How Do You Ignore August?
I was worried I wouldn’t end up writing a song this August after a fantastic run of seven consecutive bangers since January. Well — five bangers and a spoken word poem accompanied by cello, piano and violin. Nothing seemed to be inspiring me towards any kind of songwriting as I leaned in joyfully to the idea of summer. Day trips to places like Stonehenge, The Potteries, Kinver Edge, and Coventry to see the Helios sculpture, not to mention time away in Ipswich seeing family and exploring moorlands and the weirdness that is Jimmy’s Farm, coupled with the excitement of the Euros, going to London to cheer the Lionesses home, watching hours and hours of WWE SummerSlam, reading as many books as possible, catching up with movies and TV term-time didn’t allow for, seeing other family and friends, drinking copious amounts of coffee and exploring the local area to get a bit of exercise — not to mention writing another 15,000 words (at least) of the novel I’m working on — left little time to sit down and think about songwriting. I even realised that in 2023 when I did a similar song-a-month project, I cheated in August. Knowing we’d be away in America that whole summer, I actually wrote my “August” song at the tail end of July, before we went away. It occurred to me that perhaps August just wasn’t a very musically creative time for me? Maybe I’d have to fudge things and write two songs in September? Perhaps this whole project is a way of getting away from the stresses of work, and when work’s no longer around to stress me out, the creative juices all dry up?
Then on Monday, waiting for some groceries to be delivered, I sat down with my phone and wrote this:
How do you ignore a genocide?
(Practice, man, practice)
This isn’t the first
And it won’t be the last
Our lives bathed in blood
That we try not to think about
How do you ignore the climate crisis?
(Practice, man, practice)
We’ve been in trouble
Since before I was born
The future a precipice
We try not to think about
Just try not to think about it
We try not to think about
How do you ignore this creeping fascism?
(Practice, man, practice)
Swastikas carved
Into primary school desks
Just everyday terrors
We try not to think about
How do you ignore how fucked up everything is?
(Practice, man, practice)
The problems never change
It’s a feature not a bug
Of the unjust structures
That we try not to think about
Just try not to think about it
We try not to think about
What if we thought about it?
What if we stopped ignoring?
Did more than just post about it?
Did more than just empty warnings?
Well how would we sleep at night?
Where would all the fun be then?
We can’t stop ignoring!
So just try not to think about it
How do you ignore a genocide?
How do you ignore the climate crisis?
How do you ignore this creeping fascism?
How do you ignore how fucked up everything is?
We just try not to think about it
(Practice man, practice)
Ooh - lyrics! So on Tuesday (a day my wife and I had theoretically set aside to do a bit of prep work for September but, instead, woke up, watched Grease, and thought fuck it) instead of planning lessons for the new term, I picked up my synthesiser, switched on Logic Pro, and wrote this. A song I am calling a summer bop to dance to while trying to ignore how fucked up everything is:
It turns out my summer song is always a dance number. In 2023 I wrote this (albeit in July — and no, it isn’t about RFK Jnr!):
It’s been great to completely ignore work for a month. Tomorrow it rears its ugly head again. A-level results day. A nervous morning of finding out if what you’ve done with a group for the last two years was enough to get them to where they need to be for the next stage of their life. A pretty heavy burden to be honest. You do all you can, you know that if the student does everything you have advised they will do great — but human beings being free to make their own choices, there is never a guarantee that they do. And anyone can fall apart in the exam room, even after two years of brilliant work. It really is a black box of the unknown until 8am when suddenly the truth is revealed: pass or fail. University or no university. The future you want, or the future you’re forced into accepting. Nerve-wracking stuff. Then the same again the following Thursday for GCSEs (though the stakes there are less high; second chances are more easy to come by in the sixth form).
As well as the novel, I’ve written a few poems in the Social Media Avoidance Project notes file. Ones which weren’t meant as potential songs but got some ideas out at the time. I plan on uploading them later to the POEMS section of the website so check them out if you’re interested.
In fact, I’ve said all I need to say here and it’s fucking HOT in this stuffy little office I’m writing in, so I’ll go do it now and then get the hell out of here into a room with a fan!