Through My Roots

I’d like to share with you a lyric fragment – it’s the middle eight of a piece from my upcoming record (yes, that thing is still upcoming):

Remember when songs were sung?
Actual air from actual lungs
Voice of pride, voice of woe
Enough to bring down Jericho

I want to hear you
I want to hear you

To see the bright of your iris
Unmediated by devices
Chromatography in mid-air
An actual moment that we share

I want to see you
I’m thinking of you with gratitude

What I once felt on my leaves,
I’m pulling up through my roots

At risk of doing a GCSE-level textual analysis of my own words: There’s still reason to sing as if by doing so you could break down fortified walls. And all the good isn’t gone – it might just be better hidden or need assimilating in a different way. I’m so sorry for what the last 12 months have taken from you – surely we’ve all been touched somewhere in the spectrum of grief. But let’s continue because we have days left in which to continue. Let’s crescendo – what voice raised in faith could leave reality unshaken?

So to complete the record I’ll need to raise a couple thousand pounds or more. That’s mainly for getting CDs or vinyl made, but will also go to paying a few session musicians to make the words come to life – there will be some horns, and that’s a promise. Keep your eyes peeled for a fundraising launch video, and consider this your last call to suggest bonus items for pledgers (art prints? A fortnightly ‘What I’ve made’ video or soundfile?).

If that all sounds too professional and you miss the days when I made DIY Christmas albums, then you might like my Alphabet of Covers project. From it, here’s how an existentially vulnerable Simon & Garfunkel song sounds once it’s gone through the Michael filter:

(Those with eagle eyes and empty schedules will notice my Alphabet is missing the letter J – for that, I’ll need the help of my wife, who sure knows her way around a Chuck Berry song.)