RELEASE DATE
03-Dec-2009
TRACK LISTING
-
The Pain Already Dealt
-
When You Call Me (Mature Tree Version)
-
Breathe
-
Given Time, Given Love, Given Hell
-
More In Your Doubt
-
Stumble
-
Mate Where Do You Get Off? (Part 1)
-
World of Blue
-
Run Like It’s Over
-
Things Always Work Out for the Worst
-
What Is Sleep But the Feet’s Surrender?
-
Throw It to the Sky
-
When You Call Me (Seedling Version)
ALBUM STORY
Despite being recorded in Melbourne, Journeyism tracks back to a balcony in India, where it began to take shape via a songwriter wrestling an acute case of writer’s block. (Story divulged in Man Dog Bike).
All songs recorded, engineered, produced and mixed, during the Australian winter of 2009, by the greatly capable hands and ears of Warwick Thomas – a producer who understands not only music, but the science of sound from the point of silence up – @ Sound Concepts Studio, Parkdale, Victoria Australia, except When You Call Me (Seedling Version) recorded – by dictaphone – live at conception on the ashram balcony, Rishikesh India. (Also divulged in Man Dog Bike).
All vocals, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, slide guitars, bass guitars, piano, mandolin, e-bow, djembe, egg shaker, tambourine, attempts at whistling, güiro, drums, stomp box and brush snare by David Kerrigan, except drums on The Pain Already Dealt, When You Call me, Given Time Given Love Given Hell, More In Your Doubt, Mate Where Do You Get Off and Run Like It’s Over by Josh Poole, additional backing vocals on When You Call Me, Breathe and Given Time Given Love Given Hell by Warwick Thomas, and additional backing vocals on Throw It To The Sky performed, without reservation, by The Sky Choir (Andrew McUtchen, Warwick Thomas, DK and Nelly).
LYRICS
THE PAIN ALREADY DEALT
We talk in dizzying circles
Of ways that the colours lack
While all along we fail to see
The bricks of grey we stack
It’s only when the rain falls
That we praise the times of dry
And when our skies have fallen
How we’d soar if we could only get that high
Chorus –
I’m tired of struggling, standing, walking
Running, screaming, sleeping, talking
Breathing, screeching, laying, bleeding
Pouting, preening and being seen at all
I’m tired of struggling to stand
While I lay me down to sleep
I’m sick of wishing to do away
With the things I want to keep
I could talk of the ills of convention
Of the lacking roots of the free
But the more I poison you
The more I poison me
Chorus –
I’m tired of struggling, standing, walking
Running, screaming, sleeping, talking
Breathing, screeching, laying, bleeding
Pouting, preening, teaching, seething
I’m done with climbing, falling, faking
Giving, taking and being seen at all
It’s as cold in the pot that boils
As it’s tepid in the wind that chills
It’s only fences built by self
That keep the runner still
I could paint the past a tint of gold
When the future seems of no wealth
While all along I wholly block
The pain already dealt
WHEN YOU CALL ME
This is it I swear
No longer will I scale endless stairs
In the hope that I might reach some higher grace
And fly away
So why are we so tense?
When at least we’re catching every second breath
Let us stop this dance of restlessness
We’re blood red
Chorus –
And when you call me (When you call me)
Hear the story (Hear the story)
Don’t implore me (Or ignore me)
When you call me
Struggle to connect
No longer will I hunt around in bed
But she only listens when I’m talking head
She’s heaven sent
You only love or hate
You never like or merely tolerate
And when you’re coughing up words of expensive taste
My heart eats away
Chorus reprise –
Relax now
Your panicked paces
Relax now
There’s no sense
On panicked faces
Relax now Panic stations
This is it I swear
No longer will I scale endless stairs
In the hope that I might reach some higher grace
And fly away
BREATHE
As soon as I stopped searching
I was hit by the wave
An endless river flows
From my head to my heart
Keep out of its way
As soon as I stopped burning
I warmed to the flame
Now you run run run
To get to that place
Where nothing never hurts
Chorus –
Breathe out
Breathe true
Free from the drag
That tows you
As soon as I stopped wishing
Then everything came
There’s a rise within my veins
It drags you along
In lust and in chains
As soon as you stopped dancing
Your feet lead the way
Move along long long
To get to that place
Where nothing never hurts
Chorus reprise –
Well come on now
Just run with it
Spiritful
Spiritless
Where are you?
