30:19 (EP) – Sidney Stephens

Listen to 30:19 on YouTube

Before this moment, there was nothing.
No color, no light, no life, no breath, no death. Whether it was explosion or genesis, neither mattered because neither existed. There was nothing to contemplate. Nothing to theorize. Nothing to philosophize.

The clock is now set to absolute zero.

Suddenly, the universe speaks out. Mostly nonsense and noise at first, but begins to take shape. A pulse chimes in rhythm. Time has begun to stabilize after four minutes and one second.

As it pushes onward, time is self calibrating. This is the birth of mathematics, geometry, and physics. There’s movement in the skies and heaven. Another five minutes and twenty-five six seconds have passed.

Another burst of energy. The origin of twilight and spectral light. Colors form as mountains grow from beneath the Earth. The clock is steadily forging ahead. Time has moved again, four minutes and thirty-eight seconds.

Primordial soup at the edge of stagnant ponds. Science itself is born. Appendages sprout and fins emerge on infantile beasts only after another five minutes and six seconds.

Volcanoes on distant worlds. Asteroids plummet. Gravity tethers planets as stars ignite and burn seemingly eternal. The Earth creates and destroys itself over and over again. Six minutes and twenty-three seconds have gone by since rhe last count.

Four minutes and forty-six seconds later, humanity is established. Alchemy and God have been created in symphony of language. People must decide their own future. Choose their path. To live as one or simply fend for themselves as beasts of violent nature. Fight for survival or acknowledge each other as equals and attempt to share life’s bounty as a meaningful society. The Biblical Moses turned to the people standing before the Red Sea, and asked the people to choose what they truly believe in, and fully commit their lives to it. The same moment as the stream of cosmic energy and life formed with the pulse of the Earth and all living creatures. Voodoo, telepathy, witchcraft, and the worship of Gods. Love was created alongside hatred. Fear with elation. Anger paired with bliss.

And now you have been exposed. There is no going back. The sound is part of you. The words buried in your mind, and your soul infiltrated. Something amazing can happen in only thirty minutes and nineteen seconds.

The Album (Six song E.P)
The most recent release to date. A slight shift in writing style. More introspective maybe? More mature? Regardless, these songs are a good example of Sidney’s non compliance of genre. Not by choice. It’s just the way the songs present themselves.
The only continuity in each song features piano. Well, almost every song.
Piano was Sid’s first instrument, although he gave up on lessons after a few short weeks. He just didn’t have the regimented patience to practice monotonous scales instead of noodling ditties and making up music. He’d been tinkering for as long as he can remember on an antique 1898 Kimball, upright grand.

All instruments, production, engineering, mixing, and songs written by Sidney Stephens (BMI)
Mastering by Rev J. Rudd
Recorded at Rain Day Records -Shed of Tuff in Spicewood, Texas ©2026

Aims To Misbehave, a whimsical song with the title originally inspired by a bumper sticker on the trunk of a car in south Austin. As it was being written, like many songs, it took off on its own journey. It landed somewhere between a wild tempered woman and a hot rod-rock-climber truck, with a few personal stories mixed in.

She’s a beast. She’ll sprawl
Thirty-eights and wide. She’ll crawl
Imposing awe into the eyes of grown children

Gun rack in the back
Empty and void
Cause these ain’t the days to be playing with them toys

I’ll drive her hard. Peel the paint
Like a wild man testing fate
Never said I was no saint

(chorus)
Don’t worry about the curves
And never mind the rail
She’ll love you more if you’re afraid
She’ll get dirty in the mud
Tears of dust in her glowing eyes
She aims to misbehave

Back to school the hard way
Jump the bridge unpaved
Can’t tell me I’m right when I know I’m wrong

Diamond pistons. She’s a Stroker
Fuel infected snow blower
Rumbles while she’s waiting in the shadows

Fire in the belly. Menthols and a mullet
Crooked smile. Chewing on a bullet
Not another one like her anywhere

(chorus)
Don’t worry about the curves
And never mind the rail
She’ll love you more if you’re afraid
She’ll get dirty in the mud
Tears of dust in her glowing eyes
She aims to misbehave

Get Along inspired by the current times of social and political turmoil in America. Interestingly, the meaning of “get along” changes at the end of the song, as in, go away.

