This song took me an absolute age to write and I don’t really know why. It seems very simple but I just couldn’t get it right. Sometimes when you strip everything back, leaving no production to hide behind, then you feel a lot more exposed. The bones of the song are there for all to see.
The song only has two scenes, one at a the end of a party and one in the hallway on the way to bed. It’s quite image driven, my old flat used to have some very squeaky floorboards.
My producer Sam is building his studio in an old chapel in Zennor in Cornwall. It sits right on the cliffs, with the most amazing sunsets. While we were recording this album it was just a big room; he hadn’t started the building project yet. We collated all our equipment and set it up in the middle of the room for this album. We recorded the guitar and vocals for Floorboards live during a lull in a storm that had rolled in off the atlantic. It was wild, shaking the windows and rattling the gutting, we had to wait between takes for things to settle down.
lyrics
The stars untied,
In the failing light,
The party fell to two,
And you spun my heels,
Like a Catherine wheel,
Throwing sparks all through the room.
You and I
and a moonless sky
Me a shirt and tie,
You a white dress,
And we’ll dance until,
All the stars fall still,
And the autumn chill,
Leaves us breathless.
The floorboards creak,
beneath our feet,
as we make our way to the bed,
And you’re smiling face,
Holds the world in place,
Then turns it on it’s head.
You and I
and a moonless sky
Me a shirt and tie,
You a white dress,
And we’ll dance until,
All the stars fall still,
And the autumn chill,
Leaves us breathless.
You and I
and a moonless sky
Me a shirt and tie,
You a white dress,
And we’ll dance until,
All the stars fall still,
And the autumn chill,
Leaves us breathless.
You and I
and a moonless sky
Me a shirt and tie,
You a white dress,
And we’ll dance until,
All the stars fall still,
And the autumn chill,
Leaves us breathless.
credits
from Lamplighter,
track released December 15, 2022
Written: Tommy Ashby
Produced and Mixed: Sam Okell
Mastered: Felix Davis
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