When you say
That nothing never hurts
As soon as I stopped searching
I was hit by the wave
An endless river flows
From my head to my heart
Keep out of its way
GIVEN TIME, GIVEN LOVE, GIVEN HELL
From the moment that our eyes that they met
I could gather of the spark that was set
In the fires of our bed we would burn
Throwing clothes throwing flames as we turned
But the little that I knew I knew it well
That given time, given love, given hell
I could hear, I could taste, I could smell
And in the pages of our story I could tell
That in the waves of our lust we would teach
As on the shores of our doubt we would beach
Are we here? Are we found? Are we lost?
Count the pain, count the doubt, count the cost
Chorus –
And if your reasons make sense to only those who bend (And if your seasons)
And if your seasons just turn and turn and turn again
Nothing gained, nothing lost, nothing learned
Nothing straight never really ever turned
Pull it back, build it up, knock it down
Up to your neck in the rubble you’ll be found
Still I’d swear it on the sky if I could
And I’d burn it in my skin if you would
Chorus reprise –
From the moment that our eyes that they met
I could gather of the spark that was set
In the fires of our bed we would burn
Throwing clothes throwing flames as we turned
But the little that I knew I knew it well
That given time, given love, given hell
MORE IN YOUR DOUBT
And of our theatre
The one we play to in the round
The one where all are watching
To whom we take our bow
Of this I notice
As the love dims from her eyes
That the curtain’s closing, closing
Chorus –
And I can hear, I can see
That baby you’re more in your doubt
And of our theme park
The one we spin like drunken clowns
The one we twirl like opera
Around and round and round
Of this I’m certain
As she moans long through the night
The more she strives to come
The less she will arrive
Chorus –
For can’t you hear? Can’t you see?
That baby you’re more in your doubt
Than into me
When you lie awake at night
With the ceiling as your sky
Do you strive for flight?
In a firmament of desire
And of our theatre
The one that fell right to the ground
The one where no one’s watching
And still we take our bow
Of this I’m certain
She knows no life from stage it seems
She’s more the doll of drama
Than she’ll ever be of queen
Chorus –
Still I can hear, and I can see
That baby you’re more in your doubt
Than into me
STUMBLE
You might think you know me
And you might think I’m slow
But you ain’t got the first sight
Of seeingness I know
And I might think you’re blue
When you’re running red within
Still needless to say
I’ll be on fire
Chorus –
When you walk
You stumble and fall
No matter how hard you
Keep it hushed
I’ll hear you as you go
You might think your secret’s safe
But you store them in your eyes
They’re like corridors that lead the way
To the vaults in which you hide
You’re a spectrum of emotion
And you’re spinning around the room
But needless to say
I’ll be on fire
Chorus reprise –
When you walk you, stumble and
When you talk you, rumble and
As you leave it’s
Not without a host of bullets raining down
And curse that should either build a case
In customary bricks of blame
The temple will fall
And so we walk away
And so we run away
And so we break away
MATE WHERE DO YOU GET OFF? (PART 1)
When you threw your blood to the sky
Did you stop to wonder why?
When you stepped aboard that train
Did you hear your daughter’s name?
When you flicked the switch of fate
Did your see your mother’s face?
When you threw it to the sky
Did you stop, stop to wonder why?
Father now a mother’s world is in half
She’s like the walk without the staff
Now she leans towards the wind
Just trying to feel him
And if I stop to wonder still
Of the drive of good and ill
Which is either but hunger and thirst?
Which comes last and which comes first?
Which comes first?
Bang a billion pieces fly
A million reasons where and why
The fire further inflamed
The hatred deeper engaged
And who are you to cancel me?
I’m no chessboard pawn born to smash clean
For if you knock my castle mate
On your soul will haunt my name
Will haunt my name
Mate where do you get off?
WORLD OF BLUE
And when you find the one the only
As if just one star has taken you
And when you douse your fires of lonely
Breathing your world, your world of blue
Turned by the spell that spins around you
The mystique, the smoke, the warmth of truth
Loosing your world, your world of blue
Chorus –
Fire away/Fall away
And when the night explodes in brightness
And when your thirst is slaked in truth
And when your chest is free of tightness
Breathing your world, your world of blue
Absolved by the stream that meets the moon
The starlight, the silver, the bright, the full
Loosing your world, your world of blue
Chorus reprise –
And when your tired eyes are talking
And when your red wine is blue
And when your sad song is walking
Loosing your world, your world of blue
RUN LIKE IT'S OVER
There’s that line that you’ve been sold before
“It’s not me it’s just the knock at my door”
But I swear if things could be different
For you I’d lay my sword
We were the fire doomed to meet with the wet
The butterfly headed straight for the net
The open road killed by the city
As every which path must end
Please spare me of your poetry
Even more your words of what could be
For why do we walk?