(chorus)
Get along maybe, well
Get along now, well
Get along
Y’all know how

Wake up in the morning
Pissed off at the News
Got yourself all worked up
Don’t know what to do, well

Get along maybe, well
Get along now, well
Get along
Y’all know how

Get along maybe, well
Get along now, well
Get along
Y’all know how

Before you wrap around your sevens
Try some contemplation, don’t
Tear down houses
That put shoes on your feet

Always complaining
About the cog and machine, you got to
Keep drinking water
If you know what I mean

Don’t let the bullet make the martyr
It’s the wrong kind of right
Another distraction
From the righteous fight

Eyes on the prize
Though we don’t know what it is
Just our favorite pastime
Arguing with our friends, don’t you

Think it’s time to
Put all this behind us
Get on with living
Put the good guys in charge, If we’re

Really worried about the
Wave of the future
Maybe it’s time to
Get along

Get along maybe now
Get along now, well
Get along
Y’all know how
Y’all know how
Y’all know how to
Get along

(solo)

(chorus)
Get along maybe, well
Get along now, well
Get along
Y’all know how

Wake up in the morning
Pissed off at the News
Got yourself all worked up
Don’t know what to do, well
Get along maybe, well
Get along now, well

Get along Get along
Y’all know how Y’all know how
We all know how to get along

Y’all know how Y’all know how Y’all know how to Get along

Someplace I Can Stay sounds as if the person in the song might be a traveler, but in reality, it was inspired by finding a room to rent (without roommates). The actual room was without heating or air conditioning, but was finally a place to call home and feel somewhat independent. The motel life reference was about arriving in Nashville with no money leftover from his savings. He chose to spend his last dollars on a cheap hotel room for one night, a meal, and a couple of beers. He would be officially homeless the next day. So he grabbed his guitar and walked to a nearby songwriters hangout and met a waitress who had a boyfriend looking for a roommate. The other reference is about a time when he suddenly found himself with nowhere to live. The hotel rent took most of his paycheck, so he lived off of bread, peanut butter, soda, and corn chips for several weeks.

This old town gave me a hard time
It wasn’t easy to settle in
Now things seem to have worked out fine
Starting to feel like an old friend

Had enough of living the motel life
It’s good to call some place home
I still hear that highway calling me
But I’ve done been down that road

(chorus)
Sometimes I find city life suits me fine
The country ain’t never too far awa
Take a drive to ease my mind
Finally found someplace I can stay
I sometimes wonder how I wound up here
And I’m thankful I’m here with you
Throughout my life there’s been a constant fear
Might not live long enough to see things through

Some people call this destiny
But whatever it’s called I’ll take it
Think about tomorrow when the sun comes up
And when the sun goes down I know I made it

(chorus)
Sometimes I find city life suits me fine
The country ain’t never too far away
Take a drive to ease my mind
Finally found someplace I can stay

Break/solo

(Bridge)
Everything seems easier now that I take my time
Do it once do it right
Can’t believe how I troubled my mind
Just to try to win a losing fight

(chorus)
Sometimes I find city life suits me fine
The country ain’t never too far away
Take a drive to ease my mind
Finally found someplace I can stay
Finally found someplace I can stay
Finally found someplace I can stay

For When I Crumble is a story about growing up with dreams. Delusion, depression, failure, and the epiphany that the music itself is ultimately the power and drive that keeps some of us going through life. It’s a deeply personal song that was written during a severe mental struggle.

