Where I came from, where I'm going
I'm glad to report I'm still keeping on schedule, for now, for my once a month song release, and this time it's Child Of The Stars.
I clearly like the stars. They featured (clearly) in By The Light Of The Stars, and in North (following your north star), and now again in Child Of The Stars.
What's not to like about stars? They're beautiful, mysterious, and for someone like me with the tendency to lose perspective multiple times a day, they're a perfect re-set button, to help regain perspective at the end of each day.
The stars in the night sky make a wonderful, glittering backdrop to our ephemeral human lives - "Where I came from, where I'm going...," to pinch a line from another of my songs currently in production, Wild Home. We are all children of the stars. The matter with which we are knit together was forged in those great orbs of fusion, and delivered to this planet for our assembly by cosmic forces that defy imagination. Sooner or later our constituent parts are destined to be returned to the cosmos. Ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust.
Free to ride the skies
It's unclear to me how a collection of star molecules like myself came to walk and talk, but I'm fond of imagining that I'm somehow more than the sum of my stardust particles, and that the 'more' bit will hopefully go on for further adventures once I've finally lost my walking and talking capabilities in this particular incarnation.
For this song I indulged my imagination that once I'm unencumbered by the limitations of my frail humanness I'll have a passport to explore that starry landscape, finding myself free to travel wherever I like in the universe. I naturally extend that fun imagining to my loved ones (and everyone else for that matter), and I find in it a comfort which is helpful for keeping my spirits up and making the most of my fleeting time here. If I discover in the future that my imagining was in fact a silly delusion, and actually my scope of travel in the next life is quite confined, I doubt I'll be hard on myself or begrudge the supportive comfort I once felt in this life.
In the past years I haven't travelled that far, appreciating all that there is to explore on my doorstep without finding it boring, and also suspecting that lots of travel of the motorised sort may not be great for the health of this little planet. On the other hand, using the imagination is a great means of environmentally-friendly travel. Creative endeavours such as writing a song can make a good travel log.
While I can
Nothing lasts forever - not even the stars - and I think my run of releasing a song a month may be coming to an end in not so many months time. I don't know for sure at this stage how many more songs it will be before I take a break. There are a couple of factors - the first being running out of steam to get songs through the studio process on my current schedule, the second being a desire to press pause on the studio work in order to prioritise new writing.
I have been loving this opportunity to try on many different hats with the arranging, recording, mixing and releasing process. It's a fascinating alchemy, starting with the base material of acoustic guitar and voice, and transforming that into a multi-layered studio recording - a weird and wonderful magic. I still count myself a relative novice and I have the appetite to keep on immersing myself in this craft. However, I feel the tug to put fresh energy into the quest for new songs, the hunt to find that base material which someday could have the alchemical studio treatment.
When the time comes for a break, I imagine also pressing pause on these newsletters. Over the months they have evolved into accompaniments to my monthly studio releases. I've enjoyed the chance to write about some of what has been behind the lyrics and something about my writing process. I can always resume the newsletters once there are more studio releases in the pipeline.
Later in the month
Look out for the release of Child Of The Stars towards the end of the month, and before then I've a chance to play with my trusty band mates bright and early on Sunday 20th August 2023, 12.30pm at the Berwick Food and Beer Festival. Would be lovely to see you there!