Is This The Dream?

Simon:

This was the first song I wrote for the project although I honestly didn’t know it at the time. It began life as a series of abstract grooves and loops way back in 2009 and never really progressed beyond that stage. There was something about the bass line however which I liked immensely and kept me coming back to add little parts here and there over the next few years.

Unlike the music on the Tinyfish record The Big Red Spark, most of the demo material for the Shineback project began life as sonic experimentation using synths and samples. I had stacked up a lot of these musical fragments in the vaults during my time working with Tinyfish and when I finally decided to create something outside the band framework, it felt like the right time to see if they could be developed. Very little of those musical vignettes made it onto the album but the central theme to this track is one of them.

It also serves (both musically) and lyrically as the thread which runs throughout the entire record and you’ll hear themes from this song resurfacing from time to time.

I think Robert Ramsay’s words for this song are fantastic and capture the disorientation and unease I think we all feel during those moments close to a very vivid dream.

Robert:

Again, the immediacy of the song made it simple to tell this part of the story. The pictures in my head were so vivid, all I had to do was write down what happened.

LYRICS

Dora:
It's clear
I'm here
But it's a broken mirror
My face
This place
To keep on film forever
That door
Before
I can't believe it's happening
Hate you
Me too
Born and died here

We approach the ageing house that's
filled with bitter cries
Is it real and do we have the heart to
step inside?

Is this the dream around me
Or is the dream alive?
Is this the dream or is it me?
Is this the dream around me
Or is the dream alive?
Is this a dream of nightmare?
Replay - rewind

I just can't stand here in the rain
So it's time
To walk inside
Someone is walking with you
Someone will walk inside you
Someone will take you to yourself

Voices:
We are not good, we do not lie
We are the Envoys, dream or die
Save yourself, walk with me tonight
There's time...


Dora: No!
Voices: Yes!

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