We were told that we could dream when we were young
Shown dreams to dream if we chose to capture one
Then we were left out in the cold
Didn’t know just which way to go
And we tumbled

Wandering and trying to survive
Years of being lost, hiding emptiness inside
The music stayed an echo in our souls
Always trying to find a way to grow
As we mumbled

There were times we felt we had come to life
Reborn and drawn into the light
Music rose and showed us the way home
And we knew it was time for us to go
So we rumbled

Never fools, we knew it’d not come easy
The struggle occupied and sometimes pleased
We made our sounds and found our place to play
We never thought that feeling could ever fade away
But we stumbled

And life had taken one more sudden turn
Another start, another song to learn
Found ourselves alone without a stage
Our minds began to slowly fade away
And we fumbled

We were walking hand in hand with the dead
Fully dressed and lying in our beds
As the darkness slowly spread its way around
The music stopped making any sound
And we grumbled

So now we play the music from beyond
It came from the light of our souls all along
Never a good dream for destiny
But always gave us something to believe
For when we crumbled
For when we crumbled
For when I crumbled
For when we crumbled

Slow Days And Steady Moving was written during a time of restructuring of life. Sid had slowed down working manual labor and working in general. He was taking time to assess his future and let his body heal from years of alcohol abuse and depression. He’s still figuring it out, but music and family has taken a first row seat to life’s priorities.

One foot on the floor at seven
Dog is wiggling around and staring
Follows me around my morning routine
Feed the cat who’s dramatically falling down
As I stumble my way around
There was a time my only thought was nicotine

Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving

I gave up booze and other vices
Don’t miss them now and that’s nice
I’ll walk the dog then watch the morning news
Takes a bit to get my stuff moving
Don’t hurry now that I found my groove and
I’m happier and it all works out the same

A buck’s a buck no matter how it’s made
Too much too much is too insane
I don’t think we’re all meant for this
I used to hurry and run out the door
Just to park in the road with the whole damn world
It’s what I thought I had to do

Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving

I was never going to make it anyway
I wish I knew that in my younger days
I would have taken the scenic route
Killing myself just to get by
Now I’m getting by just getting by
Starting out with nothing, still got nothing left

Making time for my family
Let the music set me free
Writing down my life in one long line
The world’s too much to contemplate
Too much information and too much rage
Cautious and confused about the crowd

Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving

Dude’s yelling at me on the road
Misinformed and on the phone
It’s probably time to legalize weed
Or maybe it’s time to feed the cat
Drink some beans and forget about that
See who’s winning on the Price is Right

Pay my dues, play my cards right
Chug along in the tunnel towards the light
There’s peace at the end I’m told
Do a good thing when I can
Don’t have to believe in any plan
Just to get inside them pearly gates

Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving
Slow days And steady moving

Searching The Stream was written after Sid found a close friend online that he’d been looking for over twenty years. Pat was a big part of Sidney’s music beginnings. He was around in Santa Fe, when Sid was just starting to write songs. He was around in Austin when Sid was first getting on stages. He was even around in Nashville, but disappeared just after Christmas one year, never to be heard from again. When Sid finally found him online, he was contemplating what to say to him, when something instinctual said to keep searching. After a few hours of looking online, Sidney discovered that his friend had actually passed away six months earlier. Imagine finding someone and then losing them in the same day, just hours apart. There have been times where un-explainable visits from people in distress occurred, alive and dead, usually in a state of being half awake. Another meaning for ‘the Stream’.

I saw you in a picture
Surprised you looked the same
Heavy medication
And eyes full of pain

It’s too late now
Forever gone
All I can give
Is what I’ve given all along

Too late for forgiveness
Can’t take back my memory
Same drifting heartache
Happy that you’re free

It’s fitting how the news
Found its way to me
A visit coming through
Searching the stream

Somehow I’m still angry
What we put each other through
Now there’s not a damn thing
Even an old friend can do

Did you know I was looking?
Ever think about my name?
I found you and I lost you
All in the same day

I could’ve eased your pain
If I had only known
Might not have drifted
Shouldn’t have left you alone

It’s fitting how the news
Found its way to me
A visit coming through
Searching the stream

Somehow I’m still angry
What we put each other through
Now there’s not a damn thing
Even an old friend can do

Searching the stream
Searching the stream