I rarely start an album with a theme. Even on my previous album 'Roger White', where the concept was pretty central, I wasn't sure what I was going to find until I started writing through it.

The first song I wrote for The Altered Records was 'Bedouin' — about misinformation, fear, and false narrative. As other songs developed, I found myself less interested in misinformation imposed from outside, and more in the private version of it — the stories people construct around grief, loneliness, lost time, and the fear of being forgotten. A father imagining a place beyond this life where he can still meet his children. Someone tending an imagined memory of a loved one because the real one is too hard to hold. The performance of a life on social media, and the person on the outside looking in, feeling the loss of it.

All of the songs live in that space — between the story someone needs and the truth it quietly revises. The altered records we leave behind, and the ones left behind for us.

Drums by Vince Power, recorded at Clay Castle Studios by John Burke. Strings arranged and recorded by Michael Chang.

This song started with a dream—a coming together. When all was said and done, it felt inevitable that it should end with a falling apart. I initially set out with something more ambitious in scope, but ended up with something much more pared down. Best listened to through headphones in a dark aquarium. Beautiful string arrangement by Michael Chang again on this one. Stick it out to the 3 minute mark or you might miss it.

If all your zen ideals tend to get muddled in a wash of cynicism and doubt, this one might speak to you 🙂

Here's a video from my recent track, Spoken, Not Meant filmed on a cold winter evening in Bandon, West Cork.

I wrote the bones of this song about 5 years ago and abandoned it. I came back to it last year, and wasn't quite sure why I almost let it slip away as some songs do. It features the excellent drumming of Vince Power and string playing of Michael Chang.