Lyric Graveyard

What I do with my unused lyrics, poetry & music recommendations

Surrounded by an established floordrobe and a global pandemic, I spent the best part of 2020 and 2021 sat in my attic bedroom in Leeds, ignoring zoom lectures and trying to write songs. Somebody once told me that the trick to composing good lyrics was to just write everything down and look for the significance in it later.

So, I abandoned my attempts at composing perfect verses and began jotting down every insignificant and dramatic observation I made into the Notes app on my phone. It should be noted that I spent most of my childhood gazing out of train windows, scrolling Tumblr, and walking to the corner shop pretending I was in a BBC drama, so I had no trouble seeing the world through this dramatic lens.

Approaching a blank page always felt like an insurmountable task but these messy ramblings removed all the pressure of writing and quickly just became a place to keep my thoughts. They comprised of shopping lists and half written poems, funny signs in the corner shops and theories of human behaviour. I wrote them in lectures, at the bus stop, and in the supermarket. They are a naked record of me documenting and questioning everything I saw and felt during that year; the mundane, the emotional & the abstract.

I would select fitting lyrics and subjects to base my songs around, which eventually became my Still Life EP, and everything else was left to collect dust in what I came to call my ‘Lyric Graveyard’. These fragmented and disorganised notes accidentally become somewhat of a non-committal diary.

I had never really shown them to anyone as, unlike the EP, they were unrefined and unpractised, but I came to realise that they were an inextricable part of the music. This is where all my songs come from and where all my thoughts end up. So I made the decision to compile them into a book of poems that I could sell alongside my CDs. Some of the poems were edited from long, single-text ramblings whilst others are jigsaws of lyrical fragments, stored, saved, and pieced together.

Although it began as a side project to give some context to my songwriting (and raise some extra funds in lieu of a vinyl pressing), putting these poems together gave me the sense of clarity that comes from reading an old journal. Ironically, it has become the thing that I am most proud of. If you want to read more, the book comprises 25 poems and is available to buy from Bandcamp here. And today is Bandcamp Friday so (for one day only) all revenue goes directly to me!

Always keen for more poetry recommendations and to hear your thoughts on mine. Have a great week!

The cover that I made on Microsoft Powerpoint

Meet you on the stage

11th October - Manchester @ The Basement (supporting Rachel Lavelle)

29th October - Sheffield @ The Dorothy Pax

11th November - Leeds @ Brudenell Social Club*

12th November - London @ Servant Jazz Quarters*

*Full Band Show

Meet you in the bookshop

Feat. delicious poetry books

Hairan - Edited by Ali Sobati & Daoud Sarhandi-Williams

Described as ‘Poems of Hair and Freedom by Iranian Women in Times of Repression and Struggle’, this is a collection of 76 poems by a huge variety of contemporary Iranian writers. It is not easy to find first-hand stories and literature from Iran in English but increasingly important in our globalised world. The writing is varied and beautiful with each poem being accompanied by a ‘hair portrait’ of the author. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a pre-publication copy but you can pre-order now for the 15th October. Be warned: this gave me a very long reading list of new poets to read!

In Public/In Private - Leyla Josephine

I stumbled upon Leyla Josephine at Glastonbury last year and read her book cover to cover in my tent instead of watching Billy Joel (Ok the Billy Joel bit was a bit of an exaggeration but it really is that good!). I had been trying to make it to the poetry tent all weekend and just caught the last set and FINALLY I was rewarded for my poor organisation and timekeeping because her performance was the best live poetry I’ve ever seen. Check it out. Lots of pride, humour, tenderness and sex. She is one of my all time favourites.

Field Notes - Anna Selby

These poems were literally written under the sea. Another Devon-dwelling poet, Anna composes poems on a waterproof notebook whilst swimming of the South coast so they feature truly unique imagery of ocean creatures that I didn’t even know existed. This book is so good it keeps selling out (lol) so get it while you can! Sorry if this blog is turning out to be an expensive read…

Meet you on the radio

Some things I have been listening to as Autumn comes to call.

• Another World - Libby Rodenbough

• Silent Earth - Josephine Illingworth

• Kek Alghalm - Tinariwen

Listen to my weekly playlist here!

---

Please consider supporting my music as a one-off PAYF donation. All funds go towards recording and releasing more melancholy music for you to weep to.