The Flow

Episode#131: The Flow (Song starts at 3:28 ) So where does a song come from? Well, it comes from…being in the flow. The morning I wrote the lyrics, I’d just woken up and I was still half asleep. Snippets of dreams were floating around. So it’s a creative sort of flow I’m alluding to here. But the dreams were not what I wrote about. I looked around the room and started with: ‘When you pull the curtains back and the gentle morning light is shining, true…’ and from that line, which was really a simple statement, it lead to the last line of what became the chorus : ‘and there’s no one can avoid the flow’. I went on, finished off the lyrics and sent them off to Paul Dredge in New Zealand. Paul wrote the music to the verse. Then he stopped and sent it back to me. I then came up with the chorus and sent it back to Paul and he came up with the bridge. I’ve included a phone conversation with Paul that I recorded this week. I thought it’d be nice to get some of Paul’s thoughts on the episode. You’ll hear it’s a very easy relationship that we are lucky enough to have. It’s incredibly rewarding to compose a song. It’s even more rewarding to co write a song with someone. Paul and I have written a good few together now. The flow can be found on our 5th album, ‘The Untrodden Track’. If you like the sound of this song, there’s a whole album of songs like this, with this sound waiting for you. On this episode I recount an old memory that popped up recently (you can find an extended written version on my blog this week) it was a surreal sort of memory of imaginary crocodiles which was triggered by a photograph…back when I was a very young child. This sense of childlike play is an essential ingredient with song writing, I think. You just throw caution to the wind, keep in mind your music theory (which is like an underlying supportive net) and just have fun. The Flow has a nice vibe.. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you enjoy hearing about how the song came together. By the way, the folkrock album ‘The Untrodden Track’ is streaming now on all the usual platforms. You can also hear it on bandcamp, where you can read the lyrics as you listen. (incidentally, you can purchase the album / send a digital copy a a gift on bandcamp), My blog is: www.petepascoe.wordpress.com you can read more / read the lyrics / view art here.