A song for a rainy grey day

Yes I know the rain is falling but it needn't be seen as such a bad thing. Take a leaf out of Tommy Moore Bands book and see the bright side:

Phew!

A bit of an emotional day today.

I put the first song from the album up online, and then spent all day telling absolutely everyone I could think of to listen to it, scared I'd chicken out and take it all back: 'Haha yeah that, album?! Ha I mean it was meant to be ironic..ha..emm...of course....' cue more nervous laughter.

But I didn't chicken out, it's out there in the world now, too many people have listened to it to take it back, and I wouldn't want to anyway.

There'll be more to come of course, that's just the first of many songs. Hope you all like it and hope to see some of you tomorrow night in The Kevin Barry Room.

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Secretly Suicidal Love Songs

'I'd die for you': we're so used to hearing the sentiment in pop songs we barely notice it, but when you really pay attention to it it's a wee bit worrying. At best it's manipulative and super melodramatic, at worst it's suicidal and unhinged.

Here are a few common variations on the theme:

'if you leave me I'll die''

Being broken up with is a bitch, ringing the person up and telling them you're gonna kill yourself coz they broke up with you is NOT a healthy response. You hear it so frequently in pop songs you'd think we're all running around making suicide pacts with our loved ones (I really really hope you're not doing that!).

'I can't live if living is without you'

'how do I live without you'

'I would die 4 u' (to be fair if Prince wants to write unhinged lyrics I'd buy it. He commits to it fully and doesn't just throw it in there for effect) 








'You're so great I'd die for you'

It should be pretty obvious but just a reminder: great people don't usually ask, or expect, you to die for them.

'If I could just die in your arms, I wouldn't mind'


Justin Bieber's best chat up line is that he 'WOULDN'T MIND' dying in your arms. When facing his own mortality he's...indifferent. You'd think a young lad like him would have a strong will to live but apparently not.

'I'd die for you'

'I can't live with or without you' (handily enough this one falls into both categories) 

'You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for' 






Now here's a dose of healthy reasoning after all that:

Lyrics for the new bridge on Sealegs

New bridge section in bold:

Sea swells, waves fall

When you're near the sky turns grey

Then you sweep me away

In your little pea green boat

You wrap me in romance

I never hear the wind blow when you hold me close

Diving in darkness

Drowning in the pull of your tides

And then you smile

Oh I hear mermaids sing

Oh the bliss of these icy waters I'm drowning in

Sealegs

That look of yours gives me

Sealegs

To and fro stay or go tell me

How this ends

Or your love will always leave me on

These sealegs of uncertainty

I hear sirens from the street

While you sleep

Find me tangled in our sheets

Sleepwalking towards the sea

 

 

So come sweep me away

In your little pea green boat

Come wrap me in romance

Don't wanna hear the wind blow so come near

And hold me close 

Feeding the album monster

 

 

 

 

 

Album Monster

 

 

  

 

 

 

Hand Holding

New (ish) lyrics:

In moments of ecstasy

Lovers call each others names

One last blessing

It's a blessing

To who they were before they merged

Into this

Find me here

Find me here

Find me here

You won't find me here

'I'm the boss of me. That includes my armpits'

'I'm the boss of me. That includes my armpits'

'I will not be a prisoner of my own sweat'

Apparently this is how 'strong women' feel about deodorant. Oh how I love lady-centric advertising, It's like they took the words right out of Amelia Earheart's mouth! If Gertrude Stein wrote ad copy! (the one below has a picture of a pregnant lady next to it but didn't screen grab her in time)

Playlist of Laydayz

Does exactly what it says on the tin

Lyrics in Progress - 'Show Me'

A song for two voices:

First Voice written in italics

Second Voice written in bold

When both voices share the same lyric it's written in underlined, bold italics

                                                               Show me bursting blooming               

You could show me

                                                                 Show me how the moon sings                

You could show me 

                                         Show me what it means 

You could show me

                                             Show me how to feel love

                                                               Show me morning sweetness             

You could show me

                                                                           Show me how the starlight's secrets              

You could show me 

                                          Show me what it means

You could show me

                                             Show me how to feel love

     Show me love

Show me love love love love 

           Show me love...etc. 

Peter Delaney Interview

A little while ago I ran a night called The Acoustic Picnic in The Back Loft and invited some of my favourite acoustic musicians and poets to come perform. It was a pretty excellent, and rather eclectic night if I may say so myself. One of the musicians I had the pleasure of sharing the small, but nicely decorated, stage with was Peter Delaney. At the end of the night we swapped CDs and I went home and listened to Duck Egg Blue on repeat for weeks and realised I had a million questions I wanted to ask him about his lyrics.

