My new single 'White Geraniums' is now out in the world!There are no neat endings, and nothing stays fully closed. Traces of our past mingle with the present: a happy birthday inscription from an ex on the first page of a book you need to reference; a kitchen knife going blunt because they took the sharpener and you keep forgetting to buy a new one; the pair of earrings they bought you made of brown sea glass. Sometimes it's nothing material: a memory, triggered in the moment, that reminds you what once was. Letting go is hard and it’s best not rushed. It asks to be faced, breathed through, accepted, sat in, have its edges felt, grown from.Recorded at The Wool Hall, Beckington with Luke PotashnickVideo by Robin BottrellHope to see you soon.Emily
There's a line in this song that carries most of the weight: "I can sit in the pain, it still rhymes well with rain". I'd had the idea that the video should simply be me sitting on a chair out in a field singing the song. On the day before filming the video, life once again - and this time quite literally - came breaking in; I was knocked off my bicycle in a hit-and-run incident, which left me with a fractured tibia. The filming plans were put on hold. Once I was able to hobble around in a moon boot, with a crutch, the video became about the struggle through real physical pain to carry that chair up a hill to a place where I end up sitting, looking out into the sun. Filmed and edited by Robin Bottrell Recorded at The Wool Hall with producer Luke Potashnick
Lyrics:
I can fall, face up I won’t kick,
I won’t buck I can sit in the pain
It still rhymes well with rain
To be clear, you are gone
Got the crossword wrong Red pen, red pen
Thought we’d pull through I’m a backseat driver,
I can’t stop you Throwin’ eight years, three months out the window
White geraniums that won’t get watered
It’s a lot to let go of I won’t call anymore
About the crack in the wall
About the bread that I burnt
Or the rush hour to work
There’s a note that I found In a book on the ground
And it read as if we would pull through
I’m a backseat driver,
I can’t stop you
Throwin’ eight years, three months out the window
White geraniums that won’t get watered
It’s a lot to let go of
A lot to let go of
White geraniums that won’t get watered
It’s a lot to let go of
A lot to let go of
I can fall, face up I won’t kick,
I won’t buck I can sit in the pain
It still rhymes well with rain
Em says on her web page
"There are no neat endings, and nothing stays fully closed. Traces of our past mingle with the present: a happy birthday inscription from an ex on the first page of a book you need to reference; a kitchen knife going blunt because they took the sharpener and you keep forgetting to buy a new one; the pair of earrings they bought you made of brown sea glass. Sometimes it’s nothing material: a memory, triggered in the moment, that reminds you what once was. Letting go is hard and it’s best not rushed. It asks to be faced, breathed through, accepted, sat in, have its edges felt, grown from.
No secrets as to what this song is about…writing it, then singing it regularly, certainly helped me move through the process of letting go.
For the track itself, I went back to The Wool Hall in Beckington, Somerset, where I made ‘Fragile as Humans’ with producer Luke Potashnick, and recorded it live.
It felt like a release to capture the song. It feels like one now to share it with you.
https://www.emilybarker.com
we love Em
💜 and hope it is not too painful . . . . . 💔 💚 ❤️
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