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Closer

from Lamplighter by Tommy Ashby

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  • Tommy Ashby - Lamplighter (12" Black Vinyl)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    13 track 12" black vinyl version of Tommy Ashby's debut album 'Lamplighter'.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Lamplighter via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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about

I wrote this song after coming back from a tour in the US. It was weird because although I was in one of the most beautiful places I’d ever seen, driving up Big Sur with big skies and sunsets, I was counting the days to get home. These places have so much more meaning when there is someone you want to share them with. When you are with that person they can make anywhere feel like home.

I wanted to create an intimate atmosphere for this song. In London we lived next to a park and I can remember warm summer nights and the smell of the trees and the earth. That timeless feeling you can get when are with someone and it feels like you are the only two people awake in the world.

Watching the hours disappearing,
Close the window, leave your shoes,
Breathe in the flowers, London’s sleeping,
The night-time is ours, the morning too.

When someone has the ability to find the good in you, even when you struggled to set it yourself.

You’re pulling my guard down,
You’d find the gold in a coal mine.

I haven’t been playing piano very long and it still feeling like a foreign land to me. The references and safety nets I have built up on guitar don’t exist. But that is exhilarating too, it makes you reach further and use your ears. I’d been listening to a lot of piano in film music and loved the strength of mood it could create. The wonky eerie melody that Lydia sings after the chorus is definitely a tip of the hat to that world. An off-kilter lullaby.

lyrics

Counting the days in California,
When all I want is you,
So far past the stage of falling for ya,
I know you feel it too,

Wanna get closer so I can hold ya,
You’re pulling my guard down,
You’d find the gold in a coal mine,

Watching the hours disappearing,
Close the window, leave your shoes,
Breathe in the flowers, London’s sleeping,
The nighttime is ours, the morning too.

Wanna get closer so I can hold ya,
You’re pulling my guard down,
You’d find the gold in a coal mine,

Oh like bottling lightening,
Oh You’re my hiding place,

Wanna get closer so I can hold ya,
You’re pulling my guard down,
You’d find the gold in a coal mine,
Feeling that first flush,
Is making my head rush,
Searching the tree line,
You’d bring me flowers of the alpines.

credits

from Lamplighter, released March 3, 2023
Written: Tommy Ashby
Produced and Mixed: Sam Okell
Mastered: Felix Davis

Backing Vocals: Lydia Clowes

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Tommy Ashby London, UK

Tommy Ashby’s background is a rather unusual one for a singer-songwriter. Awarded a PhD in the perception of sound in his early 20s, Tommy manages to blend a technical understanding of the way our brain processes sound with the indisputable pure creative energy of someone who grew up writing and playing music in the wilds of Scotland. ... more

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