Hallman mastering the EP at Congress House Studio. That process unfolded over roughly eight sessions between December 2018 and March 2020.

“Imaginary Friends” was the first song I ever wrote on guitar after learning to play in early 2012, while “Rocío” was written during a period I spent living in New York City in 2013. “Prints of Her Lipstick” originally began as part of a different song altogether, but gradually evolved into what it ultimately became on the EP.

Both “Prints of Her Lipstick” and “Imaginary Friends” rely on a simple, circular structure rather than a traditional verse-chorus format. In “Prints of Her Lipstick,” certain vocal inflections and elongated consonants became more pronounced during recording, adding a subtle sense of tension and intimacy to the delivery. While this wasn’t something I consciously planned, it emerged naturally in production and felt emotionally consistent with the song’s subject matter.

“Rocío,” by contrast, features a more openly evolving chorus and is built around a four-chord progression. If you listen closely, you can hear me clear my throat in the middle of the first chorus—an unintentional moment I chose to leave in. The birds heard before and after the song were recorded at the corner of Woodward and Palmetto in Ridgewood, Queens, and serve as a personal transitional texture, connecting my time in New York to my life as an artist in Austin.

For the first three songs, my original intention was to record something very raw, inspired by the stark simplicity of The Paul Simon Songbook. As the sessions developed, though, I found myself drawn to the textures created by layered harmonies, ukulele, and light percussion. I allowed the arrangements to expand naturally, with the only real constraint being the exclusive use of acoustic instruments.

“The Man I’ve Been” was recorded much earlier, on May 7, 2008, at my first apartment in Austin. It was written by my late friend and gifted songwriter and musician Jon Pettis, to whom this EP is dedicated. The recording was entirely on-the-fly and unrehearsed, with friends present in the room. I included it because it felt emotionally aligned with the rest of the EP and because it represents one of the first pieces of music I ever recorded. I’ve always loved how it came out—it almost feels like you’re sitting in the living room with us.