Sleeping On A Wish – Song and a Chat

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Episode #201: Sleeping On A Wish (Song starts at 4:08)

I’m in a fairly relaxed state of mind. I’ve been holidaying, camping beside a stream In Bright, Vic, Australia.

The sound of the stream is what I’ve brought back with me, it just sort of permeates the whole being, the sounds of the stream and birds.

So when I came into my studio, I thought to myself I’m not going to do a rock n roll song…I’m in a cruisey mood.

‘Sleeping On A Wish’ came from a phrase my daughter said to me when she was very, very young. It’s a nice time, having a wee conversation with your child just before you put the light out. Sometimes there’s a very honest lovely unexpected conversation. It’s from the heart – it’s beautiful.

“Sleeping on a wish” ….I said to my daughter “I think I’m going to write a song with that”…she said “You do that, Dad”.

So I did.

All you need is a start. A start comes from feeling, that’s what I make sure of. It’s art. It’s got to come from the true part of the self.

I went to my studio and wrote the words. Then came the music, the whole song flowed. Each section followed easily, naturally. Like a Goodnight story.

I really enjoyed recording the demo for this song, as part of this episode. ‘Sleeping On A Wish’ is song # 604, written in 2014. Here we are in 2024 and it’s seeing the light of day.

It nearly ended up on a children’s album, which I recorded back then and inexplicably never released.

Hmmm maybe it’s nearly time to revisit those songs and put them out there. I believe I will enjoy recording this song properly one day.

Who knows, maybe the demo I just recorded will will become the starting point. The great thing about digital recording is: the demo can become the real thing.

This has been an extremely relaxed episode for me to record once again – I even recite the lyrics as poetry.

Why not, I like to have fun and play as I wing these spoken word half hour episodes. I’m very comfortable sitting at my piano as I chat, there is no script.

I’ve discovered by accident, really: since I’m exploring a creative exercise, it’s made sense to have fun and just play as I go.

I’ve included a recording of the birds and stream from my holiday, here. It made sense, as this is what got me in the mood to look at ‘Sleeping On A Wish’.

I hope you enjoy this episode, as I talk about how this song came into being, demonstrating on the piano as I go along.

Here we go, rolling !