Track By Tracks: And Now The Owls Are Smiling - Epitaph (2022)

With regards to specific lyrics for songs, I don't really write lyrics for a particular track (other than with Winter's Elegy parts 1 & 2). I tend to write a short story, or at least a few paragraphs of a tale, and then chop that into lines that fit along with the music. Epitaph, it's a tale of self-loathing and accepting that things will never change and coming to terms with that. If I were to disclose the lyrics, it wouldn't really be linear as I first and foremost like the words to fit a rhythm. So lines would be half a sentence, then continue on at a later point, if that makes sense. But I can give a brief breakdown of the song themes, at least how they turned out...

1. Every Day Another Piece Of Me Is Removed:

An ode to self-hatred and an almost psychedelic stream of bits of me drifting off into a black cloud in the sky.

2. Monochrome Visions Of What Life Used To Be:

This deals with looking back at different times in my life when I had the false feeling of being happy. Everything ends and nothing and no one is what they seem. Black, white and grey memories of a past long gone.

3. In Darkness, Light Candles So The Demons Can Find Me:

Similar in theme to track 2, but a further progression. The clean singing in this track is meant to signify a kind of incantation.

4. Winter's ELegy Part II:

This is a continuation from Part I which appeared on a previous album and is probably the only song I wrote lyrics for specifically. It's a folk song, similar to the tragic ballads that have been sung as warnings throughout the centuries. Its message in plain sight is protecting from harsh winters and everything will be fine with the return of the sun. In a more subtextual way, think of the children and homes as a fragile minds and the winter as negative influences.

5. The Miserable Grip Of Comfort:

A track dealing with how thinking everything is going well leads you to let your guard down. Sometimes the worst thing for an unstable mind is to let it fool itself that it is content. It stops you from being sharp and aware. You become vulnerable. And when it goes wrong, you are so much lower than you have been.

6. There Is No Laughter Here:

The end of the journey. A final acceptance that things are never going to be ok. Almost a point where you'd sit down and give up and await death.

7. L' Appel Du Vide:

I always like to finish albums off with a contemplative instrumental piece and that's exactly what this is. Translating as 'The Call Of The Void'.