LockdownProject - The Powdered Earth

Round The Blue EP
We are proud to share these songs created during the lockdown in March to May 2020
(note: the audio players will allow 3 free listens of each track without purchase)

1. Round The Blue
2. Supine
3. Timber
4. Everyone We Knew

Written & produced by George Moorey & Shane Young. Artwork by Eloise Hopkins

We didn’t set out with the intention of writing about Covid19 and the lockdown, but these 4 pieces came out of the emotional and physical impact of the early weeks of the unfolding story.

We knew plenty of people who’d been ill. George wasn’t particularly well, and Shane couldn’t sing while the virus bashed his lungs about, but as a result, it has authenticity, if nothing else. A couple of new spoken word pieces also came along while the singing voice recovered.

We’d heard from friends about elderly relatives who hadn’t made it, and about the effects of social distancing on families denied the opportunity to say goodbye. At time of writing, it’s far from over. We’re all too conscious of the long-term effects on our physical and psychological wellbeing, while still unable to comfort each other in the physical ways to which we’re so accustomed.

Our songwriting process begins with George sketching out a piano piece, quickly recording it and emailing it to Shane. If Shane is inspired, he’ll set about writing lyrics and melody and bat it back to George who will make additions, often with acoustic guitar, and it’ll go back to Shane again. This back and forth process eventually sees the song and arrangement take shape.

Thanks to George’s foresight, he had dropped off some carefully-sanitised pro recording gear at Shane’s the day before official lockdown began, meaning we were able to produce everything from our separate homes to a high-enough standard for release.

We are particularly honoured to have Eloise in charge of artwork. We love collaborating, especially with people so brilliant they make us look better! Eloise has given us a written insight into her thought process, and the practical aspects of the creative process that led to her gorgeous contribution to the project.

Artwork
by Eloise Hopkins

I’ve been pondering my own artistic response to the Lockdown we find ourselves in and George & Shane’s tracks have helped to focus that. The images I’ve created for this project are all digital collages using scans of gel prints that I’ve previously made. There's a lot of layering and then rubbing away to see what is revealed beneath. I love the process! The images have different styles but have all been made the same way using the same ingredients. And there is a gold thread that runs through each of them.
Round The Blue

Was a dazzling day
In the month of May
A chill air from the West

I’d like to say
Everyone was there
Dressed up in their Sunday best

But the line of cars
That we used to see
Was a memory

And the living
Are the ghostly
In this tragedy

When you go down
You’re out of bounds
The send off was never for you

It’s for the one
Who’s left undone
A chain of love round the blue

We wrap them up
In a blanket
Of history

And the kids’ll go
So one day they’ll know
Their ancestry

In memoriam
Distance is a sham to let go of

We are by your side
Nothing will divide the chain of love
Eloise:
The stories we tell are so important, and my art feeds off these stories. Listening to the lyrics and hearing the stories behind them inspires me. I love the use of halos in art - It makes the spiritual visible, reminding us that we are not 'mere mortals'. And I love the concept of the ‘Long Now’ which I thought about when considering the chains of love stretching out behind us and before us, including all those who have already departed, and those yet to come. So, it may look like there are breaks in the circles of the halo, but they are all just different shades of gold emanating out from the centre, which, with my theology, represents God. And also, the ancients used to worship the sun as the source of life. The 'dazzling day' lyric worked with the gold.
Supine

Write it all down
But don’t make a sound
Better to say
We’re doing okay

Stay where you are
Don’t raise the bar
Yours is the dark
Don’t leave a mark

Play it down low
Don’t make a show
Don’t be inclined
To know your own mind

Seeds on the breeze
Carry with ease
Heroes in line
While we lie supine

What have we done?

