Neither Could Dylan

Tapes kicks off Acceptance with the sound of soft feedback before falling into an delicate picked acoustic guitar line before it’s wiped out by a grungy electric guitar and heavy bass, drums and an vocal line erring on aggressive enter the mix. 

I loved the idea of starting this record in this sort of dramatic and unexpected way and it still is some of my favorite few seconds of the entire thing. 

While the imagery of Tapes is some I’m particularly fond of, this song is actually just about… writing songs. 

When you sit down to write about something you’re not always sure where it’s going to go, but I felt really compelled by the idea of talking about the intricate and often difficult experience of entering yourself in a creative headspace and allowing yourself to be vulnerable to whatever comes. 

When you write from your own experience or your own heart, it’s funny how it can be challenging even in the comforts of your own solitude to really dig into the thoughts and feelings you want to express and get them on paper. It’s something I’ve heard a lot of artists describe (the blood, sweat and tears of the record), but not in a way I could ever understand because it seems even talking about this can be off-putting to many. 

Tapes is my way of tackling it and embracing the emotional roller coaster of being creative. 

While I write about a wide array of subjects, I know I find myself particularly attracted to drawing attention to difficult subjects, like that of grief and pain in all its ugly costumes. I find myself often reliving, in a way, negative experiences in order to both better understand them and how it affects me, but ultimately my goal when I breach these types of subjects, like for example if discussing suicide, addiction and abuse, my hope is always to frame the final story in a way that is considerate and respectful of the life I’m acknowledging and honouring. 

Check out the Tapes Acoustic-Bedroom Live on YouTube

That last part is where the line “left to watch their once able bodies cremate from solids into ink,” really derives from because I believe every time you choose to write about someone or something, you are creating a new stamp or record of that bit of personal history. It’s not always fun or easy to do, but it’s important to me that people know that in any time they’ve spent with me, they have had an impact on my life and I’m grateful for the ability to be here and share it. 

I’ve heard bands say before that they have trouble choosing the singles for their records because of course each song is uniquely special to us as the creators of them, and that’s what I address in the chorus of this one – each story presented in Acceptance is to me, just as important as the one that precedes it. I imagine that I’ll always feel this way. 

Here are the official lyrics for Tapes:

I left them sat atop a bookshelf
A set of tapes freshly wound
Stories convoluted 
And too long to simply write about

No clear order to be found
None more worthy of a crown
An array of wealth in lives retold
Valued more than could be sold

As I set the final in its place
I felt my heart rip out my chest
Through the shelves and into the spines
Of the text below where they were to rest

In the walls that surround
Eager fists begin attempts
To claw through into the prism
Illuminating dust that covers them

With hollow eyes and empty throats
They call out for my hands
Opening a half-worked pad of notes
I scribble their names with a dying pen

And as the shutters begin to sway and flutter 
I grow dizzy, succumb to heat
Left to watch their once able bodies
Cremate from solids into ink

No clear order to be found
None more worthy of a crown
An array of wealth in lives retold
Valued more than could be sold

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Listen to Tapes wherever you stream & don’t forget you can order the album on CD through our online store. 

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Next time on the blog, I’ll share my thoughts on track 2: Chemical Therapy. 

In case you missed it, jump back to the overview blog about this record.