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On the discomfort of sharing lyrics
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On the discomfort of sharing lyrics

Feb 19, 2020
Share this post
On the discomfort of sharing lyrics
domesband.substack.com

I'm particularly excited to release "Time and Relative Dimension in Space" Friday NZDT (elsewhere at 12:00AM, 21 February local time). For all of us, it possibly articulates Domes' identity best and points to the general direction in which we have continued to write for the next collection of songs.

With the earliest iteration, the track had the potential to become some kind of rhapsodic "November Rain" experience. I'm glad we ultimately avoided that in terms of our journey of self-discovery. In my view, we brush up against the histrionic here but hopefully avoid over-stating things such that the song is emphatic but interesting.

Let me know what you think.

I often find reading lyrics without the context of the musical intention and impact a bit cringey. However, I thought I would embrace that discomfort as 1) I haven't drawn attention to lyrics but for digital and physically packaging in my previous band and 2) I've never disclosed any before a song was released. And, to be really vulnerable for a moment, I'm happy with these words.

Phrasing and poetic devices create all sorts of complications when finalising the structure of a lyric sheet. When we had the opportunity to produce CD booklets, I liked to reference the typesetting of "Nevermind" and "In Rainbows" which treated the words as visual assets or artefacts of a greater body of work. Some of my rationale for slightly obscuring the lyrics was to lessen their significance in acknowledgement of all the many essential contributions to the song. It also signalled a preference that if someone wanted to know the words, we would love them to listen with intent.

Today on Apple Music and elsewhere, words are starkly presented on phone screens within strict guidelines that I now see I have already broken with the spoken word section of "The Futurist." It's confronting—though not because I want to be opaque or inaccessible as a writer. Perhaps someone will appreciate this functionality and the assistance with the kiwi accent.

Time and Relative Dimension in Space

Seeing your faces through time
A wandering tomb in starfields
Sublimation underwater
A metamorphosis

You become aware of a voice
Emaciated shadows incarnate
Layered fantasies and
Unmet promises

Watching the ones who are
A refraction of you
Remade reality

You reach out with your thin arms to me
One whose name is lost through a rift in the vault
Sublimation underwater
A metamorphosis

Down here, there’s no pool of light
Down here, there's no pool of light
And you turn inside out and find your way to me

Watching the ones who are
A refraction of you
Remade reality

-Mathew

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