Fall Asleep – Song and a Chat

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Episode #8: Fall Asleep – (Song at 5:52)

Continuing on with another song this week. I explore the songwriting, using pretty much ‘layman’ inclusive language. So non-musicians, non-songwriters that know nothing about the theory of music can enjoy hearing how the song came together.

A song is like an emotional book marker in time. When I listen to an old demo like this, it takes me right back to when the song was composed, which was in 1988 (!)

This ‘Fall Asleep’ demo was recorded in 2004. It’s what I came to Melbourne for, from New Zealand, so it was very exciting to get some basic recording software, courtesy of Anthony Reed – he plays guitar on this track – and we still record and perform together today in the (previously mentioned) band, Pascoe.

The amazing Mr Earl Pollard (sadly no longer with us) is on the drums – we recorded these in his garage, this take is the first time he’d heard the song. I’ve been lucky to have these marvellous musicians coming into my life… and my wife, Marie, is on backing vocals – and Tamborine, I see, too.

I wrote the song years ago, I was on a 2 month job, it was a gig on an NZ mountain, playing music in a restaurant during a skiing season. I got to ski all day and sing all night. Perfect. Plus if it rained I’d go trout fishing of write songs or draw cartoons. Pretty much sublime.

Except I broke my right thumb on the afternoon of the first gig. Youch! This made for an interesting performance on the keys that night, I can tell you (you can hear more about it on this episode).

In ‘Fall Asleep’, there’s a sense of loneliness and loving for what – and whom – I’m missing, but there is also a peacefulness, plus an ‘other worldly’ sort of outro that lifts the whole thing into something else.