TOO FAR
I wrote ‘Too Far’ very quickly and in a very bad state! It comes from where it sounds like it comes from, I think. The first lines are ‘caught up in this house, trapped my very own self in the snare of my mind’ which is exactly the way that I felt. I had to leave my house, there was too much in my head and in my house, and so I walked down the street to the café that I go to a lot, I just started writing. I think I was angry and I was hurt, all these really nasty emotions, that I just had to escape, I needed some air. I think as I was writing it I imagined performing it that way; the verses are the way that I felt, quite claustraphobic, couldn’t find a way out, and then in the choruses is probably what I wanted to let out more, ‘help me, this time I’ve gone too far’. So that was a nice form of release, and it doesn’t really sound like anything I’ve ever done before.
COWBOY STYLE
That I wrote early on in the making of the album and it’s basically about meeting my boyfriend, and the way that when you start a fresh relationship with someone they can bring out so many different emotions in you, and make you question yourself a bit more. When I met my boyfriend he had a very unusual look to say the least, so he made me think of a lot of different things, kind of like the cowboy coming into town, a bit like a monk, a bit like this cyber-creature. So, that’s basically about him coming into my life.
SOME KIND OF BLISS
‘Some Kind Of Bliss’ was written by James Dean Bradfield and myself. He had a couple of pages of lyrics of mine and he took half of the song from one set and the other half from another set and put them together, which I found interesting because it’s something that I wouldn’t have done. In my mind they were two separate things, but they actually do work together. To me, it’s about being able to not necessarily shut your eyes and feel that someone’s there, but the way that if you’re close to someone whether it’s your lover or your best friend or your family or whoever, the ability to feel like they’re with you when they’re actually millions of miles away. It’s very reassuring and it happened to me at one point and I found myself smiling to myself, one of those very cheesy things that I could see in a movie and think ‘oh God, please, stop it’ but those things happen and they’re reassuring.
DID IT AGAIN
‘Did It Again’ is basically, I’m telling myself off in this song. Whereas some of the songs are from my heart or my gut or from my head, this one I really feel like it’s a little voice on my shoulder, and even when I recorded the song I think I was snarling at myself, just thinking ‘you fool! You just had to go and you’ve done it again!’ I think a lot of people you say it to yourself time and time again, ‘you did it again, why haven’t you learnt yet to not do the things you do!’ The few people I’ve spoken to about that song understood it as me talking to myself which I was glad about because I thought it might sound like I’m telling someone else off, but actually I’m telling myself off.
BREATHE
‘Breathe’? I wrote ‘Breathe’ in Japan. I think at that time I felt very still, and restrained and quiet, but actually there’s a lot going on and that’s typical of me. A lot of people if they’re upset or angry or any of those things, will bring it out, but me I keep it quiet. My girlfriend says to me ‘you don’t realise how loud you are when you’re silent, the thunderclouds can just roll over’. I think it was a point like that where I keep saying ‘I’m thinking, thinking about it all’ and that’s just typical. ‘What’s wrong?’ I’m thinking, I’m deciding what’s wrong because I’m not clear about it in my head. And so by saying ‘breath, it won’t be long now’, just trying to stay calm until I reason what’s going on in my head
SAY HEY
‘Say Hey’ is a late night or early morning track. I was in the bath and was thinking about calling my boyfriend, not necessarily to speak with him, but just to leave a message, just to feel like I’ve had some contact. Actually I don’t think I wanted to speak to him, but just to feel like there was some communication. It’s slightly dreamy, as I say, late night.
DRUNK
‘Drunk’ has nothing to do with being drunk! But the feeling of almost being angry and having so much feeling for someone, the feeling of not being satisfied until you take all. Don’t just take some of me, there’s so much that’s screaming to come out and be involved with you and to be passionate or be mad or be happy, you know every possible emotion that you could have with someone, that kind of desperate feeling of wanting to explore all that. I’m saying ‘I’m not happy drunk till I’m drunken, till you take all of me’.
