Riverside to Pray

Today I would like to share the backstory of track 8 from the new album - Riverside to Pray. I'm also going to share another song and three connected stories and I'll just give a warning that I'll be talking about death and the afterlife. But maybe I should start by explaining the photo. This was yesterday in the South of France where I'm on tour with Madalitso Band, where I experienced a beautiful serendipity. One of my all-time favourite films is The Crow. Erik Draven was a hero of mine - Rock and Roll musician dressed in Black with long hair and a love story worth dying for - and then coming back to life for... Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee) died on set, tragically, and I'm not sure why but yesterday while eating Mac and Cheese with Chorizo at a service station on the A7 I decided to look through Brandon's Wikipedia page and I was struck by a quote he had made before his death which went like this.

"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless..."

It was circling in my mind a little bit, but I wasn't really thinking about it so much. We arrived at Buis de Barronies for our concert, did a soundcheck, and we had just started the concert when I looked to the right and saw the full moon rising over the mountains. That's what the picture above is. And that's the first story.

The second story is about how I came to believe that I was destined to be a songwriter. I was a university student and I was involved in my first relationship and it was serious and we were like best friends also. Her grandma had been sick for months and every other weekend she'd be going home to say the last goodbye, but grandma kept holding on. There was a bitter sweetness to it though as she was clearly in pain and ready to go. After this had been going on for months, one day she really really thought it was over and when she came back she was so upset and we watched a comedy film to try to cheer up and it worked a bit. Then when I was in the kitchen I played a few notes on the guitar and I felt like a spirit was in the music. It was just a small melody but it was clear. So I called my girlfriend and played the melody and she immediately said, "It's my Gran." So we spent the whole night writing a song. It was my first time to write a song with someone and there was a magic to it. My girlfriend was able to express all the things she needed to and it was a kind of catharsis. It was called I never thought it would be so hard to say.

It was 6am and we'd just slept for a few hours when we received a phone call to say that her gran had passed over peacefully during the night. It had happened as we were writing the song. That moment made me feel there was more to all this songwriting stuff than mere words and music. There were spirits within songs. We had experienced it.

Two years ago then, while on tour in France at staying it the house of our booking agent TiB, I wrote Riverside to Pray and there was a similar thing. I'm not sure where the melody or refrain came from, but I know that I'd been thinking a lot about manifestation and my feeling was that we need to visualise the future we want in order to create it. If all the movies and books speak of this future where AI takes over and humans destroy the planet, then that's what we'll be thinking of, and that's what we will manifest. But if we can collectively visualise a harmonious future then, we can manifest that. But we need to see it first. See the future you want - that's the message of the song.

Visualise the future
See it clearly in your mind
One that's good for all of nature
Which includes humankind
Give thanks for today
Thanks for tomorrow
Thanks in your joy
And thanks in your sorrow

Hey, what do you say that we go down to the riverside to pray

Also, I'm not connected to any religion, but I still believe in prayer, magic and all kinds of stuff. This is a song to say that even if you have a religion or not, let's go down to the riverside to pray.

At the time I was writing this song, my cousin who I basically grew up was, I think, going through a spiritual moment. Just as I'd written the song, she called me to say that her father had passed on. And I feel the same as I did with my girlfriend's grandma's song. He was an artist and he was my uncle and I feel that for reasons unknown to me, his spirit is in this song.

I hope you enjoy listening here - I hope it works, otherwise listen on the music page on my website or Spotify, iTunes etc.

Now for a complete detour...

Today is the release day of a new remix of a Madalitso Band song by London Afro-Brazilian artist Da Lata. This is going to be the soundtrack to a bouncy and fun summer for lots of people so wanted to share it with you here too.

Wishing you an amazing weekend.

Thanks for being here. Seeyaaaaa.