This was a song which was birthed out of the music. The songwriting process is a strange one, because there’s never any true way of knowing when and where inspiration will come from. I’ve resolved to follow Bob Dylan’s advice and make a conscientious effort to hang around the ink well.
When I penned this song, it came out of a picture of what the music made me feel and visualize. So literally, I played the guitar eyes closed, and let my imagination go wherever.
It wasn’t a short process. The song took months of thinking and re-thinking, driving in the car and milling over the ideas.
I would take perhaps a week considering each line, and up to a month considering each verse. Then scrapping it and starting again. It was a frustrating and confusing time… normally I would just shelve a song idea and come back to it at a later stage with fresh ears and clear thoughts.
But I just couldn’t leave this song alone (behind?)… it was haunting me on my way to work, coming home from work… whenever I had a spare moment in my day, I would be preoccupied with trying to get this song into some kind of form that made sense.
In the end it became a kind of graphical story in my mind rather than any related life experience, and I think the song speaks for itself.
