In this series I’ll be talking a bit about songs I’ve written.
Seems like there’s no better place to start than at the start so we’ll work first through a few tracks on my first album The Insides.
At the time despite having no record deal, I managed to get a lot of critical acclaim for my first album, I think the Telegraph even proclaimed Id be the next Dido at the time..
Obviously without a label that didn’t happen…but I have had so many great letters and comments from fans over the years..
Falling Like Stars is a track on that album that I am particularly fond of.
Some songs take a while to craft, but this was one of those songs that springs to life in an instant, like it was already somehow destined to be.
We were already recording the album. We had literally no money and me and the producer who was also my boyfriend at the time, Einar Tonsberg (Eaka Eberg, Lorien, Puffin Rock Composer) were recording nights because it was cheaper… We were actually sleeping in the studio which didn’t have much heating or a kitchen..it was December and we kept warm by eating take away pizza from the Asda supermarket next door and drinking cheap wine.
I remember there was a piano covered in fairy lights and one late night knackered, Einar started playing the tune that would become Falling Like Stars…The words and melody tumbled out…It was nearly Christmas and I was thinking about all the people I have loved and lost who I wouldn’t be able to celebrate with – I thought about how memories care a beautiful thing, that can hold us up when we’re falling down, that we never really lose anyone because we are all just pieces of the universe floating around..Coming together, pulling apart and hopefully one day reuniting somehow…
This song always went down really well when we played it live and it has a lovely cello line in the middle that I love playing…
But my favourite memory of this song is when a fan a few years after I wrote it, wrote to me to tell me that they had played the song to their sick child when they had been in hospital and that it had given them hope. It obviously made me very emotional to read that, to know that our song had played some tiny part in helping that family…
That’s one of the main reasons I make music, to connect to other people to reach out in some small way and hope someone reaches back..Often they do..magic.
