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The opener on ‘We Are Not Where You Are’ began as a fairly straightforward song in a very standard structure and ended up as a meta statement on its own subject matter. I’d written some mildly intriguing words around the Zen concept of the ‘beginner’s mind’ and a not very original descending chord sequence to set them to, included a predictable chorus and a nice but inconsequential bridge and there was a song there. I was playing it in an altered, dropped tuning on the acoustic guitar and when I overdubbed some electric guitar I continued recording and playing at the end of the song, just enjoying the texture of the electric guitar and repeating three related chords, thinking in the back of my mind that it’d be faded out long before any of that which meant I wasn’t worrying at all about how ragged or scrambled the playing might be at this point. In returning to the track a few times trying to mix it and fiddle with the arrangement I had fun overdubbing and singing on the outro / jam out and once there were more elements there I realised I was far more engaged with this unplanned jam out than I was with the preceding song. In keeping with the Zen ethos behind the genesis of the song I tried to keep my mind open to the possibilities as well as unsentimental and trusting about my gut reactions and it seemed increasingly obvious that what needed to happen was to cut the outro free of the initial song. I did think this would be great because I ‘d have two songs but it rapidly became clear the only reason I’d been listening to the first half – the ‘song’ section – was to get to the interesting bit which was originally the ‘outro.’ Once I started adding the kitchenware percussion it really seemed to come alive and the song it grew out from withered in my imagination. ‘Beginner’ had always seemed like a natural title for it which seemed to make it a natural introduction for the album and contained a nice concealed irony in its origins as the complete opposite within the structure of the song.

lyrics

Nonsense songs
At the top of your lungs

Fine imaginary times
Find imaginary times

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from We Are Not Where You Are, released June 2, 2023

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Jamie Flett Glasgow

Music maker from Aberdeen in the North East of Scotland, now living in Glasgow.
Since my first collection of skewed, folkish blues songs: ‘Cold But Bright’ I’ve tried to resist the artificial limitations of defining myself as a ‘singer-songwriter’ (admittedly, while writing and singing songs.) This has resulted in attempts to investigate some remoter sonic territories.. As well as more songs. ... more

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