The Bridge To The Fire
Long before I had felt the warm sand under my feet I called to the fire, before the deep forest sleep and the soothing turquoise waters I had , quite unwittingly, set a prophetic intention and found myself at a bridge.
I could never have known that I would pause for so long in that place. After all, discovering the first inklings of a song is a magical and mysterious moment to find yourself in. A tiny moment glistens out of the silence, beckoning you to listen further and discover something. The opening lines of 'Get Your Fire' and its groove had appeared so quickly, as if it had always been there. As if I had just happened to walk straight into it, and there it was...
"Go get your fire and find your way back home
Cos the width of a river is the length of a bridge I'm told
Go find your mind and take what you find to be free
Cos the weight of our worries is finding the time to see"
At the end of recording an album I always seem to have one song left over. A song that didn't quite get finished in time. A song that carries a light to the next album and sparks the next group of songs, a kind of bridge.
'Get your Fire' is that bridge song between 'Hold On To The Rhythm' and 'Fell For The World' although I began to write it before either of these albums existed. Looking back, It reminds me to be patient and listen, but in the first moments of being it cast a powerful portant. A moment of pure intention that called out to me to fulfil its opening lines in order to discover the rest of the song.
Writing songs can be a quick process for some and there have been rare occasions when songs appear almost fully written; but for me, writing music is often a dive into the deep unknown. My intentions are usually set firmly to explore, to find something 'other than', something else.
'Get your Fire' called out with such a strong voice that it struck me silent, I was captivated by it and I had no idea what to write next. Years later I realised that it was the course of my own life that was to feed the direction of the song. The opening line called out "Go get your fire and find your way back home". It was an instruction to myself. This song was not to be written by pondering on my own in a tumbled down old farm house in the middle of Wales. It was to be discovered by moving, changing and growing. Loving and celebrating life.
The cover picture was taken on a beach somewhere in North Queensland Australia in 2002, months into the first of many adventures that would come to inform the rest of the song. Having started as a call to myself 'Get Your Fire' grew under the stars. It soaked up the sunshine and friendships, the fiery sunsets and deep forest bird echoes, the cool waters and lazy hammocks, the heat, the dance and the love. Until finally, one morning, eight years later on a small island in Indonesia, I finished the last few words. It had become a song about being brave, setting intention, following your intuition and sharing your bliss with the world. A feel good celebration of what it is to feel good.
It's no coincidence that it is this point in time that I finally release this song into the world. Twenty two years after writing those opening lines I find myself standing at a bridge once more. I have promised myself to listen, for I have no doubt that there are great adventures ahead...