Words Come Easy

Our third single Here Comes the Summertime included two new tracks when it came out in mid-2012, of which the second was Words Come Easy.



According to my notes, I overheard some people talking total drivel one day, and I think I found it amusing that it's so easy to talk about nothing, which seemed as though it might be a good idea for a song. And while it might not particularly sound like it, the music is actually inspired by Umbrella by Rihanna and Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode.

It took quite a long journey from its original demo, and it might have even made it onto the album if only we had managed to mix it in time - unfortunately the backing vocals only turned up at the very last minute and I was really struggling to do them justice. It turned out pretty well in the end, although I think I might have buried the vocals a bit too low in the mix.

The lyrics:

Words come so easy
When there’s nothing left to say
It’s almost tragic
How my heart has turned again

Have I missed another chance to find
The perfect balance that was in my mind?
It drives me crazy and I can’t explain
Why words don’t come to me as they did then

Days pass so slowly
With a boulder in the way
I know can’t be there for real
When I look again

Dreaming of another time when I
Thought everything was perfect in my mind
It seemed so easy, and I can’t believe
But now it seems my words are failing me

Have I missed another chance to find
The perfect balance that was in my mind?
It drives me crazy and I can’t explain
Why words don’t come to me as they did then

Dreaming of another time when I
Thought everything was perfect in my mind
It seemed so easy, and I can’t believe
But now it seems my words are failing me

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Homeward Bound

The third single from our ninth album Transmission was Here Comes the Summertime, and included two new tracks, the first of which was Homeward Bound.



Most of the b-sides on the Transmission project were very old indeed, and this is no exception - it was started in about 2003 or 2004, and wasn't finished until 2012. I completely forgot about having written it, and could never really get the hang of the original demo version, which I think was maybe just a bit too dark for its own good.

Simon had always pushed it as a track that might have some potential, and I'd been trying for years to work it into a finished product. Then, late in 2011, I was living in Los Angeles and contemplating where life was taking me, and everything just seemed to fall into place. As it turned out, it's actually one of my favourite tracks of recent times - if we'd finished it a year earlier it might have even made it onto the album.

The lyrics:

Only you can bring me home now
The horizon is black again
All that time I hoped to wander
Every chance is built on pain

As the light fades into night
There's nothing left inside

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

Souvenirs are all I have now
Postcards of another town
When I left, my route was clearer
On until the sun went down

Now it's straight, and through the sand
This highway never ends

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

While my vision fades and burns
I've no drive to return

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

(R. Martin / S. Martin)