YOU’RE NOT THE BOY - JOURNAL ENTRY

I wrote this song way back around 2017/2018 and it’s become a bit of a staple in my set. The meaning of the song has completely changed in my mind over time (which I think is why it’s a staple and how it made it’s way onto the album). When I wrote it, it was an honest stream of consciousness about a specific boy and situation but that person and those feelings have long faded into the background and when I sing it now, I end up applying it to all sorts of things in my life. It’s turned into a song about reflecting and questioning, a reminder that you’ll always learn something about yourself when things don’t work out how you wanted. A reminder to tune into your gut instinct because sometimes the thing you think you want in a certain moment, is not the thing you need or really want in the bigger picture of your life and it’s easy to lose sight and get distracted.

This song went through the most sonic landscapes during it’s life - I played it with my band a few times before the album process had even started and we tried a few different sounds over time. I’ve put a little snippet of one of those versions below, an upbeat piano version where I told my guitarist/keyboardist Jaiman to play something along the lines of Sara Bareilles ‘Love Song’. Let me know if you think we should have gone down this path…it was really fun but I didn’t feel like it fit with my current ‘sound’ so when I brought it to my producer we started from scratch and I had no idea where it would end up. I absolutely love the final production Josh came up with and how beautifully it fits with the rest of the album, it stays so true to how I’ve sung it 100s of times at gigs - pared back and honest. Though a little part of me wants to record a sassy piano pop version as well just for fun!

We also made a music video for this song! I decided fairly last minute (in music release time) that this would definitely be the single and that I wanted to make a video for it - my good friend Ben Ennis at Night Owl Productions really came through and fit me into his busy schedule, I decided to hire a hall and just get creative, we brought in a tonne of plants to make a lovely greenery set and a few props and then we just played around with the space we had. I think it turned out really nice!

Before I sign off, I’ve got a little behind the scenes video of the shoot day for you below!