Here’s to the herd
Armed with the word
Those at the bow
Will save you somehow

Peace is the wage
For closing the page
Leave them to sup
From a near-empty cup
Play it down low
Don’t make a show
Eloise:
Shane explained that ‘Supine’ refers to our absolute vulnerability. This is a loose figure study. I often look for hope in my work, but not false hope or toxic positivity. And hope only rings true for me if I've allowed myself to sink into sorrow and despair. It feels right to just embody this 'supine' position sometimes. Lying supine is also a yoga pose known as 'corpse pose'. Often done at the end of a session, embodying complete relaxation and surrender. So, I think you can see this as either a very vulnerable pose or a really relaxed one!
Timber

Frozen by the shutter’s pass
A pinstriped leg mid-stride
You only see the tree rings
When you slice and look inside

Normal is an echo
Of a learned and foot-worn trail
With just one stamp of Mother’s boot
There’s a new world to inhale

Gathering the timber
As we wheel away from sun
To warm our expectation
That there’ll be another one

There’s comfort in community
But what are we, and who
When stony-broke and lowborn folk
Constitute its glue

Lovers kiss by megabyte
Whom oceans set apart
Christmas lunch and party punch
Surrealist works of art

Nothing must detain us
From all-consuming growth
From birds and bees came equities
What heart can balance both

Gathering the timber
As we wheel away from sun
To warm our expectation
That there’ll be another one
Eloise:
I took my reference from a finger print (obvious similarities with tree rings). The gold of the fingerprint comes through the sombre purple. Shane shared his thinking behind the lyrics, “This thing we’re living through has cut a slice through us and shown what we are inside. How we presume things will progress in the usual way, as if history is the only reference, and how that presumption has been exposed for the arrogance it is.”. So, the finger print in my image has been cut in half and shifted across so that it no longer matches up (the physical distance between us). But even though the fingerprint has shifted from what we are used to, it has forged new connections reaching across the divide, and it now looks somewhat like a crooked heart. The tree rings and fingerprints reminded me of labyrinths I've walked and how you can't always see the way ahead clearly or the destination but you carry on walking round the curves in hope. It reminds me too of something a nurse said to me following surgery for breast cancer. I was concerned because they had had to remove all the lymph nodes from one side but she said, “your body will find a way, it’s like if the motorway was closed, you’d just find an A road.”

As an aside, a bit like word association, Timber made me think of Timbre (appropriate for the musicians!) and also, randomly, Timshel which means "you may" in Hebrew. Made famous through East of Eden (which I haven't read!). But reading extracts from the novel it becomes clear that the translation is important. Apparently, some biblical translations have used 'you shall' and 'you will', but using 'you may' makes all the difference. It gives us a choice. We have a choice here in this time.
Everyone We Knew

Can I see you up town
When everything’s calmed down
We can talk of the year
That burned off the old veneer

Tell me all that you know
Speak to me real slow
I want fill up my head
With the silliest thread

When we’re getting them in
There’s a light under our skin
Its patience was long
When everything was wrong

I’ve nothing but love
For the dark sky above
But the street lights are blue
For everyone we knew
Eloise:
I wanted this to be abstract, not too literal, and really simple. I wanted it to be quick, without too much forethought, just tapping into the unconscious and seeing what emerges. The slash of colour across this one can speak of separation. A meditation on that which connects us and that which separates us. There are themes of 'above' and 'below'. You can interpret the larger circle as God and/or the sun - or not! But even with distance, or separation, the circles are all related, all cut from the same source.
Round The Blue
A simple score for keyboard players.
For guitar players the chords are C, Am, F, Dm, G and with capo on the 5th fret use the chord shapes for G, Em, C, Am, D
Feel free to send us cover versions! We'd love to hear.

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Round The Blue EP

We are proud to share these songs created during the lockdown in March to May 2020(note: the audio players will allow 3 free listens of each track without purchase)

Round The Blue

Eloise:

Supine

Eloise:

Timber

Eloise:

Everyone We Knew

Eloise:

Round The Blue

A simple score for keyboard players. For guitar players the chords are C, Am, F, Dm, G and with capo on the 5th fret use the chord shapes for G, Em, C, Am, DFeel free to send us cover versions! We'd love to hear.

We are proud to share these songs created during the lockdown in March to May 2020
(note: the audio players will allow 3 free listens of each track without purchase)

A simple score for keyboard players.
For guitar players the chords are C, Am, F, Dm, G and with capo on the 5th fret use the chord shapes for G, Em, C, Am, D
Feel free to send us cover versions! We'd love to hear.