Last week, I promised I’d share a new song when I got to a follower count milestone on Twitter. This was either a vacuous piece of shameless social engagement engineering strategy designed to leverage & monetise valuable digital assets or a genuinely engaging way to make the most of those kind enough to care about what I’m up to, giving something back whilst setting myself an arbitrary target in order to achieve a goal that I should be able to achieve without giving myself a false finish line along the way. But which! Who knows.
Josienne & I filmed this at Rufford Abbey last Wednesday morning amid a hale of noise. She held the microphone on a boom & we used my Canon stills camera on a tripod for the video. A couple of takes were interrupted by baby birds learning to fly & old ladies touring the damp, beautifully lit underground room that they let us use for free. I’m pretty pleased with how it sounds & looks. Nice & simple. I uploaded a low quality H264 video to my YouTube channel (which I made just for this!) and now I wish i’d used a ProRes upload since it looks kind of blocky. But hey ho. Live & learn. Here it is.
I wanted to share the lyrics from the song & try to explain what I’m on about. I started out trying to write about this and it was a real challenge, since I’ve seen this behaviour, I’ve been around all sides of it. My guess is, we all have. In a relationship, business, personal, wherever. Things are the way they are, then you get closed down on, or you close down. The safe mode I’m on about is when you are about to take off for a long flight and you flip your phone into the little plane mode so nothing can connect anymore. It’s a hard cut. Severed. Nothing works, nobody can ask & you can’t tell. What if a person could do that, as well as a phone? This might happen for lots of reasons, you might do it or you might have it done to you in ways & for reasons I can’t imagine, or for ones that make perfect sense. You’ll know when it happens, though, and it never feels good, whichever side of the departure gate you are waiting at. This song, it’s not a warning. I’m not saying don’t do it or do. It isn’t advice. I’m not preaching, or at least, I’m trying not to. I’m just trying to give a perspective on a thing, to show it, to hold it out in my hands, to express it maybe diminishes the power of it, to describe it is to reduce it. Maybe. Maybe not, who knows, don’t ask me, I’m not your therapist. I hope you enjoy the song, either way.
‘Safe Mode’ (demo) Lyrics
by Mr. Alec Bowman
When the time for talking’s over & the silences begun
You can’t come up for air & the words have all been done
When you’re out of time, losing every breath
Out of your mind & out of more than only depth
You can’t face the music so let it fade
You can’t win or lose if you don’t play
When the only sound that’s left is the blood rush in your ears
& the phone-lit face of a stranger who won’t hear
Who leaves you speechless for anything you say
For all your useless power, you’re angry and afraid
You can’t hear the sentence if you don’t wait
You can’t do the time if you’re away
Use safe mode, it’s easy that way
Cut the cord & hide away
Pull the plug & pretend that you can’t hear
It’s bad advice that won’t save your life
I’m sick of losing losing fights
Close your eyes and turn away from your fear
Where’s the sense in messages, let them all stay blue
If you try to answer, you’ll have to use words to tell the truth
It’s not worth the time, bury your head
Hole up in the sand, pretend you’re dead
Use safe mode, it’s easy that way
Cut the cord & hide away
Pull the plug & pretend that you can’t hear
It’s bad advice that won’t save your life
I’m sick of losing losing fights
Close your eyes and turn away from your fear
© 2019 Mr. Alec Bowman