Lyrics - Brave
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
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
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...
Read More...
Lyrics - The Badlands
Rattle snake down by the lake,
Sound and size, subtle alarm,
Turning and seizing your prey,
Venomous, venomous...
Read More...
Lyrics - Lush
Made
There were no massive January Sales, no Black Friday, no walk in closets. And there were no sweatshops in Bangladesh, the Philippines or Venezuela to make our $7 t-shirts.
No, I don’t remember either...
Read More...
Lyrics - Ants
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...
Do You Know Who You Are?
This question sums up the struggle that we as artists face constantly, daily even, in creating authentic art for ourselves and our audiences.
And it was the question that I was asked by a music producer during our first meeting. It took me by surprise; perhaps I was hoping for some concrete advice, like “you need to work on this...” or “have you tried that...” or even “let me introduce you to...”.
But he simply asked me if I knew who I was.
I was surprised to find myself answering that Yes, I know who I am, and I think I could say with some clarity and conviction. In fact, I wouldn’t have been sitting in front of him if I didn’t know who I was. It is precisely because I know who I am that I have chosen to come on this journey and pursue music full time.
But on the other hand, my authenticity has not been really tested or tried yet. I am sure that plenty of artists start out full of high ideals and unwavering commitment to the purity of their art form, but as time and opportunity and influence and responsibility and practicality keep pounding upon them, they are slowly worn down to just produce what sells, what is safe, what is expected.
Where does compromising your value as an artist start? If I change the structure of a song I write to make it more listenable by adding a chorus, is that compromising my value? If I adjust the melody to create a better hook, is that selling out? If I water down the lyrics to make it more acceptable, is that hiding my identity?
It is a fine line. And I hope it is one that tI walk for the rest of my life. Because it actually shows a deep commitment to making art that people want to access, as well as making art that rings true with my soul.
Creating requires that we look inside ourselves and examine what we find. I read a beautiful article that says “Creation requires us to dig deep within ourselves, to face the things we’d rather ignore, to confront our inner brokenness as well as the beauty stored up within.” And it necessitates knowing what we actually want to say through our work. Art without purpose is just form.
Art, like just about everything in life, is compromise.
But when you know who you are, you know the lines that you will not cross.
Lyrics - Sail On
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.
Striving or Settled
“I’d rather be striving than settled.
I’d rather be moving than static.”
These sound like romantic, idealistic words. They are perhaps dreams that many of us have. But when it gets down to it, being unsettled is hard. Being on the move is hard. 
I am currently truly without a permanent address. We gave up our flat in Hong Kong. My family moved house in England. And in the USA we are tourists. When we came through immigration, I was absolutely stumped as to what to write as my “home” address...
Song of the Week
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