People leave our lives for many reasons. Some voluntary, some not, some simply by happenstance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I buried myself so deep in writing and performing for others that I didn't pick up on the fact that I hadn't written for myself in a long while. I felt a pang of regret of losing a friend out of the blue five years ago, so strong that it moved me to create Separate Path.
The verses speak specifically, even though listeners may be able to empathize with some of the imagery and feelings. The choruses are more general, reaching out to the group of us who've lost a loved one that left certain marks on our lives.
I really take to imagery and poetry in songs, something I feel most modern pieces are lacking. Like using harbingers equated with laughs shows that their chilling sound foretells of the separation ahead. Or how strength in a smile may seem contradictory, but smiling after hardships--whether shared or individual--is undoubtedly where strength can find home.
Probably my favorite is the first line, about how you get the feeling, in simple eye contact with our elders, that they have mountains of stories; in how they move, what they focus on, what makes them tear up. Mourning Wind is a tie in with my song Rovers' Lullaby. It's the kind of wind that tells you it's time to move on, that something has ended, and perhaps as its bitterness dies down, there will be peace in the memory of what came before.
