Behind the Songs
I felt that as so often, listeners are left wondering what a song may mean or be about, what inspired it or how a particular sound was achieved, it might be useful to give some individual hints and explanations of these questions for each of the songs that make up this album. I will start with the track list and follow on with the song biography and at the end of each one will be a link back to the lyrics of the album should you need a shortcut. I hope you enjoy this new element to the web site and it is also exciting for me to be able to share some insight into the songs.
Just Listen
I Didn’t Know
Heatwave
Breakdown Blues
I’m Over You
I’m Not Your Man
Phantom
Still I’ll Be Loving You
Look Me In The Eye
Bad Weather
You Lied To Me
The Christmas Dance
Bbb107.5
Just Listen
Just Listen grew out of one of the frustrations of being an independent songwriter – creating music is one thing, but getting it heard by the right people is something else entirely.
I enjoy writing, recording and producing my own music, but I’ve never really wanted to be a live performer. For me, the satisfaction comes from developing an idea into a finished song and producing a recording that represents what I had in mind.
Like many independent writers, the difficult part is knowing how and where to put that music in front of people who might genuinely be interested in it. Ultimately, I’d love for another artist to hear one of my songs, connect with it and decide they’d like to record their own version.
That’s really the message behind Just Listen. Sometimes all a song needs is for the right person to hear it. If they listen and like what they hear, perhaps something worthwhile could come from it for both of us.
I Didn’t Know
I Didn’t Know began with the beat and two distinctly different chord sequences for the verse and chorus – an approach that was relatively unusual for me and helped shape the song before the lyric developed.
The lyric tells the story of a relationship that means everything to one person, only for them to discover that the other person clearly doesn’t feel the same way. It’s that moment of realisation when something you thought was secure suddenly looks completely different.
I deliberately made the chorus repetitive, with the same line appearing four times in each chorus. Rather than sing each repetition identically, I changed the notes and emphasis slightly each time to give the repeated words a different feeling as the chorus develops.
One section strips things back even further, with the chorus sung almost a cappella, accompanied only by the drum beat. It’s something I hadn’t done in a very long time and I liked the contrast it created.
For the ending, I brought the guitar from the introduction gradually back into the final chorus behind the vocal, allowing it to build until the guitar, vocal and song all come together on the final note.
Heatwave
Heatwave is essentially a love letter from a man who believes he has won the jackpot. He is completely smitten: one look from the woman he loves is enough to overwhelm him, and he feels immensely proud simply to have her beside him as they walk down the street.
Musically, the song began with a basic beat set at a particular tempo and gradually developed from there. I was also experimenting with a tremolo guitar sound, which helped give the track its distinctive character and seemed to suit the warmth and excitement of the lyric.
The result is an uncomplicated celebration of being in love with someone you cannot quite believe has chosen to be with you.
Breakdown Blues
Breakdown Blues tells the story of two people drawn to one another after both have emerged from broken relationships. There is a clear attraction between them, but past experience has left them wary of becoming involved again. He makes the first move, although in a slightly defensive way, as if protecting himself from rejection before taking the risk.
The arrangement is driven almost entirely by percussion and bass. It begins with the basic beat and gradually builds as more percussion is added before the vocal enters.
To break up that deliberately sparse sound, a harmonica bridge appears midway through the song. This is followed by the introduction of a second, female voice – the first time I had ever used a female vocal part in one of my recordings. Her arrival adds another perspective to the story and suggests that his approach may finally be receiving an answer.
Despite the title, the ‘breakdown’ refers less to a nervous breakdown than to the breakdown of their previous relationships – and what might follow when two people cautiously decide to try again.
I’m Over You
I’m Over You is about a relationship that is breaking down because the woman no longer seems to want the man, yet cannot quite bring herself to let him go either. He is caught between rejection and the lingering hold she still has over him, even as he tries to convince himself that he has moved on.
