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Speak, Brother

Updates and musings from the guys

In the studio for round #2

Hello! Last November saw the release of our Debut EP and since then, we’ve felt we have a lot more to sing about. So we went into the studio earlier this month and recorded a new one!

We’re currently adding the bells and whistles to it and hope to have it in your ears this Spring!

Here’s a snippet of what happened in the studio.. The guitar riff at the start was one of my takes for one of the songs.

Speak soon,

J x

EP Preview – Track #3 Break In

Ever felt like going in circles? This song was an outlet of frustration for me when I wrote it. After repeatedly going through the same struggles, I kinda felt like I was wadding through mud. I’m a bit of an introvert so I can overthink things pretty easily and make them way bigger than what they actually are. Making negative thoughts big in my life eventually  turned into depression. Depression over nothing really specific either. Just a dull, numb inexplicable feeling.

I’ve been reading one of Stephen Fry’s books and of learning his battle with depression, which was/is certainly considerably worse than anything I’ve had to deal with. Listen to My Fry talk about his depression:

Listening to him talk about it though is quite confusing to me as I’m so used to him making me laugh with his brilliant witty genius! It outlines pretty heavily to me that anyone can be going through stuff you have no idea about, and gives me a little more patience for some people.

One of the things Fry links to depression is the sense of nothingness and no future. It’s like being locked in a padded room filled with mirrors so you can’t see past yourself. You can’t see your future, or your purpose for living. If you don’t have a sense of purpose, why bother?

I started writing this song in the midst of something like this,  but also where I found someone, or should I say found me, who simply came alongside me.

EP Preview – Track #2 My Love

‘My Love’ is obviously a love song. But this song is about the love of a dad for his daughter. On her own, she couldn’t be happy. She was convinced she needed the accepting, loving words and opinions of some bloke to feel any self worth. I know this girl and she is beautiful in every way and it hurt every time she completely devalued herself so I wrote this song as a message to her. It’s kind of a love letter to her from her Dad.

I don’t know why exactly, but the idea of being completely content with yourself, be it looks, personality, hobbies, what ever it is, can actually be hard to imagine. To be free from the judgement of others and their opinions is not easy.

I’m writing this in the dressing room (not as posh as it may sound) at a gig where I’m the featured act of a competition. As good of an opportunity a competition in a nice big venue can be for a young artist, it is all based on the judgements of other people. You’re trying to impress someone based on your talent, image, looks, style, individuality (which is probably more to do with whether you’re ‘interesting’ to someone or not.). It tests you on how good you are as a product, more than your music. I can hear the young contestants talking about their performance, some more worried than others. There are more sad faces then happy ones at the end that’s for sure. Why does life have to be about the ‘survival of the fittest’ or ‘may the best man win’.  What if it wasn’t? What if it was more to do with enjoying  yourself, enjoying your talent and enjoying others being themselves? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as that.. With Magazines, Newspapers, Facebook Adverts, are all telling us there is something wrong with us, and we need to buy into whatever they’re doing to be complete… But hey.. I’m on the boundaries of ranting and should perhaps save that for another blog.

I don’t know of anyone who has it all figured out yet, but I’d hope that this song can be a reminder to us all, that we are all unique, lovable and that we are at our best when we are content with how we are made to be.

James