Well do you know what happens to be the best thing about having a blog? It’s the perfect excuse to ask musicians nosy questions about their music, so that’s exactly what I’ve done here;

One of the things that struck me when I was listening to you perform live, and also with the CD, was the delivery of the lyrics. The lyrics seem to be woven into the fabric of the song and it's only after a few listens, or a little while, that my ear could separate the words from the harmony. It's like at first you hear the overall colour of the songs and then the words and meanings start coming out and making themselves heard very gradually.


That’s interesting. Maybe it’s because when I’m coming up with the vocal part to a song I think more about melody and how it fits with the music rather than the words I’ll be singing. Then when I work on the lyrics I try to make them go with the melody so I suppose they can become hidden in the music and it could take a while for the words to make themselves noticed.


I was reading through the CD liner notes after listening to the CD and the thing that struck me was that a lot of the lyrics work well as written pieces independent of the songs. Do you usually start by writing or singing?


A lot of the songs have their basis in scraps of lyrics and ideas that I’ve written but I’d never have the entire lyrics written before I put them to music. When I’m working on the lyrics with the music then I try to flesh out the ideas a bit. I try to be aware that the words I’m writing are for a song and that how they are sung can have an effect on the meaning so I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to write them entirely independent of the music. I don’t always do that but I try. Having said that, sometimes some of the more interesting lyrics can just come out of nowhere when you’re rambling along with the music.


There's a real mix of very ordinary, homely everyday images (like Spiderman wallpaper in a kids bedroom, I love that line) mixed in with the fantastical in the songs. Is it an intentional mix of reality and fantasy?


I don’t think I ever really think about it in terms of reality and fantasy. The songs are definitely based on reality and real experiences but I try to look for interesting ways to describe them so maybe they can seem a bit fantastical. Other times the songs can be about very subjective experiences and the only way to approach them lyrically is with more abstract ideas and in that sense I can see how they could be seen as fantastical alright. I don’t use metaphors that often but I do like to play with ideas in a way that they take on a whole new appearance in a similar effect to metaphors and that can really blur the line between something based in reality and the subjective response to it but it’s not something I really think about.



I hold onto one rather sexist belief that boys don't listen to lyrics, but I have a feeling you might be able to prove me wrong. So go for it, who's your favourite lyricist?

Really? I know a lot of guys who listen to lyrics. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to prove you wrong though because I haven’t always really paid a lot of attention to lyrics but that’s probably because they don’t seem to be a concern for most singers you hear these days. I think people like Leonard Cohen are great lyricists but there’s not many people out there who write like that. I really like the idea of playing with language so I think I probably look more to writers than singers. I really like Vladimir Nabokov and Dylan Thomas. They both have an amazing way with language and do some crazy things with words. I also read Moby Dick recently and that has some lovely prose in it. I think Joanna Newsom is a very talented lyricist. I started listening to her around the same time I started to write the songs I play now and what really struck me was how apparent her own sensibilities are in her lyrics. She isn’t just singing a bunch of borrowed expressions or the clichés of a particular style of music but exploring things that really interest her. I think that made a big impression on me and since then I try to be even more aware of my own personal sensibilities and the things I find fascinating and not just go along with the obvious imagery or sentiments that belong to a particular genre. One of my favourite lines Joanna Newsom wrote is from her song Sawdust and Diamonds:

“I wasn’t born of a whistle, or milked from a thistle at twilight,

No; I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright.”

For more info on Peter Delaney you can visit www.peter-delaney.com. Duck Egg Blue was re-released in 2011 by Deadslackstring Records and is available from Bandcamp. Go see him live! If you live in Limerick you’re in luck because he’s playing there soon. 

Lyrics in Progress - Renamed 'Same But Better'

She passed him by every morning just outside his house. On Monday he caught her name. He went home and repeated it to himself quietly over and over. On Tuesday a ribbon fell from her hair. He took it home and hid it between the pages of the encyclopedia under the letter F. It looked fantastic. On Wednesday it was foggy and he could only see her blurry silhouette. He took her smell home and kept it in a jar next to the encyclopedia. On Thursday she was looking very pale, almost translucent, but he could make out her blue eyes. He went home and painted a swatch on the opening page with her eye colour. On Friday he didn't see her pass. This probably isn't a love song:

All at once

Slow motion scene

Savor

The air she breathes

Pulse thunders under over

Lips mumble of her 'own her' 

All at once

This sun drenched scene

And her eyes are all I see...

...So I'll take them, hide them, own them

And at night when I'm alone

I can piece her back together

Same but better

She goes to speak
Oh her lips are all I see...

...So I'll take them, hide them, own them
And at night when I'm alone
I can piece her back together
Same but better

She haunts my sleep
Oh her face is all I see

All at once

A horror scene

Look closer

You'll see it breathes

Pulse thunders under over

Limbs tremble 'what's been done here'

All at once

A terror scene

And my eyes

Are all it sees

Lyrics in Progress - Patchwork Lover

A rough draft of some lyrics I'm working on at the moment. I had been calling it 'Take it, Hide it, Own it' but now I'm calling it 'Patchwork Lover':

'All at once

Slow motion scene

Boundless air

 But I can't breathe

Pulse thunders under over

Lips mumble of her 'own her' 

All at once

A sun drenched scene

And her eyes are all I see...

