Fast forward to Feb 2013; nearly two years had passed since I’d finished a track, and this was to be a complete departure from what had gone before.  I decided to create a classic, pared-down “singer/songwriter” track with only acoustic guitar and voice (although I subsequently couldn’t resist adding an orchestral strings track to that!).

The track was mostly inspired by a few little lyrical snippets that I had jotted down over the years, and these developed into a nostalgic remembrance of lost love, expressed by a protagonist who is far from home.  Not necessarily autobiographical, but yes, okay… it is!

A distant land
A soundless country
A gentle hand
A loving smile
So long ago
There is no trace now
The years have flown and the love has gone

Alone I stand
In streets of neon
A thousand miles
From where you lie
The time has gone
The hourglass empties
We’re hypnotised by the grains of sand

For all these years
Nothing dulls the memory
Always seeing your smile
A bitter-sweet feeling that I savour
The past is a strange land

And when I sleep
Sometimes it happens
That time retreats
And youth returns
We are all lost
Our dreams are cruel
The morning light brings reality

For all these years
Nothing dulls the memory
Always seeing your smile
A bitter-sweet feeling that I savour
The past is a strange land
The past is a strange land
And nothing dies that lives there