songwriter
Lyrics - Brave
Saturday 19 September 2015 LyricsLyrics
These lyrics were inspired by the Native American story, during our journey across the USA:
BRAVE
You are young, your fear finds my eyes,
I can taste it,
You have come, your gun in your belt,
And I pity
Read More...
BRAVE
You are young, your fear finds my eyes,
I can taste it,
You have come, your gun in your belt,
And I pity
Read More...
Lyrics - You and Me Together
Thursday 13 August 2015 LyricsLyrics
I was looking through my old journals while I was in Seattle, and I realised that I had so many lyric ideas that hadn’t been developed into songs. So I gave this one a shot. Wish I could share a recording... will have to post it later!
If I met you all over again, what would be the first line in my head?
What emotion would spring out of me, would we cross paths uneventfully?
But no, how I’m certain, that certain things would surely come to be.
Your smile, your conversing would hit the target oh so accurately...
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If I met you all over again, what would be the first line in my head?
What emotion would spring out of me, would we cross paths uneventfully?
But no, how I’m certain, that certain things would surely come to be.
Your smile, your conversing would hit the target oh so accurately...
Read More...
Lyrics - Ten Days in June
Wednesday 29 July 2015 LyricsLyrics
My little girl has grown up fast,
The make up and the high heels and the glass,
Remember her first day of school,
The steps she took, her joy in all the rules?
She learned and grew and thrived and laughed,
Her braided hair fell long into her lap,
Miss curious they said of her,
She sought the question as much as its answer...
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Lyrics - The Badlands
Sunday 12 July 2015 LyricsLyrics
Rattle snake down by the lake,
Sound and size, subtle alarm,
Turning and seizing your prey,
Venomous, venomous...
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Song of the Week
Friday 26 June 2015 LyricsSong of the Week
Please Come Home - Gary Clark Jr.
The next Hendrix? Perhaps...
The solos in this live version of the slow, deep blues are intense journeys... you can’t have the volume loud enough!
But he doesn’t just play like a true master, his voice’s sumptuous vibrato and blissful falsetto rubs like silk against the grit of his raw guitar. And he keeps you hooked right until the last final, soulful, lingering lone tone.
The next Hendrix? Perhaps...
The solos in this live version of the slow, deep blues are intense journeys... you can’t have the volume loud enough!
But he doesn’t just play like a true master, his voice’s sumptuous vibrato and blissful falsetto rubs like silk against the grit of his raw guitar. And he keeps you hooked right until the last final, soulful, lingering lone tone.
Lyrics - Lush
Saturday 20 June 2015 LyricsLyrics
Lyrics - Ants
Thursday 11 June 2015 LyricsLyrics
Just one, one of the ants in the hill,
One of the steps on the treadmill,
One of the tiles in the elevating wall.
Read More...
Song of the Week
Tuesday 02 June 2015 LyricsSong of the Week
Plastic - Moses Sumney
Moses’ EP seems to be a beautiful concoction of all things mysterious. His voice is rich yet raspy. His songs minimal yet bursting.
Plastic’s lyrics resonate incredibly with where I am at: “I know what it is to be broke and to be bold”. Isn’t it so true that our boldness has to come from being broken? If we are not broken and stripped down to our cores, knowing who we truly are, our boldness will always be fickle and fleeting.
www.mosessumney.com
Moses’ EP seems to be a beautiful concoction of all things mysterious. His voice is rich yet raspy. His songs minimal yet bursting.
Plastic’s lyrics resonate incredibly with where I am at: “I know what it is to be broke and to be bold”. Isn’t it so true that our boldness has to come from being broken? If we are not broken and stripped down to our cores, knowing who we truly are, our boldness will always be fickle and fleeting.
www.mosessumney.com
Lyrics - The Pioneers
Friday 29 May 2015 LyricsLyrics
As we have been driving down the East coast of the USA, I have been struck by what it must have been like to be among the explorers who first came across this land. The joy, the fear, the unknowns as they landed on her shores and started to chart out the land, started to build roads, not knowing how far or long or wide this land was. This song is about a young man on the ship.
Light comes to us, it lifts our heads.
We’re awake, we are ready, the waves are calm and steady.
But on this fair morning there’s a difference
Land ahoy, oh what inexplicable joy.
Land ahead, so they’re true - all the legends they said.
No port at which to land, our boots are wet with salty sand, there’s a newness to the pebbles.
