I wasn’t going to record this song, thought I’d wait until it had matured a bit and I’d straightened a few things out. Then I thought about how some of my favourite artists have rough sounding tracks on albums that kind of add to the charm.
Some songs aren’t meant to be polished and so I found myself recording without drums or click, then going over in a pretty rudimentary way.
The vocals and guitar are pretty loose, I also wanted it to be kind of shrouded in other found sound. I tried this with a few different noises but in the end I asked Tim to stick a microphone out into his garden to pull in the sound of the birds, traffic and people.
Dumbness in this context is just pointing towards a simpler way of existing. In the past I thought I would get to some kind of destination where everything would make more sense. Now I've been travelling for a bit it feels like I've missed some kind of road sign that led to where I thought I was going. But it's all a bit of a muddle now.
I found a note in my phone which read "flowers are growing inside me. I hate you." I have no knowledge of writing this and am not quite sure why it ended up there or what inspired it if I did write that down. I wanted to use it and popped it in to replace a chorus that up until that moment was quite 'poor me'. There are remnants of that chorus still there but I got rid of most of it. (Once I'm on the last few songs I like the amount of stuf we've produced but a sadness grips that the song won't really get heard.)
I like the idea of treaty our body/soul as a garden, tending to it and allowing new life to flourish within our minds. I enjoy the build up of harmony on "listening to songs in the dark", particularly as that memory is a very strong one from a transformative period in my life. Hopefully it is for others too and they remember, but it seems a while ago now.
In some sense it's kind of about the speed of technological development and the way it rules lives now. It's difficult not to sound like an old man. Blather blather, hopefully it makes sense in song form.
When we were dumb
Did have many worries
When we were dumb
it was such fun
Now we're so smart
Hung up on all our knowledge
When we were dumb
it was such fun
flowers growing inside of me
letting the echo fade
No time to think if anyone's listening
slipping away into the crowd
Now that we're old
Talking in numbers and targets
we used to dumb
it was such fun
flowers growing inside of me
letting the echo fade
No time to think if anyone's listening
slipping away into the crowd
So wipe away that lonely tear
learning what we forgot to hear
we all become just what we fear
fool me twice shame on me
When we were dumb
we'd stay up all night talking
listening to songs in the dark
flowers growing inside of me
letting the echo fade
No time to think if anyone's listening
slipping away into the crowd
@mandolinda Apr 2022
How could this be a Zong on April 24? I am listening still. So happy to find and hear your song. Made my day. I was just thinking about some regrets that i had, not doing something earlier in my life.