The song begins with a thumping drum beat before the main riff enters and establishes its strongly rock-based sound. As the arrangement developed, I found myself imagining it being performed live. I’m not entirely sure why, but it seemed to belong in that setting rather than being a song intended simply for sitting and listening – although perhaps very few people listen that way anymore, with music now accompanying everything from walking and running to working and multitasking.
Instead of moving directly into the second chorus, the song breaks into a guitar solo. The chorus is deliberately delayed, eventually arriving while the solo continues behind it. The solo is also faster than I would normally play, adding to the energy and live feel of the recording. Finally after the second chorus the riff returns to outro.
I’m Not Your Man
I’m Not Your Man could almost be about the same relationship as I’m Over You, but at a later stage. This time, the man has clearly moved on, while the woman is still holding on to something that is no longer there. His message is direct: whatever they may once have been to one another, he is no longer her man.
The song is driven by a strong, persistent background riff and an equally prominent bass line. Its verses are deliberately short, with the chorus returning at the end of each one. This creates a great deal of repetition, reinforcing the certainty of the title and the message he is trying to make clear.
The guitars come to the fore for the finale. Beginning with a drum introduction, the ending gradually builds into a long outro featuring two guitar parts, giving the track a much larger and more forceful finish.
Phantom
Phantom came about entirely by accident. I was experimenting with some new guitar sounds and decided to record what I was playing, just in case anything interesting emerged. I liked what I heard, so I recorded a second guitar take around the first.
There were no drums, no bass and no plan. Although the resulting piece was short, it seemed to work when I played it back. The more I listened to it, the more I liked it, so I decided to leave the recording completely raw rather than develop or polish it any further.
The guitar sound I had been experimenting with was called ‘Phantom’, so when the track needed a title, the obvious choice was already there.
Still I’ll Be Loving You
Still I’ll Be Loving You carries a simple message of enduring love – the promise that, whatever happens and however much time passes, that love will remain.
Musically, the song is quite different from my usual approach. It is built around two acoustic guitar riffs: one accompanies each short, two-line verse, while the other provides the foundation for each two-line chorus. The solos are also played on acoustic guitar, keeping the sound consistent throughout.
Although there are no drums or bass, the interplay between the acoustic guitars gives the song an upbeat feel. A female backing voice joins the choruses, adding warmth and emphasis to the central promise of the lyric.
I also sing this one in a lower key than usual, which allowed me to deliver the vocal in a particularly natural and relaxed way.
Look Me In The Eye
Look Me in the Eye is another breakup song, this time centred on confrontation. The man knows that something is wrong and wants an honest answer. Rather than accepting excuses or evasions, he asks the questions directly and demands that she look him in the eye and tell him the truth.
The arrangement begins with a combined bass and harmonica riff, which introduces the song and returns throughout every chorus. The verses are backed mainly by drums and bass, creating a sparser setting for the questions being asked.
The chorus is long and appears frequently, while the two verses are deliberately short. As a result, the chorus becomes the dominant part of the song, repeatedly returning to the man’s demand for honesty. Two female backing voices add extra depth to these sections.
A short lead-guitar bridge later continues behind another chorus, before the track ends with a mainly vocal outro.
Bad Weather
Bad Weather is a moody song built around contrasts in pace, atmosphere and intensity. It features three guitar solos, each helping the track develop towards its extended finale.
After the introduction, verse and chorus, the song moves into a slow bridge where all the backing disappears. Stripping everything away creates a moment of suspension and allows the tempo to change naturally when the backing returns. From there, the song moves through another verse and two choruses before the guitars take over.
The finale is a long solo with a crisp, clean guitar sound. I considered making the final choruses and guitar solo more aggressive, but decided that restraint better suited both the reflective nature of the song and the way I naturally express its emotion. The final solo still makes my spine tingle and gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it.
