Don't Mention It (Demo)

My song for February started life four years ago during a photoshoot with Tereza.

The voice note in the intro is me capturing the essential ideas whilst talking to her about how we have to come to terms with losing sparks of inspiration (melodies for me, photographs for her). Ideas will get lost. Mornings shift to afternoons which submit to evenings that fade to night. Memories can disappear. But a new day will come.

The setting we chose, a room that looked over Cardiff during the hours leading to sunset, informed the lyrics. So did her photographs and our discussion of the song on the day and when I sent her a demo a few weeks later. She captured me in the moment of writing, perfectly relaxed as I tested words and phrases, openly making mistakes out loud for her (just as she took photos which didn't work on the way to finding the perfect shot).

I can't always sum up what these moments and memories mean, but I know they are vital to me being the person I am today. I hope you listen to the song and think of people who have helped you discover and integrate truths about yourself, truths that you carry forward into new connections. And you find a moment when someone says "mmmm" in simple agreement and you are understood in a way that sends any anxiety into the distance like streaks of streetlights vanishing into the night.

Night Lights

If you were invited to make a fire down by the river on the shortest, darkest day of the year, would you go?

I did with 3 other people and we took the time to reflect on the year behind us. What did we learn? What did we want to leave behind? What did we want to carry with us?

Old Days is a celebration of that fire and the ideas we shared. A warming, harmony-laden Winter Solstice song that reminds us not to forget the important people and ways of being from the past as we head into the future.

Old Days

Released March 21, 2024
Music by The Warden
Words by Rachel Helena Walsh
Artwork by The Warden

Recorded at The Branches, March 2024
Produced, Mixed & Mastered by The Warden

Dance On The Demons

Music by The Warden
Artwork by Tereza Nekvasilova & The Warden

Recorded at Kamenech, April 2023
Produced, Mixed & Mastered by The Warden

0404

Released April 25, 2024
Music by The Warden
Words by E. Howard Harris and The Warden
Artwork by The Warden and Tereza Nekvasilova

Recorded at The Branches, April 2024
Produced, Mixed & Mastered by The Warden

I Said Hot Words To God

Walking through Prague cemetery at sunset I set my phone to shuffle the 3,963 music files on there. Somehow after a few songs a voice note with a snippet someone else's voice was played. I went back to the start to check who it was. Of course. And the words, "Maybe we should call it a night."

Prague

Fly east for the one who gave me wonder.
Make peace with the turning of the world.
Time might paint the grief a different colour.
Winter trees that long for summer
cannot skip the spring.

My dreams fail to find a new direction.
Lately, the past is all I know.
I don't want to move into the future,
if I cannot share it with you
when we stumble home.

Sunrise, standing in the cemetery.
I try to hear your voice again.
Help me lose my leafs and learn a lesson,
These marcescent stems will only keep away the light.

Maybe we should, maybe we should call it a night.
Maybe we should, maybe we should call it a night.
Maybe we should, maybe we should call it a night.
Maybe I could, maybe I could turn off, turn off, turn off.
Maybe we should, maybe we should call it a night.
Maybe I could, maybe I could turn off, turn off, turn off.
Maybe should, maybe we should call it.

Prague

Multi-instrumentalist, cross-genre songwriter.

Inspired by: Manic Street Preachers, The National, Rhiannon Giddens, Loudon Wainwright, Paul Simon, Nina Simone.

The Warden

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