Deserted to our eyes, but rich in all between the sea and sky.
And what lies inside?
We made it, we made it here.
There’s far to walk, but the seas are conquered.
Now mount your horse, go forth.
We set our compass, heading West.
How far could it be until we reach the Eastern edge?
I walk where no man has ever walked before.
Breathe the air, how it whispers through my hair,
Breathe it in deep, expectation in my feet.
No road for us to follow, we’re forgers blazing a hopeful trail, long and quiet and strong.
How could this land be here, waiting for us for all these years,
And what lies beneath?
We made it, we made it here.
There’s far to walk, but the seas are conquered,
Now mouth your horse, go forth.
Dare I go, dare I connect my soul with yours?
Dare I land upon the banks of your foreign shores?
For I am ill equipped, afraid, perhaps ashamed that you might not let me through your door,
And I’ll be left here in the wasteland,
But I long to cross your threshold,
Could I ever be so near, so bold?
Light comes to us, it lifts our heads.
We’re awake, we are ready, the waves are calm and steady.
But on this fair morning there’s a difference
Land ahoy, oh what inexplicable joy.
Land ahead, so they’re true - all the legends they said.
No port at which to land, our boots are wet with salty sand, there’s a newness to the pebbles.
Deserted to our eyes, but rich in all between the sea and sky.
And what lies inside?
We made it, we made it here.
There’s far to walk, but the seas are conquered.
Now mount your horse, go forth.
We set our compass, heading West.
How far could it be until we reach the Eastern edge?
I walk where no man has ever walked before.
Breathe the air, how it whispers through my hair,
Breathe it in deep, expectation in my feet.
No road for us to follow, we’re forgers blazing a hopeful trail, long and quiet and strong.
How could this land be here, waiting for us for all these years,
And what lies beneath?
We made it, we made it here.
There’s far to walk, but the seas are conquered,
Now mouth your horse, go forth.
Dare I go, dare I connect my soul with yours?
Dare I land upon the banks of your foreign shores?
For I am ill equipped, afraid, perhaps ashamed that you might not let me through your door,
And I’ll be left here in the wasteland,
But I long to cross your threshold,
Could I ever be so near, so bold?
Lyrics - Sail On
Monday 11 May 2015 LyricsLyrics
Sail On - I wrote this song sort of by accident! It was Valentine’s Day last year, and I didn’t have a present for Michal... so I sat down at the piano and thought I would record him a little verse and chorus.
But, of course, as soon as I sat down and started to try to sum up my Valentine’s Day emotions, it got deep... and it got intense!
So Sail On is the song that came out... it has become the title track of the album, a beautiful metaphor for love through the thick and thin.
--
I love it when you laugh, golden cheeks, golden sound.
Black pearl eyes, lights to all.
I love seeing what you see,
You hold my hands and gently guide me on to the sea.
Love is sailing on an ocean of trust and truth and tears and turning round.
And I will sail with you when it’s dark,
When my compass is stuck, when I’m all out of luck,
Sail on, sail on my sweet one.
I love it when we fight together for the same cause, winning wars,
Bringing light to what’s right.
I love it when we climb together to a new height,
Breathing in the sights we see.
Love is sailing on an ocean of trust and truth and tears and turning round.
And I will sail with you when it’s dark,
When my compass is stuck, when I’m all out of luck,
Sail on, sail on my sweet one.
But, of course, as soon as I sat down and started to try to sum up my Valentine’s Day emotions, it got deep... and it got intense!
So Sail On is the song that came out... it has become the title track of the album, a beautiful metaphor for love through the thick and thin.
--
I love it when you laugh, golden cheeks, golden sound.
Black pearl eyes, lights to all.
I love seeing what you see,
You hold my hands and gently guide me on to the sea.
Love is sailing on an ocean of trust and truth and tears and turning round.
And I will sail with you when it’s dark,
When my compass is stuck, when I’m all out of luck,
Sail on, sail on my sweet one.
I love it when we fight together for the same cause, winning wars,
Bringing light to what’s right.
I love it when we climb together to a new height,
Breathing in the sights we see.
Love is sailing on an ocean of trust and truth and tears and turning round.
And I will sail with you when it’s dark,
When my compass is stuck, when I’m all out of luck,
Sail on, sail on my sweet one.
