What the Rivers Say

I AM RELEASING ALL THE TRACKS FROM MY ALBUM ‘HERE COMES THE HORIZON’ IN ORDER EACH WEEK AND DESCRIBING HOW THE SONGS WERE WRITTEN AND PRODUCED. I WILL RELEASE THE ALBUM FOLLOWING THIS.

WEEK1/TRACK1 – WORKS OF ART

This song was one of the first I wrote after a very long layoff from music, in January 2024. A friend had inspired me to have a go at writing and playing music again, so I sat down with my bass guitar (that’s all I had at the time!), an iPad and Bandlab to see what would happen.

The song is about the loss of a close friend following a long struggle with her mental health, right at the beginning of Covid. Essentially the lyrics are my trying to come to terms and understand what happened. 

This song is the first song on my album ‘Here Comes the Horizon’ as it marks the start point in the emotional journey the album describes.

Musically, I wrote a riff on my bass guitar which I put to a simple drum machine beat. You can hear the original idea here if you’re interested: https://soundcloud.com/tom_leonard_uk/works-of-art-initial-idea

The next day I wrote the lyrics and developed the idea into a basic demo, which you can hear here: https://soundcloud.com/tom_leonard_uk/works-of-art-first-demo

I left it like that for 6 months, and then came back to the track to finish it off, leading to the album version. A lot of the original demo is still there – although it’s hard to tell. I’ve added acoustic guitar, but all of the other ‘guitar’ sounds are actually the original bass tracks processed through various effects. I swapped the drums out for the samples you can hear here bringing more of a ‘live’ and epic feel. I’ve also re-recorded the vocals and added the outro section. The vocal was hard to do given the low register, and it’s not perfect. But I think it is raw and coveys the feel of the song so I’ve left it as is.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the track and maybe that you can take something from the lyrics.

Lyrics:

remember that day
when we walked for miles and we lost our way
the weak sunshine and the cool English breeze
remember that day
when we sat by the water watching the children play
remember that sound?
the laughter of your daughter

these moments in time are works of art
can you hold them in your heart?

remember the day
sitting together by the harbour
I think you told us then but we didn't hear
it wasn't clear
the sun was bright and the afternoon was glowing
was there ever any way of knowing?

these moments in time are works of art
can you hold them in your heart?

Next week – track 2 - WHTYHTM

Buy on Bandcamp

Works of Art

I AM RELEASING ALL THE TRACKS FROM MY ALBUM ‘HERE COMES THE HORIZON’ IN ORDER EACH WEEK AND DESCRIBING HOW THE SONGS WERE WRITTEN AND PRODUCED. I WILL RELEASE THE ALBUM FOLLOWING THIS.
WEEK2/TRACK2 – WHTYHTM

This song was the first that I wrote after starting to write music again in January 2024. Writing a complete song and sharing it with friends was a big step in convincing myself that I could do this.

WHTMHTY means What Happens to You Happens to Me, and is a call to remember that when times are tough, you’re in it together, even when you might experience and process trauma differently. “Take my hand across the sea, what happens to you happens to me”. 

Musically, I wrote the chords on bass originally as an instrumental. I really like that version, it’s very sparse and sounds a lot like Slowdive or Mogwai. I added the vocals the following week, which was a big step as I’d never sung a vocal before. Both of these demo versions are available as part of this release.

About six months later I came back to the track to develop it musically. I experimented with transposing the bass chords to piano, which changed the character of the song completely. It became a sound rather than just a soundscape. I built on that adding the layers of guitars which build to the big crescendo in the outro.

For the outro, the chord sequence uses the same chords as the main verse but in a different order. I started cutting up the piano parts and bassline and pasted them together in this new sequence, which created the backdrop for the outro. I then layered over my first ever guitar solo which came out alright I reckon given my pretty rudimentary guitar skills.

Anyway I hope you like the track, please let me know what you think in the comments.

Lyrics:

She’s always looking up
She feels the weight on her
She can barely breathe
She can’t even leave
Her mind is filling up
With plans she can’t control
She can barely see
She can’t ever just be

So take my hand across the sea
What happens to you happens to me

He’s always moving on
He needs to let it be
It’s staying all inside
He’s saying everything is fine
He doesn’t want to talk
He doesn’t want to think
He can barely breathe
He can’t even leave

So take my hand across the sea
What happens to you happens to me
So take my hand, it’s all we can do
What happens to me happens to you


Next week: 95

WHTYHTM

Oil Skies

Shoejazz

Empty Days

We've Come Too Far to Turn Back Now

The Triumphs and the Hurt

Here Comes the Horizon

Last Orders

The World That We Create

Standing on the riverbank
Feeling the sun bringing warmth to my face
I screwed my thoughts up into a ball
I threw them in and watched them sink without a trace

Feel myself becoming small
Amongst the wonder of it all
Feel myself becoming small
And this is what the river said

It's alright
It's OK
The things you've done, you can't change them anyway
It's alright
It's OK

At the cairn at the top of the tor
Rising sun lights the moon in the west
Looking up and wondering why
I don't believe in God but I still feel blessed

Feel myself becoming small
Amongst the wonder of it all
Feel myself becoming small
And this is what the mountain said

It's alright
It's OK
If you don't love yourself, I'm gonna love you anyway
It's alright
It's OK

It's alright
It's OK
The things you've done, you can't change them anyway
It's alright
It's OK

And all the things you've done
You can't change them anyway
If you don't love yourself
I'm gonna love you anyway
x4

Works of Art - initial idea

Works of Art - demo

I AM RELEASING ALL THE TRACKS FROM MY ALBUM ‘HERE COMES THE HORIZON’ IN ORDER EACH WEEK AND DESCRIBING HOW THE SONGS WERE WRITTEN AND PRODUCED. I WILL RELEASE THE ALBUM FOLLOWING THIS.

