Time for another installment in the "story behind the song" series, this time for track 5 "Everywhere (Except Here)". 

And what can I really say about this one?  It is a fairly basic idea lyrically and came about while I was listening to the music I had composed.  I was listening and trying to figure out a vocal melody and some words based on the feeling I got from listening to the composition and noticed that my mind kept wandering off to different things.  I gave up several times that day until I realized that the idea was right in front of me all along.  "My mind is everywhere, everywhere except here"!

The song is based on my personal experience but I think a lot of people can relate to this.  I've always been a bit of a daydreamer but as I get older I notice that I don't "dream" as much as get lost in thoughts about real concerns that don't really have any bearing on my present situation which leads people to think that I am daydreaming.  Unfortunately the days of true daydreaming seem to be over for me and I rarely find myself lost in thoughts of some adventure or other fanciful situation.  I really miss that.

I decided to keep the lyrics pretty simple and just explored other ideas with the "except" dynamic.  Other than that there is not much more to tell other than it has been one of the more difficult songs to adapt to a live performance but I think I have worked most of the kinks out and look forward to playing it live in the next show.

Part 4 of the "story behind the song" series is of course about track 4 from the debut E.P.  The reason for the name and the theme of the lyrics was taken from the general feeling I got when listening to the music which had been composed during an early experiment.  As the music came together and all the acoustic elements were added I began to sense a feeling of something very intense yet secretive, something lurking but still out of sight and ready to pounce at any moment.

This led  me to start working on some lyric ideas based on this theme and it quickly became clear in my mind that only one word could describe what I was envisioning when I heard this and that word was "stealth". 

The lyrics don't refer to any particular thing or situation but instead are abstract generalizations about things that you aren't aware of that sneak up on you and turn your life upside down and also about my own situation - which is probably not that different than that of a lot of people - where I sometimes feel that I am a bit "invisible" and existing "under the radar" whether I want to or not. 

I get a bit of a sentimental feeling for 80's synth scores in TV and film when I hear it but I think the vocal part takes it to a different level and kind of "mondernizes" it.  The retro feel wasn't really intentional but I guess it just shows how my influences from that period are sneaking through into this music.

So the "story behind the song" series continues with track 2, Dream Of A Gentle Apocalypse.  What can I really say about this one?  It is literally based on a dream I had - at least the vague recollections I had of it the next day.  I obviously was in a bit of a strange mood when I fell asleep for my mind to come up with this kind of imagery but the strange thing about it was that it was by no means a nightmare.  I remember waking up the next morning feeling somewhat disoriented by it but it had not been frightening, just strange and very surreal.  I also remember all the images passing by very slowly and quietly, not the chaos you would expect from an apocalypse and that's where the idea of the "gentle" apocalypse came in.  I wasn't inspired to write anything down initially but after a few days of thinking about it a couple of verses came to mind.

I was almost going to leave it at only two verses but a while after the initial dream I had another one that was a bit similar and had a "judgement day" feel to it.  I have a feeling this one was inspired by the book I was reading at the time, "Riven Rock" by T.C. Boyle which is based on the life of Stanley McCormick (quite an irony but no relation to me as far as I know) who had suffered from schizophrenia and had been tormented by "the judges" his entire adult life.  And so the third verse was conceived as the final reckoning for all of this chaos and ended the song in a more logical way I think.

And that's pretty much it.  I had already sketched out some of the music during an earlier experiment and adapted it a bit to fit the verses etc.  I think this is one of the strangest pieces I have ever created and reflects heavily on the influence of film scores in my music.  Perhaps there will be more like it to come in the future!