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

Spinning

'October' is the last song I wrote for 'Lost Year' - before I even knew it was going to be a tape. It felt like 100 degrees outside, my life was a mess and even my shower had slowed to a trickle of cold water. Some months start and you're just waiting for the next one, right? If you feel this, hang in there - I promise it will get better some day. Love you all and thanks for listening xxx

(Photo by Josh Aranas) 

LYRICS

Oh what a time to be alive 
I'm lost in uncertain October skies 
I work through the day, I don't sleep at night
I feel unsteady and I don't know why 

It's only the seventh and I wish it was over
Because nothing good happens in October

I'm on the edge of my office chair 
Fingers worked down to the bone
I don't know where I am anymore 
And I don't know how to go home 

It's only the seventh and I wish it was over
Because nothing good happens in October

In October I knew it was over 
Collapsed on the sofa 
(Oh I don't have a sofa)
In my cold water flat 
Things aren't bad, they're just broken

It's only the seventh and I wish it was over
Because nothing good happens in October

October

Do you ever notice time passing and wish you could stop it? I wrote 'Overtime' about that feeling and how it sometimes keeps you up at night - all the moments, the memories, the past and the future both uncertain. We're all literally running out of time.

LYRICS

The city sleeps but I don’t 
Do you remember all the things you used to want? 

Where’d the time go?
Weird that I’m older 
Didn’t notice I was losing moments
Over and over

Count the creeks and holly oaks
Remember when the night sky looked a little broke

Where’d the time go?
Weird that I’m older 
Didn’t notice I was losing moments
Over and over

And over
A new leaf, another street to walk down
Get out of town or get over it 
Crying in the country like a mountain stream
I think of these moments
Over and over

Where’d the time go?
Weird that I’m older 
Didn’t notice I was losing moments
Over and over

Overtime

(From the 2020 vault)

This song was written for a short film made by my brother and sister about the simple things in life being free. They liked the demo so much that they ended up using it - which to me speaks volumes. 

Over the years I tried to overproduce it, to fix up the mistakes, but there was just something about the demo I kept coming back to. It's loose, light, free and full of flaws, kind of like life. Hope it takes you somewhere.

Years (demo)

A Journey Far Away

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

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

"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. 
NZ.
Inspired by Jesus + the ocean. 

Part of @clearvisioncollective

JFalls

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