WEEK2/TRACK2 – WHTYHTM

This song was the first that I wrote after starting to write music again in January 2024. Writing a complete song and sharing it with friends was a big step in convincing myself that I could do this.

WHTMHTY means What Happens to You Happens to Me, and is a call to remember that when times are tough, you’re in it together, even when you might experience and process trauma differently. “Take my hand across the sea, what happens to you happens to me”. 

Musically, I wrote the chords on bass originally as an instrumental. I really like that version, it’s very sparse and sounds a lot like Slowdive or Mogwai. I added the vocals the following week, which was a big step as I’d never sung a vocal before. Both of these demo versions are available as part of this release.

About six months later I came back to the track to develop it musically. I experimented with transposing the bass chords to piano, which changed the character of the song completely. It became a sound rather than just a soundscape. I built on that adding the layers of guitars which build to the big crescendo in the outro.

For the outro, the chord sequence uses the same chords as the main verse but in a different order. I started cutting up the piano parts and bassline and pasted them together in this new sequence, which created the backdrop for the outro. I then layered over my first ever guitar solo which came out alright I reckon given my pretty rudimentary guitar skills.

Anyway I hope you like the track, please let me know what you think in the comments.

Lyrics:

She’s always looking up
She feels the weight on her
She can barely breathe
She can’t even leave
Her mind is filling up
With plans she can’t control
She can barely see
She can’t ever just be

So take my hand across the sea
What happens to you happens to me

He’s always moving on
He needs to let it be
It’s staying all inside
He’s saying everything is fine
He doesn’t want to talk
He doesn’t want to think
He can barely breathe
He can’t even leave

So take my hand across the sea
What happens to you happens to me
So take my hand, it’s all we can do
What happens to me happens to you

Next week: 95

WHTYHTM Demo (instrumental)

WHTYHTM Demo

Two of Me (or Maybe Three)

Its all for you

I AM RELEASING ALL THE TRACKS FROM MY ALBUM ‘HERE COMES THE HORIZON’ IN ORDER EACH WEEK AND DESCRIBING HOW THE SONGS WERE WRITTEN AND PRODUCED. I WILL RELEASE THE ALBUM FOLLOWING THIS.
WEEK3/TRACK 3 – 95
This song is a collaboration with my good friend Danny Millum (Bunker One). You can find his profile: https://soundcloud.com/user-267620146. Please check it out – some very cool stuff although quite different to my style – kind of a folk/psychedelia crossover. I’ve included his track ‘Psychic Masseur’ as part of this release. 
The song was inspired by nostalgia for the 90s when life seemed a bit simpler! The lyrics are a pretty accurate description of an rave I went to sometime in the mid 90s in a field in Nottinghamshire somewhere. Fun times although seems a long time ago now!
I wrote and recorded the first part of the song, and had a vague idea that I wanted it to go in a different direction after that. I sent the track to Danny who added the outro with the ‘1995’ multitracked vocal which I thought was great. It immediately made me think of the sun coming up at the end of the rave with the brightness and intensity of the vocals.
We developed the idea to add a middle section with the loose concept being the first part representing the journey to the rave, the middle section the rave itself and the final part the sun coming up. The idea for the middle part was to cut up the final vocal and slowly reveal it. It in influenced by Orbital’s Halycon and this amazing track by Tourist: https://soundcloud.com/touristmusic/blink?in=touristmusic/sets/memory-morning. I really love the way Tourist uses cut up vocals which in turn reminds me of Orbital, this is my attempt at doing something similar.

Lyrics:
Cryptic phone call
Point on a map
Driving backroads
Four in the back
The country speeding by
Tunes on, volume high

MDMA and H2O
THC and we're ready to go
I can hear it through the trees
The beat's calling on the breeze

Can you see it?
On the horizon?
Can you feel the warmth rising?
Does your mind
Explode with light?
Yeah this moment feels so right

Eyesight glitching
Red gold and green
Smiling faces
I’ve never seen
My heartbeat pounds in time
I can feel yours next to mine

dawn is coming
we're near the end
friends for life
I'll never seen again
god, I miss it now it's gone
but the feelings still so strong 

Can you see it?
On the horizon?
Can you feel the warmth rising?
Does your mind
Explode with light?
Yeah this moment feels so right

Next week: The Triumphs and the Hurt	



95 (featuring Bunker One)

call me
call me he said
but the silence says
romance is dead

i loved you
you idiot she said
how many years did it take 
to get that into your head?

all the good days
and the bad
all the moments
that we wished we'd neverr had

sometimes, he said,
i'm so happy i could cry
but most of the time
i'm wondering why

we're falling
falling through our time
and remembering 
is how we hold the line

all the good days
and the bad
all the moments
that we wished we'd never had

all the triumphs 
and the hurt
all the ups and downs
what was it worth?

Shoegaze, indie, post rock and electronica from Manchester, UK
tomlenegg@googlemail.com

Tom Leonard

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