A bit about the album
Making an album takes time and money, resources and energy but most of all it takes drive.
Up until now my emotional and sometimes physical drive has been sucked up trying to survive a series of situations that I guess I needed to go through. Maybe without those times when I couldn’t be recording I wouldn’t be who I am now, with this album the way it is.
Anyway, I’m sorry it’s taken so long.
I’ve had a lot of people over the years ask me to make an album, so here it is. Now I know that I have something to give people that they can take away from the gig and call their own. I can have a more personal connection with my fans, to me that’s where it’s at.
This is just the start. I have a lot of songs, like enough to do about 5 albums I think.
This album is a combination of the songs that have stood out to me over the years. Some of them were written 10 years ago, some of them were written a few months before we started recording.
Here’s a bit of a blurb about the 11 songs on the album, why I wrote them and what was going on at the time.
The Songs
Track 1. Three Simple Words I wrote this song in 2012 I think. I was with my husband and we were always going through a shit time. I was so (naïve) determined to make it work that I was actually probably totally insane.
Anyway, I remember when I wrote this song it stuck in my head for days. I was on a type of high from it, I loved it so much. It gave me energy and life and joy in a time that was dark and depressing and lonely as hell.
It’s an expression of how love is afraid of nothing and will go to the battle field unflinching, ready to die, because love is fucking madness. Track 2. Everything's A Rhythm This song really wrote itself. Sometimes songs come to me like that. My hands just kind of go where they want to and the words seem to be already there. I really can’t explain why it happens like that sometimes, it just does.
I would describe this song as a gateway song.
Once I’d written it a whole new style of writing and guitar playing opened up to me. I started pushing the boundaries more technically and rhythmically.
If you listen carefully, everything has its own rhythm. Rain, talking in a busy room, traffic, wind, your own heartbeat, your own thoughts.
Everything’s a rhythm. Track 3. Heartbeat I wrote this song a really long time ago, maybe in 2006! I was in college, I was depressed, I was religious (go figure), I was in love and I was conflicted.
I don’t like reflecting on those years, they were painful and messy and I regret them.
The strummed guitar part at the end of this song is deceptively difficult to play!
It’s a really awkward bar chord progression with a moving melody over the top that makes my hand buckle every time.
Recording this was fun, Neil had a fab time mixing the 6 vocal parts, 3 string parts and guitar. I always request more guitar in the mix…because I like to make his job fun and because that’s my language so I want to hear it talking!
Track 4. The Things You Say This song is for my kids, Josie and Logan. I started writing it when I was pregnant with Josie and finished it off some time after Logan was born.
The revelation that the world holds nothing more precious for you than your kids is a profound one.
I could swim to the bottom of the ocean, but there aint nothing in the sea, that’s as beautiful as you my baby, or as precious as you are to me. I could find some way to travel the world, or touch the sky, I could find a way, but I don’t care, what more is there, than your eyes, and the things you say? Track 5. What's My Name This is the first song I wrote on a 12 string. I’m hooked on the 12 string now.
I wrote this last year (2017) during a time when I was feeling like a ghost. This strange feeling of being a ghost has haunted me over the last few years.
I’ve lived in 3 states, 6 towns and 14 houses since 2006 (12 year). I don’t really know if that’s normal, but I’ve definitely felt the weight of having no real roots anywhere.
So many times I felt like this ghost that could see everyone and remembered all the people and places of the past. Except I didn’t actually know who I was, either did anyone else.
I had come from a different town, I was new and I had no friends. I remember everyone, And every home I’ve had under the sun, Like a ghost but, what’s my name? What’s my name? What’s my name? Cos I don’t know. Track 6. Losing Control I wrote this song the first time my husband left me.
It’s about an actual dream I had of looking out the window and seeing his car in the drive like it usually was.
It’s about how much I wished our lives hadn’t been so complicated because at the time I thought that was the reason we weren’t working.
I like the guitar solo, it’s possibly the only guitar solo I’ve ever written note for note and not just improvised. Track 7. Rushing Wind This song is my ballad to our Earth. I really hope we don’t totally fuck it up (our Earth, not the song haha!) Track 8. Train Wreck I wrote this song on a friends back porch while I tried to understand why I always upset people.
I’m looking for a better end to the story about the train wreck
And how I manage to offend everyone, I can’t escape it
I really love the whacky guitar break. Track 9. The Middle Of Nowhere
This is maybe my favourite song on the album, I don’t know why, it’s just the one I enjoy listening to the most.
It’s the story of when I lived on a farm.
Living on the farm was an amazing experience that changed my life. I learnt things I will use forever, skills that made me feel strong.
I learnt how to grow food and save water. I leant how to make a fire and swing an axe properly. I learnt about animals, snakes, ticks, birds, plants. I feel like I learnt how to live.
I learnt that there is nothing like the stars in the sky and that sometimes, when life is totally breaking you, they can be the thing that keeps you together. Track 10. Home
I wrote this song in probably 2008.
It’s really about how badly I wanted to stay in the one place and make a good life.
It wasn’t until 10 years later that I actually got to do that…I’m really glad I didn’t know that then. Track 11. I Was Born In a Valley This is the only song on the album with no guitar in it. It’s a song I find hard to describe.
Maybe have a listen and see if it moves you in some way. That’s probably the best way to understand it.
What's Next
After this album I’ll be focusing on my band. I’ve already got songs together for a new album which is exciting and painful at the same time. It’s like having all the candy that you can’t eat yet.
Also, I’m really happy these days, so my song writing has taken a real turn!
I can’t wait to share it all with you!
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