Belonging: Track by track
Hello! I wanted to dive right down into the depths of this EP and give you a sense of where each track came from.
Belonging tells the tale of emotional attachment, from relationships, to feelings, to places. It delves into the complications of emotional unavailability, longing for feelings that once were and the philosophy of 'home'. Recorded remotely (partly in my tiny uni room) in the midst of the winter lockdown, the record is a dreamy concoction of folk meets country meets indie pop. Belonging is out now everywhere, I hope you love it!
EGGSHELLS
I had some lyrics for this track in my notes for years, and it was a situation I had always wanted/tried to write about. While in isolation I delved back into my old song ideas and began re-writing it because the pre chorus lyrics kept creeping back into my mind and I couldn’t let them go. It became Eggshells, reflecting on a past toxic relationship I was still healing from. It was strange to put myself back into the headspace of a situation of such misery and from so long ago, but ultimately it’s about the lessons I learnt from it in order to grow. A love letter to myself. It may be cliche but it’s damn right…what doesn’t kill you truly does make you stronger.
COME UNDONE
This song was inspired by a friend of mine who struggles to let people in, kind of as a self defence mechanism. I know I have been guilty of this in the past, and I wanted this to be a song of encouragement and comfort that one bad experience doesn't count for what's to come.
SAME OLD EVENING
I wrote this song in the first lockdown, riddled with the ache of missing someone and not being able to do anything about it. There was a weird uncertainty that summer, not knowing when things would be back to normal. It had me going over the last moments I shared with this person over and over in my head, longing for a ordinary evening in, watching The Chase or something, with them by my side. I was lucky enough to have the wonderful Rubi playing harp on this song when restrictions eased.
COLLECTING DUST
I co-wrote this song with Phil Spencer, who produced and played drums and bass on the EP. He sent me over the guitar track and I immediately loved it, recently having gotten into a lot of alt-Americana and wanting to incorporate that into my music. It's about longing for the 'easy' part of a relationship when everything is new and exciting, the frustration when someone is pulling away and the difficulty in communicating how you feel. Feeling like someone has left you on the shelf, not knowing when they're going to pick you back up.
HOME
Home is the final track on the EP and the first song I wrote for it. I'd been planning to release it as a single but the rest of the EP grew very naturally around this song. A few years ago, I said goodbye to a house I grew up in. Despite the feelings of sadness, the new house felt as much of a home as the old. With this I realised that home is not the bricks and cement that surround you, it’s the people you love. Human connection. If you keep those people close you'll have home wherever you go.
I want to thank Phil Spencer for producing, playing and co-writing (Collecting Dust) on the EP. Mastered by Harry Quinn.
Love, Joely