Slipping back into my skin, lost forever
Dusting off the time machine for worse or better
Trick the truth to realign, worth reviving
Make amends or redesign the inner lining

All that youth ink spilling
All those words meant, so true so innocent 
All that youth ink spilling
Now turned into scar tissue

Realise remote control’s been taking over
Reenact the same old role as I’m supposed to
I know I can do better than this
There must be middle ground
Even if I’m gonna have to insist
You tie me up and hold me down

All that youth ink spilling
All those words meant, so true so innocent 
All that youth ink spilling
Now turned into scar tissue

Stop bothering me there is no switch to undo
Long gone day I wish I’d never got into you
I have the feeling there is a ghost in my room
Collecting pieces, causing an itch in my soul tattoo

/////

Youth Ink longs for the naivety of younger years. This is an ode to all the hopeful belief, the reckless energy, that got lost, hidden or transformed along the way.

Youth Ink

I need your colours to change
The patterns to mingle
The yellows to grey
Cause if you shine the way you shine inside my mind
I’m gonna stay

I’m gonna soften the sides 
And widen the edges
Cover the lines
Until you blur into that certain kind of haze
I’m gonna stay

And it can be just pretend for a little while
The illusion is all I’ll need
A change of perspective the changes accepted in the end
Somewhere to repair the rips and the tears of a suit well worn
The filter of time will be kind to us in the end
And you can dissolve
So I no longer hold on

////

The rips and tears of a suit well worn tells the story of being caught in something toxic and needing someone, something, to reach in and tear you out. With a little time, the rips and the tears can heal, but not if you stay.

The Rips And The Tears Of A Suit Well Worn

I walk alone through all the blurry city lights
Try to lose my way but all I find are roads that wind back to me
Familiar company
Another round no release

You’re all I’ll ever need
Hold onto me, monotony
While nothing is real
Hold onto me, monotony

Every corner wields another avenue
Follow all the signs
They’re all designed to find my way back to me
Familiar atrophy
Is there something I didn't see

You’re all I’ll ever need
Hold onto me, monotony
While nothing is real
Hold onto me, monotony

Open your eyes to awkward goodbyes
Another disguise 
But otherwise I don't mind

You’re all I’ll ever need
Hold onto me, monotony
All I’ll ever need
Hold onto me, monotony

/////

Sometimes you can lose yourself in a familiar boredom. It’s a safe and comforting feeling to malinger in the well-known, comfortable safety of Monotony.

Monotony

A second before
I see you smiling
It’s only a moment, but i feel so sure
Beginning to run
I’m losing patience
The rise before the fall
It's a difficult world
Anticipation
Both of us know, it’s your game your rules
I thought I could see, the moves you’re making
But how you proved me wrong

Almost but never more than just a dance my matador
There’s always another turn

A delicate case of misdirection
I follow the steps but when will you show your hand
I’m hesitant now
You’ve got me thinking
Am I the reason why
But nevertheless
I stumble forward
I can’t back out not here not now
I’m not gonna let you off that easy
Before you let me down

Almost but never more than just a dance my matador
Falling for every move
Always another turn
Leaving me to crash and burn
More than I’ve got to lose

You're pristine, I think you’ve been here before
The routine is getting hard to ignore
You're pristine, you might’ve been here before
Obscene, you want me down on the floor

Almost but never more than just a dance my matador
Falling for every move
Always more or less
Forever damned to second guess
There’s always another turn

/////

"Matador" describes a one-sided chase, a game you can’t win because someone else is making the rules; and just when you think you’ve figured them out, the rules keep changing, leaving you wondering why.

Matador

So this is goodbye
To our high hopes on parole
The pie in the sky
Is gonna be served dead and cold
We didn't have the guts to do it

Call the cleaners
Tell them to do the best they can
Cause in-betweeners
Like you and me might fall back into 
Bad habits with good intentions

All eyes on you
And a hundred reasons why we shouldn't leave it there 
All eyes on me
And the chaos that we made around us

Don’t remind me
And If I drag my heels behind 
Don’t you mind me
I need to say my own goodbyes
To bad habits with good intentions

All eyes on you
And a hundred reasons why we shouldn't leave it there 
All eyes on me
And the chaos that we made 
In the gardens that we paved around us

/////

It was never all bad, right? Things took their course, choices were made, we fell apart. But those bad habits may have been born out of good intentions. There may be sorrow and regret, but there doesn’t have to be hate. This is a sad song with a good, but broken heart.

Bad Habits With Good Intentions

Are you gonna arrive for me
Are you gonna arrive for me
Have you set aside a time and place
In case I find out where to be?

Are you gonna arrive for me
Are you gonna know my face
Are you gonna show a trace of that forgiveness I will surely need

Are you're gonna arrive for me
Illusive you've always been
The glimpses I thought I'd seen and fought and screamed until I couldn't feel

Over and over, over and over …

Are you're gonna arrive for me
Are you're gonna arrive for me

/////

Arrive asks the question if we’ll ever find what we’re looking for. Is it hidden around the corner or are we waiting in vain?

