Songs written and recorded in 2022 and 2023

Incumbent (2023)

Calm

Pinch a peck of pizzicato here and there, piano and piccolo... where?

As If By Design

Out there in the garden dark shadows aware
Mourning guild mischief where fate lies left bare
Out there in the garden don’t look away

You could be the prey

Out There In The Garden

Written in late March on a Wednesday, recorded on Thursday, vocal on Friday and a month laboring over string arrangements and mixing. When I was working on the strings, Geographe Bay helped me to focus. In my teens, in Busselton on holidays and discovering contemporary music. Sunsets at the beachside eating fish and chips. Thank you Rob Ellis for the empathetic bass track, and he'll let me know soon if I included the one he liked.

Sunlight (Geographe Bay)

Somewhere supposedly supine, it's supper time. For the first time this millennium, a partial reunion of The Wozzers. Since Wozzer Steve demanded we pay our respects to the most talented members of the band; Wozzer Ron and his leather craft and Wozzer Taps and his key craft, on this occasion we are the Zzers. If the spell check had its way, we'd be woozier.

Hungry

The furry tunes are often more meaningful. Luna left us five years ago today, during Tanabata - the Japanese star festival where lovers - aided by birds and their wings, meet in the sky. It's been half that time without Luke. I like to think that Luna and Luke's spirits are there somewhere. Miss you L's.

2022

Fly Away

It's twelve midday in Greenwich. A mean time indeed. Thanks to Rob Ellis for his pulsing bass playing and backing vocal; keeping the track on the rails.

GMT Distractions

A sea song for the sea season. About wine, whine and waterways. Rob Ellis on bass; he understands how to make things flow. 

Sat inside a bay window 
Waiting for the sun
Well read and wine for company.

The world outside is set aside
A moored boat in the bay
And yet again we seem to be at sea.

Little did we know what happened then
And yet again it is happening.

The rising tide a supine glide 
To strangers on the shore - bilk it Acker
Claret and a clarinet in hand.

The opaque sky like annahide
Enshrouds what’s yet to come
The nightfall is when we turn to sand.

Little did we know what happened then
And yet again it is happening.

We turn away pretend to pray
Unseen behind closed eyes
Afraid that the truth will make us blind.

What Happened Then

Background vocals, guitars and additional keys courtesy of Wilfred Kozub. His creativity takes the song to the next level. Thank you (again) Wilf. 


Help me, escape to where the waters flow
A line below the snow
Guide me, lead me to the place you like to lie
Reveal all there is to know.

Lead me to where those waters flow
Through reeds that make the wind sigh.

The analogy is crystal clear
As I watch from belvedere
They creep and crawl
Through muddied halls
Dare we ask 
Who cast the spell
That drew them to this misty knoll
No shadows left no shadows.

Help me, escape to where the waters flow
Somewhere below the snow line
Guide me to the place you like to lie
Reveal all there is to know
Lead me underneath that waterfall
For it is there that I am prone, to lie.

Incumbent (2023)

Wayne Johnson