Julie is a month. Summer a season
I don't know if rambling when writing is right or wrong, but I do know that at night there's a song in your heart, and like it or not, in your bed, a fart. What a way to start!
We had a concert today in the heat, on the street outside a school. On the way back, Julie, who was driving the car and also has been organising the concerts here in Orleans, asked me if it was raining in Malawi. This led me to explaining how in Malawi, or at least where I live in Lilongwe, it rains between December and April, then it's cold until August, and hot until December until the rains come again to cool things down. Three seasons.
I then talked about how everything revolves around the rainy season, as this is when everyone takes all their money and invests it into seed, fertilizer and if you are doing it in a slightly commercial way, 'ganyo', day-labourers. I continued to say that the economy is very dry during the wet season as all the money is quite literally in the soil. When it comes time to harvest, around April or May, money starts trickling back into the economy and concerts start happening more often. Julie then commented on how there's a real rhythm in Malawi, and I thought about the song on my new album called Seasons, as that's exactly what the song is about.
You get used to it. It's repetitive. It's circular. It's like the music. It ebbs and flows. It's a trance. It's a dance.
Some people say we were born for a reason
We work in tune with the seasons
Some people say blessings will fall from the sky
We work in tune with the seasons
And thereby without even hinting at it, I have continued what I have been doing with these letters, and given the story behind one of the songs. I don't suppose I need to explain the meaning of...
All I needed was some time, because there were things I had to find
Malawi gave me that too.
Here's the song!
But since I had originally wanted to share about the song Lapis Lizuli and the Orange Julie in this letter, and since it was a Julie in the car with me, I thought, why not do both. A double bill! Is that allowed? Maybe listen to seasons today and tomorrow come back to read about Julie. Or just carry on but do come back to listen to this song later on...
Last year I went to Kenya three times, and the second of those times, I met a very cool Julie. There were various coincidences that led for us to exchange numbers, and while we didn't meet again, over the year we kept in contact. Just a text here and there. When I was on tour last year we had several long and lovely phone calls, and when I came back to Malawi after the tour, one day I was meditating. Well I could say I was merely trying to meditate, because on this day her name just started spinning around in my head, accompanied by rhyming words.
The original version was composed around 13.09 on September 10th 2025. I know this because I just checked in my voicenotes on my phone, as I was trying to remember the original lyrics.
Julie
Are you truly
So unruly
Like a bird
Well that's the original phone recording of the song, but here's how it evolved. I hope you've noticed by now that each song has a different process behind it and this was really the first time a song ever came about in the way I'm about to share.
So I was riding my motorbike around Lilongwe that day, and I just couldn't believe that there were so few words that rhyme with Julie. When I started the song, it felt like there would be thousands of words that rhyme with Julie - do you agree? Feels like it should be more rhymable, but I guess that's the beauty of her mystery.
At the end of the day, I can't remember why, but I was frustrated, not because of the song, but something else. I really wanted to go for a drink, but another part of me didn't. Old habits. But if I didn't go for a drink, what would I do? I'd already dropped my son at his mum's house. And then I thought - I know... I'll finish the Julie song.
I never do this, but I got home and searched in a rhyming dictionary for words that rhyme with Julie, and to my surprise I'd missed one that had been around my neck for years - Lapiz Lizuli. Maybe you don't know, but it's my favourite stone, and I have a ring, and it's on a silver chain around my neck. So that's how the opening lyric came.
Lapiz Lizuli
Is the only jewel he
Wears with his bluely
Coloured brain
Until Julie
Brings to him a truly
Gorgeous orange jewel she
Borrowed from the rain
And the sun rises over the Indian Ocean
Julie, as far as I could tell, loved the colour orange. The second verse came out of nowhere but I loved the last line. It feels as if the blue of the ocean sky and the orange of the sunrise just melt into eachother like lovers wish they could melt into eachother.
Julie
You're the jewel he
Never knew he
Had to find
And duly
Orange and blue be-
Come entwined
And the sun rises over the Indian Ocean
Needless to say, there had just been an eclipse and we had always talked a lot about the moon and the stars so then came the last verse.
Eclipse so loony
Every tune he
Sings, swings Julie-
Ish
Newly
Turned to fool he
Has just one wish
As the sun rises over the Indian Ocean
I bet you want to know whether or not the wish came true don't you
I guess you'll just have to stay tuned
Thanks for reading...