I wrote 'Maybe' with death on my mind. The lyrics are quite abstract, because I was trying to capture a pretty complex feeling. The lyrics probably do a better job of getting it across than I can here. I used a different kind of rhyming scheme for the lyrics to what I would normally do - instead of rhyming the end of phrases, I rhymed the last word of each line with the first word of the next. This was intended to give the lyrics a lilt, where the phrases kind of tumble into each other. It seemed to fit with the stream-of-consciousness imagery described by the lyrics.
Musically, ‘Maybe’ is very much influenced by Radiohead. I used their album ‘In Rainbows’ as a mixing reference, and the guitar arpeggios follow a very Radiohead-like chord shape. A happy accident occurred when I was recording the guitars with my friend James Seymour - we muted the rhythm guitar track in the choruses so we could check the other parts, and we both decided it sounded better without it! I didn’t do it intentionally this time, but I do often use this production trick to give the songs more space. It’s almost like the rhythm guitar is a frame you hang the arrangement on, and then remove.
‘Maybe’ is the last single before the full album comes out. It’s called ‘Illumination’, and I think it’s quite appropriate that it starts with this song - “Maybe there’s light in the end”. The album wasn’t written as a concept album, and in fact the songs were written across 15 or so years. But they’ve never quite fitted my other projects, and I think it’s because they share a preoccupation with meaning, truth, and understanding. These aren’t themes that made sense emotionally with the other projects I was in. They’re not particularly dark or bleak, like the most recent Hey Geronimo album, but they’re not psychedelic like Papperbok. They’re not peppy or romantic or slice-of-life, like the various indie bands I’ve been in. They’re more meditative and reflective. There’s emotion in these songs, but it’s more like how you feel when you reflect on the events of your life, rather how you feel when they are happening.
I don’t expect that everyone will like this album, but I imagine that some people might resonate with the feelings and meanings it is intended to evoke. If you do, we’ve made a connection that we couldn’t have made otherwise, except perhaps over one of those tangled 3am, 10 drinks in, deep-and-meaningful conversations. You need those every now and then to clear your soul.
All the best,
Bill
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