An instrumental I made for my friend Josh to perform spoken word over

Spinning

A Journey Far Away

#1 "Halcombe, NW" is the sound of longing to move on, written half on a hammock and half in an open field walking in straight lines. 

Drum production by Nate Gowan.
Blackbird dawn chorus sample from the NZ Department of Conservation. 


Halcombe, NW (First Demo)

Cities

The leaves whisper to the ground
You're not in love if you're not falling down

I learnt lessons in the autumn 
Dead leaves and dying callings
All my words are cars just stalling on the road

I'm overworked and overtired
Kinda wished I'd just get fired
So I could crawl back to the wire 
Where I've been these past few months

There's static in the fresias
On walls and office heaters
If you don't look it'll leave you 
Feeling like a self-made man

But I'm just a poor man dressed rich clothes
I'm just a sinner in a priest's robe
I'm just a faker in the making of himself

The wind blew my thoughts away
I could collate these words another day
When I'm close to what I want to say 
It slips away like all my days in May 

What is the reason? 
What is this season? 
Why do you do most of the reaching
While I do most of the slipping away

You're not in love if you're not falling
You're not in love if you're not falling down

L34VE5

6 out of 12.

LYRICS 

Do you feel like giving up and lying still?
Has the world lost its thrill for you?
All the fighting puts a bruise on your heart
Such semi-permanent art
Still your blood on the floor 
Won’t clear the air of your flaws and your fears

Don’t fear your tears, fear feeling nothing
So bare it’s crushing the air from your lungs
The blood from your heart
You’re falling apart 
And it seems that the stars only scream to the dirt

You’re not the only one who feels like this
My friends all have it written on their wrists in cold black ink
We all sink
And I think we’re the drowning generation
Lonely, if only for a life jacket

Don’t you think we should write a better song for the broken?
Don’t you think I should write about how I’ve been hoping
In something bigger than me
That you’re permanently on my heart, a part of my art

 We’re semi-permanent art, semi-permanent art
And there’s no time to lose in counting our bruises
We were dead from the start, semi-permanent art
But there’s life in the new ground, 
Life in the old sounds of hope
Stamp hope on my heart
Write love on her arms 
Draw peace on the palms of our hands
It’s your art 
Semi-permanent is such a beautiful place to start.

Semi-Permanent

Quiet Down

Clouds/In My Lungs

Halcombe, N.W

Dreamt up to the sound of a torrential downpour.

Demos

It Only Rains In Winter

Written for a stranger. 

Saxophone - Joshua Aranas
Guitars, vocals, piano, synth, cajon, snaps and production - J. Falls

Winter, 21 (Soundcloud Mix)

"Be brave, don't stay". 

Written in a new town, when 4 words and a loop was all I needed.

Brave New World

"All the freaks and their guitars, it's a circus with no stars."

Inspired by fictional events.

Life In The Modern Age

"Back then we used to skate
All of our problems seemed so far away"

'HVN' is probably my favourite song off '12', but it also was the hardest to write. It's about life and death and remembrance - yet how can you ever fully capture something elusive as a memory? It was also one of the few composed in three different cities, with each place taking me further away from it all. But I'll never forget. 

Dedicated to anyone who's lost someone. x

"Loneliness tried to eat me alive tonight" 

'12' reflects the restlessness of the ocean and consequently, I can't listen to it and not be transported back to the end of 2016, standing on a beach, listening to the sea below and the birds above and feeling completely lost on arrival. 

I went home, grabbed my guitar and wrote. This at least will never change. 

"It only takes a breath to step away/The change it starts today"

Twelve, NW

Written at 11pm on the side of the road in a car that wasn't mine, thinking of someone.

Loud

Lyrics:

I once woke up on the forest floor
Scared of spiders and night noises
Now I can't sleep in the city

I'm always trying to drive out of small towns
As if the bigger the place, the better the man
Still I can't sleep in the city

For here you are
Fir trees and needles on the ground
A syringe in the sea
A waste

Fir (Part 1)

Drive

Changing

Guitarist/Songwriter/Producer. 
Auckland, NZ.
Inspired by Jesus + the ocean. 

Part of @clearvisioncollective

JFalls

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