What happens when consciousness dissolves back into the universe… and lands on someone’s egg salad sandwich?

This song started years ago as an interpretation of a meme that made Paul David laugh;

when i die my atoms will come undone; i'll be space dust, once again. the wind will carry me; scatter me everywhere; like dandelions in springtime. i'll visit worlds and alien moons; it will all be so damn poetic— until I land on your sandwich.

Having a twisted sense of humor, Paul David gravitated to the grandiose message of being eternal—that once death reaches for you, you don’t cease to exist, you become one with the universe. He loved the idea of exploring worlds and alien moons and laughed out loud with the idea of your “space dust” landing on your loved one’s sandwich. Paul David saw the bones of a song with a message in it—we don’t die and we are made of the same stuff as the Universe.

As a person on a spiritual path, the idea resonated with him so strongly, he fleshed out some lyrics and tied ideas back to his journey. See, when Paul David’s soul mate was killed in a car accident, he was standing in an industrial kitchen making egg salad thinking, “You are off exploring the universe and I am here making egg salad. Something is wrong with this picture.” So he knew the sandwich was an egg salad sandwich (and even the melody notes there are E, G, & G.

Enter the Twin Cities based choir, imPulse. They connected with Paul David to compose a piece that used a RAV Vast handpan and choir to bring the lyrics to life. Enter Stardust Once Again, a traditional choral composition embodying the idea of the meme for SATB choir and RAV Vast handpans. During the composition process for Stardust Once Again, Paul David was inspired by the lyrics and decided it would make a fun pop song too. He laid down an alternative pop groove on drums, bass and guitar, with a sketch of the lyrics in mind, but put it on the shelf to finish the classical version for the upcoming world premiere.

During the summer of 2025, Paul David was going through partial tracks and sketches in his DAW (digital audio workstation) looking for inspiration for his next song when he happened upon a pop sketch called Everybody’s Golden and decided to set down and work out the song. Inspired by Golden from Harry Styles and having recently revisited Everybody Wants to Rule the World from Tears for Fears, Paul David felt inspired to mash the vibes of these two songs together with these unique and funny lyrics.

For the bridge section, Paul David wanted to venture into new territories. He had been learning an Afro-Cuban bembé groove on his drum set for a jazz gig, and he loved the feel of it. Appropriate to the theme of the song, a bembé refers to a celebratory spiritual gathering. What could be more appropriate for re-emerging into non-physical than that celebratory groove?

Continuing his creative collaboration with the amazing Alex Maiers on guitar, the resulting track lyrically ties to most of Stardust Once Again but branches out into new territory with the bembé rhythm and an alternate version of the lyrics.

Unencumbered Stardust is a song about what happens when being human ends—and what comes next. Beginning with the quiet realization that our bodies are temporary arrangements of atoms, the song expands outward—scattering consciousness across distant worlds, newborn stars, and alien moons. But just when the journey feels purely transcendent, the universe delivers a reminder of the absurdity of existence: sometimes dust lands on your sandwich…and what if that dust was your grandma?

Philosophical, playful, and slightly unhinged, “Unencumbered Stardust” explores the cycle of becoming—human to stardust, …and maybe back again.

The result is an incredibly catchy summer driving song.