Arrive

Picking the pieces up
Is taking time
All of the bits you cut
Most any time
You’d feel inclined
Till there was nothing left to see
Picking the pieces up
Is taking time

As I scoop and gather 
Fallen pride I’d rather
Reconstruct some other kind of me
View in humble wonder
All those possibilities 

Picking the pieces up
Can wait a while
Savour the time to look
Venture a smile
Maybe denial 
But for a minute I’ll delay 
Picking the pieces up
Can wait a while

As I scoop and gather 
Fallen pride I’d rather
Reconstruct some other kind of me
View in humble wonder
All those possibilities

All of those decisions 
Won't wander, don't listen
All of those directions
Whispering, I’ll let them

/////

Particles is an ending and a beginning. One part of your life can end, leaving you in pieces...but isn’t that a chance to recreate yourself? Why not use this opportunity to put yourself back together in any form that you choose, become something new. This song is a hopeful glance at a future that is in our own hands, no matter the present.

Particles

Out for the night with my tried and tested face 
Gonna pull the wool and play the fool for you 
Linger inside that corduroy or suede or denim 
Can’t see what I’m made of 

Lonely’s only, along your avenue 
Lonely’s only, along your avenue 

The evening evolves inside and out I’ll be right behind that certain smile You grin and bear it but give me a nod if you see
Something that reminds you of me Just a little heads up 

Lonely’s only, along your avenue 
Lonely’s only, along your avenue

/////

Chewbacca is all about playing a role. When do we show our true skin? When do we take off that mask?

Chewbacca

Where do you go
Why do you leave
Following all the signs to the shores of odd beliefs
How do you know
Who do you trust
Couldn’t there be a road that leads you back to us

When did we lose
That common ground
When did my truths become your lies
We both are avoiding the eyes of the elephant in the room
Searching for silver linings

Where do you go
Why do you leave
Following all the signs to the shores of odd beliefs
How do you know
Who do you trust
Couldn’t there be a road that leads you back to us

Feel that you’re scared, though you’d never say
Though we didn’t used to need to hide
The further you move the more I’m unable to stay on your side
It hurts how we’re divided

Where do you go
Why do you leave
Following all the signs to the shores of odd beliefs
How do you know
Who do you trust
Couldn’t there be a road that leads you back to us

/////

The world has been split in two and people seem to be wandering in directions that are hard to fathom. Former friends are suddenly enemies; people that were so close have been torn apart. In Odd Beleifs we ask the question if there is a path back to one-another.

Odd Beliefs

Foot on the stairwell, take heed this time
No way to foretell, forgot the outlines
How can we hold our hearts out of harms way
Tempting the shadows, delve in they say

We don't know for certain
That the boards aren’t gonna break
But we carry on

Hand on the railings, I hear you breathe
Fond of the feeling, that we’re thick as thieves
There's no way to know how, without just one peek

Slowly losing caution, as it rolls into the wind
And we carry on

Any other way
Wouldn’t feel the same
Be it right or be it wrong
Any other way
Would lead us all the same
Back to here again

Foot on the stairwell, take heed

/////

"Stairwell" is a trip into the unknown, trusting in one another and taking one small step at a time.

Stairwell

This is one beautiful mess that you left me with 

This is one beautiful mess that i cannot resist 

Emphatically able to fully disable me
This is one beautiful mess that we're sitting inside 

This is one beautiful mess that i should not abide 

Disaster cascading but i'm not evading you
Chaos can be charming with your arms around me 

If you let go the sound of the alarms'll drown me 

Won't you surround me
This is one beautiful mess that you left me with 

This is one beautiful mess that i cannot resist
You surround me, You surround me 

You surround me, You surround me



Vocals, Drums: Benjamin Galliers 
Guitar: Lars Dahlke
Keyboards, Bass: Ruben Seevers

Produced by Swen Meyer at Festland Studio and by Small Fires at Lindenallee.

Mixed by Daniel Bongard at Studio Bellafonte.  
Mastered by Michael Schwabe at Monoposto. 

Design by Human Empire Studio. 
Photos by Inga Seevers. 

Song written by Small Fires.

One Beautiful Mess

One Beautiful Mess EP

Take It On The Chin

Set To Glow

Small Fires is a German/British Indie-Pop band, based in Hamburg, Germany.

Benjamin Galliers: Vocals, Beats
Lars Dahlke: Guitar, Soundscapes
Ruben Seevers: Bass, Electronics

2022 Album "Stairwell"
2022 Single 'Odd Beliefs'
2022 Single 'Matador'
2022 Single 'Referee'
2020 Single 'Chewbacca'
2019 Album 'All This Noise'
2019 Single 'All This Noise'
2018 Single 'Crossed Wires'
2018 Single 'Backstroke'
2017 EP 'One Beautiful Mess'

www.smallfires.de

Small Fires

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