"Tough love, tough enough for tough times."
I've got a new single coming out this month, and I gave it a mention in my first ever newsletter last August, just as I had started writing the song.
It's called Heart And Backbone, and it has been a little under a year in gestation.
I wonder what the average interval is, for studio-recorded songs, between conception and release. It must vary dramatically. But I like the thought that the incubation period is a protective time where a tenuous initial idea can undergo its formative growth and gradual refinement. Then finally, pop!, out it goes on release day into the wide world to fend for itself.
Heart And Backbone
In that first newsletter I wrote that 'heart' and 'backbone' were twin qualities I sought to nurture in myself and in others.
Many months on, that intention still stands firm. It's clear that some people are more naturally endowed with heart, others with backbone, as befits the different roles we all have to play in society. But it strikes me as important work to consider the blend of these two qualities, the relative quantities of each, both at an individual level and at a wider social level.
Personally I can find it tricky to know which quality to lead with at any given moment, and that's just in relation to myself, let alone in relation to anyone else.
Tough times call for tough love, but moment by moment how do I know whether to lead with 'tough' or 'love' when they can seem at a first glance so contradictory. I can get anxious about it because it seems such a lot is at stake.
I think of this at micro and macro levels (each informing the other, of course). At the macro level (here I think of climate change, for example), getting the balance right between heart and backbone can seem like a matter of life and death. Not enough backbone, and it might just be game over for what was precious and needed, but didn't get, tough protection. Not enough heart, and what is precious doesn't get recognised as such in the first place, doesn't get ascribed value, so why would anyone take a stand, or care if it lives or dies?
At the micro level I think of the resources I consume, and what I do with my energy, and how I am in my relationships, and how I am in my work. It still has the same high stakes flavour sometimes, except maybe the 'life and death' can be a bit more metaphorical, a touch further removed.
We're on the line
Hey Tom, (I hear from a puzzled reader), it's a pop song, what are you doing, talking about all this life and death stuff?
Well, I'm not sure what else I'd write about - I'm just working with the 'obvious' of what interests me, and I don't want to shy away from it. Part of the joy of writing songs is the freedom to explore whatever happens to be on your mind, and have fun doing it.
Over the past months I've had loads of fun playing with this one-off blend of lyric, groove, melody and harmony that is Heart And Backbone. If just one of those ingredients moves you, I'd be happy, irrespective of any depth of meaning that was on my mind when I wrote it. I love the idea of music as an opportunity for basic fun, especially in tough times. I also love the opportunity, as songwriter, to weave what I care about into that fun.
Which first?
In pondering which of 'heart' or 'backbone' should have preeminent status, initially I leant towards heart. I'm a songwriter after all, and I guess most songs ever written refer in some way to heart. I recall one songwriter noticing this fact and deciding instead to write a song about other body parts like elbow, liver and pancreas - fun, but not as moving.
Then I came across a mediation teaching which made me think of backbone coming first. The meditation instruction was to take a self-supported, upright posture (physically, if possible, or mentally if not), so that knowing the support of your back, your heart can be safe enough to relax, soften and do its heart-work. It's ok, heart, your backbone has got you.
Dialogic live, 8th July 2023
If you're local to Berwick, I hope to see you at the Horncliffe Beer and Music Festival coming up soon. Dialogic is playing on the evening of Sat 8th July. I'm excited to be on stage again with band mates Paul, Jock and Iain. It's been a while. Looking forward to getting the heart beating, backbone rocking!
You'll see from this flyer that the Horncliffe Festival is a weekend chokka with great music and entertainment:
