It's truly a mixmash of a whole bunch of idioms - but if you look closer, there's a message - one that resonates so deeply with me.

Oftentimes, when we try new things and put ourselves in new situations - take ourselves out of our comfort zones - it can be painful or uncomfortable.  Sometimes we might feel like we're making fools of ourselves.  That we might "look funny" trying something new.  And oftentimes we can get hurt - whether it be through learning the trade or being belittled for it.

But it's those times when we step out of our comfort zones where we can find out things about ourselves that we never knew existed!  We can meet new people, have new experiences, learn something new.  Yes, we may fall in the beginning, but the more you put yourself out there, the more you will fly.  Everybody "looks funny" when they try something for the first time - but the ones who get back up and try again and again through the pain - those are the ones that truly shine.

"Curiosity killed the cat,
But Satisfaction brought it back."

Pre-Apocalypse

The Cat's Retort

Of course, before one can dive deep into narrative, one needs to set the scene.  We’ve met the main character - now we need to be introduced to her world for us to deeper understand the context.  

“So we set our scene, in post hypocrisy
At quarter past no return.
Get your front row seat, because you know nothing beats
A close up of a crash and burn.”

A world where people feed off of chaos - they thrive off of demise.  
And as they watch the world slowly burn, their priorities are curved -

“Be sure you hit record, don’t wanna miss out on new likes, yeah.
Don’t make your audience bored, best you start a fight, yeah.”

A world of control. 
A world where the meaning of freedom has been lost.

“And you’ll see the sheeple, gather around the screen,
Buying into the whole facade.
While the puppeteers keep instilling fear,
While we obey the circus clowns.” 

A world that’s falling apart.
A world that’s losing touch of what’s important....

Set Our Scene

"Darlin' - pay attention,
These words are cryptic,
They still have meaning."

I love language - I feel that words spoken are an art of their own.
I love playing around with the arrangement of phrases, double meanings, underlying statements and hidden messages.

"The double-edged sword
Is mightier than the pen.
When we try to cut corners,
We burn at both ends."

I wrote "Cryptic" early on in my Stretch journey - at a point where I'd made up my mind that normality could not possibly work for me...

"Darlin' -
Please forgive me,
Your expectations
Aren't my intentions."

Cryptic

So who is this Stretch we speak of?
**Stares dramatically into the distance**

Well I’ll tell you…

“Act one, scene one,
Once upon a time…
Our story begins
In the nick of time

Of Pre-Apocalyptic
Post-Hypocrisy
The Tale of Stretch
Reflection,
Expression
Of Me.”

I picked up the nickname of “Stretch” a couple of years ago when I was still working in a special little Mexican-themed restaurant and the name kind of stuck. I decided it worked quite well as a name for the stage as well as the weird alter ego version of myself.

“She's a fast-track trip-cat, lucid in style
A trick up her sleeve and she'll drown in denial
Has her heart made of gold, a soul that's pre-sold to swing”

I use Stretch as a reflection of myself and society - the world we live in. You see - Stretch comes from a Steampunk world, actually very similar to ours in many ways, where the walls of the norm are crumbling and people are beginning to question the entire construct of the system. A broken system. But there’s hope - oh, so much hope - and it glistens brightly in the small stories with huge impacts.

Stretch shares these stories - tells tales of people and shares the world through her eyes. She brings hope and inspiration from a place that was once in complete darkness.

“She's a live-wire, wild-fire broken telephone
A different view of world and a story of her own
Lost in her words, Lost in the absurd when she sings”

Tale of Stretch

I've had a bit of trouble releasing this particular one as I feel it reveals a lot of where I found a lot of flaws outside myself, within myself, and especially in my head.

"Doctor doctor, please prescribe me
Something to ease my mind.
Mister trusty horologist
Can we please remeasure time?"

I'd often look around at the crumbling world around me and hold inside me an overwhelming feeling of emptiness. The construct of our society had not made sense to me and I'd always felt like I couldn't fit into it. I could never belong.
Especially not when things were falling apart.

The world wasn't okay.
I wasn't okay.

But everyone else kind of seemed okay.
So for a long time, I figured I was the problem.

I started questioning my sanity altogether…

“Because I’m falling off the crooked fence I was sitting on that lies between
Insanity and me.”

Insanity and Me

When I looked around at the world, it felt like everyone was to live according to a certain formula and that didn’t make much sense to me. It was like humanity was in a rut.

We eat, sleep, wander aimlessly searching for our one true love, marry ‘em, reproduce, whilst keeping a single stable job for decades to keep this all afloat - working most of our lives away serving the system only to spend that money for survival and paying off debt for our cars and degrees, then we party to relieve all the stress and then we get old and leave this world. But that can’t be it. There must be more - there must be a deeper reason why we’re truly here - there has to be more that we can contribute here.

Needless to say I was in a wee bit of an existential crisis.
And rather fucked off too, to be honest.

Eat Sleep Love Party

An empty page, pen filled with ink
My thoughts are jumbled I cant think
Of the words that I want to say to you

A broken head with broken dreams
And I struggle to see between
All the lines of the roads that lead back to you

I just need a peace of mind before my mind falls to pieces

An empty jack, a stubbed cigarette
Add a Valium to forget
All the things that you have done to me

A big black dog and a razorblade
Its far too late to be afraid
Admire the red rubies as you bleed

I just need a peace of mind before my mind falls to pieces

An empty house with paper walls
Through the blizzard it still stands tall
Seems the haunting will never really reach its end

A silenced whisper, a muffled cry
As you took from me what was mine
Caught off guard, I didn't know how to defend

I just need a peace of mind before my mind falls to pieces

Piece of Mind

You know when life hits you with one of them backhands that wakes you the fuck up? I’ve had me one of those. One of them hardcore. And I’d like to share the story with you.

I’d gone on holiday with some friends and - this had been a rather hectic time in my life - I was struggling a lot with depression and lack of self worth that comes with it.

I’d gone to take a swim alone in the public pool - I dove in deeply and when I’d resurfaced, feeling refreshed, I climbed out the pool and started drying off. I looked around and started to notice the tension around me. It was only then that I realized what had happened. Everything went quiet. I looked over at the little boy who had drowned.

He was probably around 4 or 5 years old and had his father hunched over him in a state of franticness as he used every fraction of his energy and strength to try and bring his boy back to life. I felt the urge to do something. But what? I felt useless. Hopeless. I looked at the people all around me. They felt the same. Ambulances had been called, the right people were on their way - but in the meantime, there was nothing that could be done other than to hope - to pray - that this man could bring his son back to life.

Suddenly, the boy gasped for air and, at that moment, it felt as if everyone had breathed for the first time. Relief overcame us all as the man held his revived son in his arms. As the tears streamed down his face, I had realized that I’d been taking a lot for granted.

We often don’t realize how absolutely fragile our lives are and how, in an instant, it can be completely swept away and how little control we really have over it. What’s beyond will probably always be debated, but our time here should be cherished. As each moment passes the next, we get to live in this incredible world with this incredible capability of doing all sorts of wonderful things. It is so absolutely important to spend time with the ones you love - tell them that you love them - and then to do things that make you happy. You’ve got to spend your precious time on your precious dreams <3

Breath of Air

The Steampunk-Themed Singer-Songwriter Storyteller

With Stylings and influences of Jazz and Swing, she takes her audience on a journey of the weird and wonderful world seen through her eyes. Stretch often brings a Storytelling Narrative into her shows and always likes to hold a positive and uplifting underlying theme.  Her goal is to inspire others to live up to their wildest dreams and fulfill their potential.  

Stretch has been performing for the past few years within Cape Town and the Garden Route and is soon to release her debut album, Pre-Apocalypse on the 27th of February 2022.

Stretch

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