ABOUT 36 months ago, I left the shores of South Africa to attend the Future Music Forum in Barcelona, Spain. Thinking back on it all, I am both humbled and awed. Continue reading Behind the Song: Open Air
Behind the Song: Open Air
Category: Behind The Song
Insight into the origins of each song on the new album
Behind the Song: Crazy World
Crazy World is the oldest song on the album.
I started writing it over two years ago while on holiday in Cape Town. I remember the vast, crazy contrast while I was there: the immense opulence of Camps Bay versus the in-your-face drags of Khayelitsha. I remember how foreign both ways of life were to me. I pondered over it for weeks. In the end, Continue reading Behind the Song: Crazy World
Behind the Song: Wide Open World
It was inevitable that the engineer who mastered the album – Brent Quintin – would pick out the E9 chord at the beginning of Wide Open World.
“Hey Earle, what does this sound like?” he asks his fellow Sesalos engineer.
“Welcome to the real world!” Earle bursts out, reciting the John Mayer classic. Continue reading Behind the Song: Wide Open World
Behind the Song: More Beautiful Tonight
I’ve long been a fan of Eric Clapton.
Now I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong. This is not a lyrical derivative of Wonderful Tonight, although I sometimes wonder if those kind of songs just lie dormant in our sub-conscience and make their way to the surface in subtle ways. As the band tells me, everything we listen to influences the music we create, some of it is just more dominant.
In actual fact, it was the Continue reading Behind the Song: More Beautiful Tonight
Behind the Song: Loving Every Day
This song was the first one penned for the new album, about four years ago. It was one of those songs which very quickly had a structure, but developed slowly lyrically… so much so that it was only completed last year.
So for those who don’t know, my beautiful wife Tamlyn Mary is the inspiration behind this tune. Without boring you with too many details, Tam and I met at a time when I was fairly rogue. Continue reading Behind the Song: Loving Every Day
Behind the Song: Leave It Behind
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 Continue reading Behind the Song: Leave It Behind
Behind the Song: Alive
There really is nothing like the sounds of Africa… particularly African rhythm: that lilted 4/4 which most of us wit ous know through the likes of Johnny Clegg.
Yes, he was a big musical influence on this song… rhythmically it was Spirit of the Great Heart and musically it was also Scatterlings of Africa. I thought we only just started to Continue reading Behind the Song: Alive
Behind the song: Feels Like Home
My good mate Brad and I were sitting on the patio outside at my in-laws’ farm near Albert Falls, jamming and fiddling around on our acoustic guitars. It was one of those real lazy afternoons, where kids and adults were all over the place doing their own thing in the afternoon winter sunshine. Continue reading Behind the song: Feels Like Home
Behind the Song: Let It Rise
It was around-about August 2009, I think, when the band had just finished a practice and we were talking about that thing that makes some bands so special. After going through all our various likes and dislikes, Roberto pointed out that the common denominator in all of our favourite songs and bands was that they had groove.
I remember milling over this for quite some time, because Continue reading Behind the Song: Let It Rise
