About:

We could be rivals. Forever. Patient Pacifist sings 'Divided'. Celebrating our collective drive to trick, blame, maim and destroy. Celebrating the divine division that holds us forever fighting ourselves, fellow humans and all that is contained within our biosphere. Celebrating the adversarial pact binding enemies in perpetual conflict through eons. Don't ever let me down.

The tune for Divided came to me while jamming with myself amongst sheepskins in my tent in lovely Buddhafield July 2017. Lots of words came and went since – many a gobbledegook session. At some points the song seemed like it would be an anthem for positivity and the power (for good) of the collective. But darkness crept in, joining the loitering pain/anger around a recent (enough) breakup. A few weeks later I stayed with some dear friends for a week, joining them for their debauched Game of Thrones catchup binge. Towards the end of my stay I couldn't watch any more as my stomach turned even at just hearing the soundtrack – the violence was horrific, gratuitous and sickening. That sealed it and Divided turned into a celebration of revenge and aggression. Not uncommon themes for Patient Pacifist compositions, I hasten to add! ;-)

I asked myself "why am I not recording this?" I put a question out on Facebook to see if there were any engineers working with Logic Pro X (so I could learn a bit too) near Brighton. Of course there were! I spent a few hours with Charlie Roscoe (@charlieroscoecomposition) putting down the initial composition so I could hear it. I was getting excited. I then spent a day with Tuval Schneerson (@tuvalschneerson), I wrote another verse, we got quite a lot of layers down and my harmonies. I started thinking about the feel I wanted. California Dreamin' (The Mamas & the Papas) kept on coming back to me, and so did Creep (Radiohead), All Along The Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix) and some tortuous classical piece that I don't know the name of. After the words were written David Bowie popped in and kept on singing "we could be heroes" and I laughed. I was singing "we could be rivals". He sang "just for one day" and I sang "forever"! So, an anti heroes song maybe? Again, not an uncommon theme. ;-)

After recording with Tuval I flew to Amsterdam to speak at a conference. Tuval sent me new mixes as he added layers. I sent back feedback. Then I flew to Barcelona for the kickoff meeting of a new project. I walked the streets and jumped on trams and buses, listening to new mixes, calling and texting Tuval whilst avoiding riots. I had to stop myself walking in front of moving traffic. The song made (and makes) me feel so powerful – as in "don't mess with me". But luckily I stopped short of playing chicken with speeding vehicles. ;-) There are far better things to do in Barcelona. ;-) Ironically the city was having its own push for division. But I found a lovely bunch of singy, huggy, eye gazing hippies to hangout with and caught up with some old friends. Got some good song feedback too. I do love BCN! Enjoy!...