I DON’T NEED ANYONE
‘Don’t Need Anyone’, that’s another song written with James Dean Bradfield. That one I find a bit more difficult to explain. Mainly that makes me think of driving in a car with the top down, which has nothing to do with the lyrics! Maybe that song, that’s what it is to me because again James had taken different lyrics that I’d written and pieced them together with other ones, that it isn’t a story in its entirety to me or it’s not based on one emotion like a lot of the other songs are. It’s a break, it is driving with the top down, because it’s not something that I was compelled to put every word down. I like the sentiment anyway, I don’t need anyone except for someone that I’ve not found, it’s knowing that there’s someone there but at the same time you can do perfectly well on your own. Which is something I truly believe in and with relationships it’s wonderful to be with someone, but you don’t need to be with someone. People are there at different times in your life when you both need each other.
JUMP
‘Jump’ I wrote with Rob Dougan, and… I think I’m just trying to, I’m saying whatever I feel like, let me be that way. I mean, that’s a personal story, but even in a more general sense, if you’re cranky one day or you’re in a business situation you try not to let these things interfere. Or if you’re overwhelmingly happy, it can apply to all different scenarios. But here I’m just saying if I’m sad if I’m happy if I’m dirty if I’m whatever, just accept me that way. It’s a lesson to myself to try to let myself do that because I’m like the worst one of putting constraints on myself. I know thatsociety does and business does and other people do, but we put it on ourselves too. By saying ‘run to the future and jump’, I say ‘I’m eager and ready it only hurts sometimes’, I feel like I really have a lot of enthusiasm to go forward but it’s like jumping off a cliff, you have to let go, I have to let myself be whoever I feel at that point in time. Because it is scary jumping off a cliff! You might land fantastically and you might never touch the ground, you just don’t know. So aside from saying be whoever I feel, don’t be afraid of the future because it will come anyway.
LIMBO
I wrote ‘Limbo’ in Spain, gosh I’ve almost been round the world already! I wrote that in Spain, but it was actually about a time where I couldn’t see the person I wanted to see because of beurocracy and I basically couldn’t leave the country. And I felt so trapped, I’ve just felt like I was in limbo, there was no other way to describe it. I say ‘I see them all smiling those all around to me, they tend to my wounds’ everyone was saying ‘don’t worry it’ll be okay, just a couple of days’. And I was like, ‘I can’t wait a couple of days! Yes, yes, you’re all being very helpful, but it doesn’t make any difference to me at this point in time, I’m completely trapped!’ Actually I used these lyrics in a different form in another song, which was a very pretty polite song, and so I just didn’t feel they were right that way. When it came time to write ‘Limbo’ I was with Dave Ball and Ingo Bauk and they just had some groove going, that again I’m flipping through the pages of my notes, and the lyrics to this song found their home. We actually used the demo vocals because it was just one of those moments, I was saying ‘are you ready? Are you ready? Quick! I need to record it now!’ So I’m very pleased that that found its place
THROUGH THE YEARS
‘Through The Years’ was another subconscious moment, I wrote everything at the end and asked myself why I’d kinda written that. To me, it’s self-explanatory, it’s about a time with someone and my feelings about it at the moment. It’s, yes it’s slightly bitter, but I don’t think it’s nasty. Like from being heartbroken you go through so many different phases of emotions, and this is a story from years ago that you think has completely been wiped away. But I was speaking with a couple of friends and this ex-boyfriend’s name came up in conversation and a particular story about him that at the time I just brushed away and thought, hmm, oh well. Three days later I find myself churning out lyrics for a reason that wasn’t apparent to me at the time but of course then looking at the lyrics as a whole it made complete sense and I thought oh my god. I found it so interesting that all of this just came out, and the way that I’m singing it I hope people can relate to it anyway, especially the girls.
DREAMS
‘Dreams’ is based on Impossible Princess. They are the dreams of an Impossible Princess, they’re wanting to have everything, wanting to have the impossible but none-the-less wanting it all. Not wanting it to be greedy, but just wanting to experience everything.