When we can run?
Chorus –
Why should I wait for you?
Why would you want me to?
Why are we walking?
When we can run?
Run like it’s over
Still the quick are never slow to dance
The blind to sight the red romance
The deaf still they can listen
No dent in the truth can last
Watching as our wings fold in
I guess in broken romance is romance
Like the pain fretting for the pill
Befallen immune and still
Behind the canvas of closing eyes
Befits the house where the battered hide
But why do we walk?
When we can run?
Chorus reprise –
Let ‘em run, let ‘em burn
Let ‘em through their own fires learn
That you’re neither the spark
Nor you’re the flame
Nor the keeper of some cage
Still if you break away from me
Then baby maybe then you’ll see
Coz when you turn
I’ll run like it’s over
You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone
THINGS ALWAYS WORK OUT FOR THE WORST
When you’re tired and you feel alone
And the candle is burnt to the bone
When there’s no more to spend
Just know in the end
That things always work out for the worst
When you’re dry and you wanna sweat
And you remember what you wish you’d forget
Hear me again
Just know in the end
That things always work out for the worst
Well come on now
We’re all just too serious
Well come on now
I don’t talk the flesh
When I wanna just scream the bones
When you’re polished to the point of loosing your shine
You’re mundane where you should be divine
When there’s no more to lend
Just know in the end
That things always work out for the worst
When you rattle with emptiness
And you force where you used to finesse
Straighten this bend
Or know in the end
That things always work out for the worst
WHAT IS SLEEP BUT THE FEET'S SURRENDER?
Rolling in like a tired wheel
Looking to slow down
Fading in like a silhouette
From the darker side of town
Coming in like a hurricane
Running rather late
Call it love but in my veins
It feels a lot like hate
Rolling in like a tumbleweed in the wind
Bounce across the desert then just start again
Burning down like a cigarette in the dark
Crackling a melody from end to start
Chorus –
What is dark but the lack of light?
What is blue in your reddened eyes?
What are words without their ink and voice?
What are greets without goodbyes?
What is time but the tick and tock?
Again and again and again?
What is sleep but the feet’s surrender?
Lazing about like a Labrador
Full in love with the fire
Watching all you folk I adore
Acting rather wired
Rumbling like a thunder in the wind
Sheets are blowing thrashing I should bring ‘em in
Belting down like a sky that warned you so
Lighting up the night for free don’t miss the show
Chorus –
What is hate but a twisted love?
What is law but your say-so?
What is life but a long laid walk
Between the sky and the ground you know?
What is tired but a battlefield
When your eyelids are looking for war?
What is sleep but the feet’s surrender?
THROW IT TO THE SKY
Fly paper plane
From the hands you were made
Dip and dive you're moving
Fly paper plane
Into wide-open skies
Morn noon or night
I'd never get far without you
Wide-open sky
Long rolling road
Don't care where we go
Just throw it to the sky
Star-spangled nights (star-spangled nights)
The hosts to our plight (hosts to our plight)
A million stars they love you (a million stars they love you)
While a million more they fight (and fuss tonight)
Fall shooting star
For the brief streak we are
Let's throw it to the sky
Full silver moon (full silver moon)
Bound by no more (bound by no more)
Than the depth that we're breathing (breathe in, breathe out)
Long rolling road (long rolling road)
Onwards we roll (onwards we roll)
Wheels turn we're moving (just as long as we are moving)
Long rolling road (long road)
Fly paper plane (fly paper plane)
From the hands you were made (from the hands you were made)
Don't care where or why (I don't care where or why)
Just throw it to the sky (wide sky)
Red burning sun (red burning sun)
Old steady one (ye old steady one)
Look away to save your eyes (look away to save your eyes)
And throw it to the sky (wide sky)
JOURNEYISM network
Warwick Thomas @ Sound Concepts Studio (Ph: +613 9587 4133)
Josh Poole (session drummer)
Glen Crawforth @ Epic Brand (sleeve design)
Jarrod Barnes @ Jarrod Barnes Photography
John Ruberto @ Crystal Mastering
Shiran De Soysa @ Implant Media (CD/DVD - Replication and Duplication)
Petra and Walter Brunner @ The Mountain Hostel (Gimmelwald Switzerland)