“One song, one heart, one mind, one person at a time.” Songs have the power to change the world, says songwriter Mary Gauthier. Growing up, I was immersed in a melting pot of Danish folk music, soul, jazz and blues music from the US. “British Invasion” music also made its mark, as did Irish, Canadian,… Read more »
The ten songs on the new album “Songs in the Key of Collaboration” is also the soundtrack to a journey spanning several years of intercultural co-creation and research Prompted by a serious water crisis in Cape Town, I set out to explore songwriting as a response to anthropogenic environmental impact, broadly speaking. The aim was… Read more »
I wrote “Where Oceans Meet” in Skagen in the very North of Jutland, Denmark. I have always found it a magical place because two oceans meet here at “Skagens Gren,” it is possible to stand with a foot in both. It got me thinking about life, and the agency of human and non-human encounters that constantly create something new. In the lyric you will detect a pop song about attachment to place, but you may also spot references to feminist posthuman perspectives.
Can we not respect each other / I don’t like the acting game /Let’s not hide, let’s uplift each other / I still believe that we can change. The chorus to “We Can Change” came almost verbatim from the conversation Lul Omar and I had when we co-wrote the song. Among other things, we talked… Read more »
Crises abound in the world at the moment, resulting in divisions and stresses affecting our collective state of mind. I wrote ‘Freedom Is a State of Mind’ with Justine Hansen in Cape Town. It has a crosscutting theme of space. Both inner space and physical space in the form of a sanctuary or safe haven,… Read more »
I’m delighted that to finally be able to share “Where the Water Was” written with Casper Ace in Cape Town. Connecting the mindset behind the inequities of the past to social and environmental transgressions in the present, our song calls for an awakening of care and connection. We as songwriters feel that if we can… Read more »
I’ve been looking so much forward to sharing “End of the World.” The track is dedicated to Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier and other youths and children that fight a grown-up’s climate battle. It deals with the structural violence committed against people and planet by Big Oil over the past many decades. And it dwells on… Read more »
This summer I revisited older songs written for my daughters Ida and Minna and wrote “follow-up” songs to reflect the current moment. Today a follow-up song also beckoned to be voiced for Ella, the most recently born of the three precious daughters I am proud to call mine. ”Child of October” takes its title from… Read more »
I recently had the chance to see Springsteen live with the E Street Band and the E Street Horns. I felt like giving something back and wrote a little thank you note in the form of a song.
As mentioned in a previous post, confessional songwriting has a way of chronicling lived experience. Over time it becomes possible to revisit older songs, the sentiments and intentions behind them, and sometimes songs written for others in the past can do with new “commentary” in the present.
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