Beneath the music lies a much more personal story, particularly in the lines:
In the mirror’s haze we see the ghosts of all the heroes known
Even the ones who make it back never really come home
My father was conscripted at seventeen and sent to North Africa to fight when he was eighteen. After landing in Italy, he continued fighting northwards through Italy and into Europe. Those experiences had a profound effect on the rest of his life. His nerves were never good and, as he grew older, memories of the war returned to haunt him.
The conversations I had with my father, and the memories he shared with me, clearly influenced this song. It reflects the lasting human cost of war and the way those who survive may return home physically without ever completely leaving their experiences behind. Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I see him rather than myself.
The title came before the song developed and no longer obviously describes what the song became. I considered changing it, but did not want a title that glorified or romanticised war. I therefore kept Bad Weather, allowing the song’s deeper meaning to remain partly concealed behind the title.
You Lied To Me
You Lied to Me was started in 2023 and proved to be one of the most troublesome tracks on the album. It was the first song I attempted after a break of at least two or three years from creating music, and I quickly discovered how rusty I had become in recording, editing and mastering.
The drums caused the greatest difficulty. I was never entirely satisfied with them, and the track was recorded and reworked so many times that I eventually lost count. Despite that, I was determined not to abandon it and continued working until I achieved a finished sound with which I was genuinely happy.
On the surface, the lyric sounds as though it is about dishonesty and betrayal within a relationship. In reality, it was directed at the government of the time and the growing feeling that the public had been misled. Writing it in the language of a broken relationship allowed the song to express that sense of disappointment and lost trust without spelling out its political meaning too directly.
After such a long and difficult journey, You Lied to Me finally became the track I had been trying to make from the beginning.
The Christmas Dance
The Christmas Dance was written with a visual story in mind. I am determined to create a video centred on two people dancing, and I now have both the finished music and the basis of a screenplay from which to develop it.
The song began on the Ketron SD1 keyboard that I inherited from my father. I had never learnt to play it properly, so I started by learning some rudimentary chords and attempting to play a melody at the same time. Over two or three weeks, I gradually mastered a simple tune well enough to record it into my digital audio workstation, where I could begin editing and developing it.
The piece starts extremely slowly with solo piano. As it progresses, other instruments gradually wash around the piano and broaden the sound. The drums enter about halfway through and continue as the music builds towards its crescendo, before everything slows again for the final outro.
Unlike most of the tracks on the album, I did not use a drum loop. I wrote the digital drum part one note at a time and introduced spatial differences between certain notes. These are most noticeable when the track is heard through earbuds or headphones.
So far, I have played the finished piece to only one person. They were uncertain about it after the first listen, but by the third it had become a favourite. Perhaps it is a piece of music that needs a little time to reveal itself.
The Christmas Dance is completely outside my usual territory: it is neither blues, rock nor pop, but I have grown to love it. The melody naturally fits the words “Christmas time”, although I decided that adding a voice would spoil what the music already expressed on its own. Whether I was right to leave it instrumental will be for the listener to decide.
Bbb107.5
The unusual title Bbb107.5 began as shorthand for “Bye Bye Babe”. CD Baby explained that if I submitted the three letters in capitals, the music services would automatically change the second and third letters to lowercase. I therefore used that styling myself so the title would appear as intended rather than seem to have been altered by the distributors.
The number came from the recording process. I experimented with several different speeds and labelled each draft with its tempo so that I could keep track of them. When I finally settled on the finished version at 107.5 beats per minute, the working label had become part of the identity of the song and I decided to keep it.
I also had difficulty with the original key because my voice did not comfortably reach the higher notes. Taking inspiration from some older American blues recordings, I lowered the vocal into something closer to a relaxed speaking voice. It sounded far less strained and gave the song the easy-going character it needed.
The musical structure relies heavily on two bass riffs: one for the verses and another for the choruses. The lyric tells the story of a man standing at the door, ready to walk away from a broken relationship and finally leave it behind.
The track features two different but closely related guitar solos, both played with a clean sound and without too much “pedal mania”. The second solo plays the song out and, appropriately, brings the whole album to its close.