So initially I'd come up with this piece of music that did something for me (really wish I'd used some kind of noisegate on the buzzy-as guitar though).

I'd read somewhere that fact that a person whose parents die is called an orphan, a person whose spouse dies is called a widow/er but there's no term for someone who loses a child.  That really hit me, having had one or two friends who had been through that horrible experience.

For some reason I got it into my head that I should be the one to write a song about this, and even asked a friend to contribute some lyrics.  In hindsight it was really tone deaf to try and get someone to express their very personal and painful story just so I could write a song, so I shelved it for a while.

A while later I decided to repurpose it in the context of being a parent myself.  While I kept the chorus lyric idea, I ended up re-writing everything else going with the old adage of 'write what you know' rather than trying to act like I know what someone else has been through.

Limehouse - Black & White Hangover

Heart Of My Heart

The working title for this song was "Eb + all the chords" due to the difference in melodic variety between the verse and chords.

I knew for a long time that this song would be called "Orange Rhyme".  A play on 'orange rind' and the old thing of nothing rhyming with orange.  The latter seemed like a good metaphor for loneliness or sadness, this word cast away with no mate.

Limehouse - Sounds Like Technicolour

Orange Rhyme

I had most of the music for this one sitting around for a year or two (not a long time for me to be honest), largely built on the main/opening riff that I just kept finding myself playing.

One night I was sat out on the deck, it was raining and the city's lights just seemed to be blending into the surrounding darkness.  That mixed with the sound of the rain, it was all pretty peaceful.  The words came pretty quickly after that.

In hindsight I feel as though the vocal should have been softer, to get that 'rainy day' vibe.  But that's how it came out and I decided to roll with it.

Limehouse - Crisp

The Rain

I came up with the music for this while we were in the process of packing up and moving house.  My recording gear was already packed away and stored at my sister's house so I did a quick recording on my phone.

We went into lockdown so it took a while before before I was reunited with my gear but eventually I got a chance to lay the music down.  Nothing was really coming to me lyrically but I had an idea about the vocal melody (a touch of Alain Johannes perhaps).

After Neve was born I was playing a few things for her on guitar and I started playing this and she just started smiling and laughing, so it was decided.

Neve's Song

I'd noticed a lot of indie films had this very specific kind of soundtrack sound.  Perky little tracks with either a ukulele or an acoustic guitar played in that style.  Often with a glockenspiel, maybe a whistle and just very cute.

I wasn't really a fan of the sound but for some reason felt driven to do my own version.  It all came together pretty quickly.  

With the bass, I used to have this thing about bass guitar when I was a teen that I'd be so-so about players working quite high up the neck, like "hey that's the guitar's tonal range, stay in your lane" which is ridiculous because you're limiting yourself to a fraction of what your instrument can do.  Anyway with this song I tried to lean into more of a Paul McCartney bass sound, bouncy and melodic but definitely not pussyfooting around.

When it came to the lyrical content, as soon as I started listening to the music it became clear that this would be a song about my daughter and our relationship.  Most of the lines in this song are things that she has said to me at some point or other, and it was supremely gratifying when I was listening to the first mix of this that she came and listened and afterwards hugged me and said "I really like this song".

The title contains a couple of things that she likes, but I also thought it sounded like an indie-pop kind of song title or band name.  So further leaning.

The Butterfly And The Dinosaur

I wrote the music for this one before I even knew what any of the ukulele chords were.  Kind of a "I don't know ukulele, but I know what I like" sort of thing.

When it came to words, I'd mulling on the music every so often over the space of 3 years or so when one day the opening lines popped into my head and it went from there.

I loved that when I was listening to the mix of this in my wife's presence (she also features vocally for one word) she made a comment about the opening line and the song immediately sought to rebut her.

There are no original sentiments expressed here (thus the title) but that doesn't make it any less honest and true.

Trite And True

So the name of this track came because I was going through tracks on my recording device and I suddenly found this one which I'd apparently come up with and recorded a rough version of and then promptly forgot.

It was like a present from myself to myself (it has happened once since then, so my brain must not be what it was) and I picked it up and ran with it.

Limehouse - A Dark in the Light

Surprise

Callous Casual

In the early days of covid, I remember reading about people in Europe in hospitals in isolation with relatives not allowed to come and see them in case of infection.
The idea of dying by yourself locked in a hospital room with your loved ones at best able to observe from a distance really affected me.

I feel as though the lyrical idea and the music arrived round about the same time (unusual for me). For the verse guitar part I decided to make it difficult for myself by alternating the picking pattern back and forth every four notes.

My piano playing is not the best in general (there are one or two clunky bits in the outro) but it did have a serendipitous outcome. The chorus was just meant to finish with a standard D minor chord, but I miss-keyed it coming up with a slightly more interesting chord as a result.   Happy accidents in sad song.

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