...so I'll

Take them, hide them, own them

And at night when I'm alone

I'll piece her back together

Patchwork lover'

Lyrics in Progress: All the Tiny Children

Plans to start recording with my band are coming along well but for the moment, while I wait on the best drummer in the world to get back from Australia, I've been working on writing lots of new tunes so that when we do record we've got lots to choose from. So here are some lyrics in progress, they keep changing by the minute but here's the latest version;

Quiet or they'll hear you sing

verse

Tiny feet and tiny toes

You turn your back your garden grows with

Tiny fingers through your hair

They'll find out what you've hidden there

Quiet or they'll hear you sing

verse 2

They'll open up your clam like mouth

Smell your secrets pull them out and

Sitting right there on your tongue

A salt grain where a pearl belongs

By Girls For Girls

Glee* recently had an episode that was all about one of the character (named Santana) coming out to her family and so all the songs were supposed to be 'by girls for girls'. The big finale number was 'I kissed a girl' by Katy Perry. A song that condescendingly treats lesbianism as a fun past time to try on for the weekends when you're hammered. The Same Katy Perry who sang about hoping her 'gay' ex boyfriend hangs himself with his H&M scarf! This is the artist they chose to represent women in the LGBT community?! I'm not on board. Not at all. It might be a bit much to be expecting Glee kids to break into Tori Amos but would a bit of Indigo Girls really do them that much harm!? So here are my choices of songs by women, for women that I think would better accompany a story about supporting women being open about their sexuality.

Playboy Mommy by Tori Amos

Any conversation about female sexuality should include a conversation about motherhood, and here's a song that approaches the subject honestly and leaves the saccharine for the mothers day cards. It's both completely personal to Tori Amos and the situation she was in at the time, and also opens up a bigger conversation about not just the relationship between mothers and daughters, but also how women judge each other.

One of my favourite things about Tori Amos is her ability to be both absolutely heart wrenching, and pretty hilarious in the same sentence. In this song, where she sings to her miscarried daughter who she feels judged by, you get gems like;

'Don't judge me so harsh little girl
You got a playboy mommy
Come home
But when you tell them soldiers my name
And cross that bridge all on your own
Little girl they'll do you no harm
Cause they know your playboy mommy'

So my interpretation is she's saying 'well you chose not to be born because you didn't think a slut like me would make a fit mother, but when you get to heaven mention my name coz heaven's full of dead soldiers that I'm good 'friends' with so they'll treat you well'. That's quite a complicated, and I'd say witty, sentiment to be singing about.

She has a habit, I think, of wavering between very profound and very inane lyrics. Unlike Kate Bush, who often intentionally writes silly lyrics, Tori Amos seems to sometimes just get a bit lazy (I know I might get hung for saying that, but come one! I mean in black dove she sings 'you're not a helicopter, you're not a cop out either'!) but like the girl with the curl when she's good she's very very good. In Playboy Mommy there's a very clear narrative throughout and every lyrics means something and has a reason for being there.

In or Out by Ani DiFranco

I'm not choosing an Ani DiFranco song because she's gay (or bi) and the Glee story line was about a gay character coming out, same as I wouldn't just choose songs by Asian artists for Mike Chang.


And I have to say this isn't my favourite Ani DiFranco song but it fits the bill perfectly because it's not a song about Ani DiFranco's sexuality, it's about other peoples reactions to it.

Get Out Of My House by Kate Bush

It's pretty debatable whether this song is about female sexuality at all, but it's definitely about asserting yourself and being confident in your choices. I absolutely LOVE in this song the way Kate Bush screams 'get out of my house'! It's the most amazing piece of acting/singing I think I've ever heard. It really sounds like it could be a real life recording someone took of their (very) disfunctional neighbours fighting. The first few times I listened to it it was just the raw timbre of it that appealed to me but the more I listen the more melodic it sounds. It repeats again and again throughout the song and I could listen to it forever.

Kate Bush often acts out characters voices during songs. Sometimes they get a bit silly for my tastes (like on 'There Goes a Tenner') but on this song she does it to perfection when she sings from the point of view of the Russian (or maybe eastern european!?) door man. The vibe I get isn't so much that she's putting on a characters voice but that she's saying 'I can be both the emotional, visceral woman screaming 'get out of my house', and the boss who can very calmly but authoritatively tell you you're not getting in.'

I only noticed recently that the chanting that comes in at the end is actually Konnakol with lots of effects on it. What this song has to do with South Indian rhythms I have no idea, I'm guessing she just thought it sounded cool and she was right. 




*I'm pretty sure anyone who says they don't like Glee is lying, along with people who say they 'don't have a sweet tooth' or 'love the gym'