Song of the Week
Tuesday 28 April 2015 LyricsSong of the Week
Stay Gold - First Aid Kit
This song is a little bit of an oxymoron. I have another favourite song by Sting that is this kind of oxymoron - it’s one of the saddest songs about failing as a father, but set to a deceptively uptempo country lilt.
Stay Gold is also wonderfully uplifting and upbeat. But it is about that one of the hardest questions that artists often face:
“What if our hard work ends in despair,
What if the road won’t take me there?”
The challenge is to stay gold. Stay true.
www.thisisfirstaidkit.com
This song is a little bit of an oxymoron. I have another favourite song by Sting that is this kind of oxymoron - it’s one of the saddest songs about failing as a father, but set to a deceptively uptempo country lilt.
Stay Gold is also wonderfully uplifting and upbeat. But it is about that one of the hardest questions that artists often face:
“What if our hard work ends in despair,
What if the road won’t take me there?”
The challenge is to stay gold. Stay true.
www.thisisfirstaidkit.com
Lyrics - Is It OK?
Thursday 23 April 2015 LyricsLyrics
I have had a few people ask me for the lyrics for the songs on the album - so I’ll post them one by one over the next couple of weeks. Let me know your thoughts and which parts of the different songs speak to you.
I’ll start with “Is It OK?” - a deeply painful and personal song for me, about dreams and gifts and what they’re for and what responsibility I have. I wrote this song over a long period of time, which is quite unusual for me; usually songs come quickly. But this one was a long process, and I think it has a depth that is more evident than in my other work:
So much tension in the air some days,
So many avenues that I could walk down to bring around some change,
So I look myself right in the back of the black of the darkness of my eye,
And question myself to find what lies beneath the most telling of my smiles.
Is it OK to retain such a precious amount of gold and hold it in your hands for so long without letting go?
Is it OK to resist its light?
Does it make it beautiful?
Oh I struggle to live out my numbered days with a cause,
So many questions getting thrown up in the face of everything I thought I had been taught,
So many weeks and oh through the months and on and on I slowly persevere with my song,
Without and ounce of certainty that I'm the one to whom it truly should belong,
Is it OK to be scared of the very thing that makes your fragile little heart expand and leap and start to sing?
Is it OK to resist its light?
Does it make it beautiful?
Because you are more than I could ever be,
Your allure and attraction are a source of danger and struggle to me,
You are always out reach, just beyond my touch, you're a little out of sight,
You're a turmoil, a weight, a taunt always bringing darkness over light,
Oh the temptation that you bring, the silver web you slowly spin,
You grab a hold of me and you slowly squeeze until I can hardly breathe,
And you're all I see.
Is it OK to covet you? To want you more than I thought any human heart could ever want.
Is it OK to dream of you? To add the colour to our scenes and the sights and the smells and all the beautiful things that we would see.
Is it OK to believe in you, to believe in you?
Does it make you real?
No.
I’ll start with “Is It OK?” - a deeply painful and personal song for me, about dreams and gifts and what they’re for and what responsibility I have. I wrote this song over a long period of time, which is quite unusual for me; usually songs come quickly. But this one was a long process, and I think it has a depth that is more evident than in my other work:
So much tension in the air some days,
So many avenues that I could walk down to bring around some change,
So I look myself right in the back of the black of the darkness of my eye,
And question myself to find what lies beneath the most telling of my smiles.
Is it OK to retain such a precious amount of gold and hold it in your hands for so long without letting go?
Is it OK to resist its light?
Does it make it beautiful?
Oh I struggle to live out my numbered days with a cause,
So many questions getting thrown up in the face of everything I thought I had been taught,
So many weeks and oh through the months and on and on I slowly persevere with my song,
Without and ounce of certainty that I'm the one to whom it truly should belong,
Is it OK to be scared of the very thing that makes your fragile little heart expand and leap and start to sing?
Is it OK to resist its light?
Does it make it beautiful?
Because you are more than I could ever be,
Your allure and attraction are a source of danger and struggle to me,
You are always out reach, just beyond my touch, you're a little out of sight,
You're a turmoil, a weight, a taunt always bringing darkness over light,
Oh the temptation that you bring, the silver web you slowly spin,
You grab a hold of me and you slowly squeeze until I can hardly breathe,
And you're all I see.
Is it OK to covet you? To want you more than I thought any human heart could ever want.
Is it OK to dream of you? To add the colour to our scenes and the sights and the smells and all the beautiful things that we would see.
Is it OK to believe in you, to believe in you?
Does it make you real?
No.