[NEW SONG] 28 Names For Longleaf Pines

A new song - a new way of sharing music.

We are delighted to officially release our new song, ‘28 Names For Longleaf Pines’

This song did not come easy.

It was not one of those songs that just fell out onto the page.

On the contrary, this song was a lot of work.

We both spent many hours scratching our heads, staring up into blank space, taking various thematic routes and then back-tracking to the last fork in the road.

In short, this song represents a particular type of song - what we now refer to as a ‘struggle song’

But the struggle was worth it.

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In the same way that a giant Pine tree springs inexorably from a tiny seed, this song began with a very small idea - a line from a book called ‘The Overstory’ by Richard Powers.

From that seed grew a little sappling in the form of a chorus.

After adding some chords and experimenting with various melodic ideas, a verse began to take shape.

As the trunk grew taller, the foliage on our little tree also began to thicken. Themes and concepts became solid. Transitions between sections began to flow in a way that told us we now had the shape of a song, not just a collection of parts.

And so it went, one piece at a time.

Until finally, after 18 months of writing, re-writing, recording, producing and mixing - the tree was fully grown. The song was done.

Not all songs are created in a way where you can easily document or graphically illustrate the process - but with this song, that is exactly what happened. We reflected on the steps we took and the choices we made. We listed the many ingredients and contributing factors … the late-night conversations, the bush walks, the literary references, the pages of scribble and rhyming pairs and motifs and chord substitutions.

And this is how it looked.

This song (and this diagram) has become a valuable asset for us, in the sense that it allows us, more than any other song we’ve written, to really talk about the songwriting process as a series of choices and actions.

It has taught us that some songs require time and instinct and craft and persistence.

It has shown us that while in retrospect the process can be plotted on a neat linear timeline, the feeling of being in that process and on that timeline is anything but linear.

There is also something incredibly satisfying about the journey of bringing a song to life in the studio. As with the writing, the production of this song took many hours, countless iterations and yes, more persistence.

And thanks to our dear friend Michael Gilbride at MAD Records, we have realised that to waste all of this effort by sending our new song out into the ‘Spotify abyss’ would be a damn shame.

So we’re not doing that.

Instead we are releasing our music here, on Substack - a place where we can celebrate the creative process, share our stories and most importantly, engage meaningfully with you and others who care deeply about making art.

And now we are delighted to finally celebrate the release of ‘28 Names’, share it with you all… and move onto the next song.

Enjoy!

Names Of Birds (aka Keppie and Benny)

Lyrics

We’ve got satellites
Watching us day and night
We got cars that talk, and robots booking
Our holidays

And we made them all
To buy at the shopping mall
Put them in categories, with warranties
Just in case they fail

We’ve got 28 names for Longleaf Pines
But the trees don’t give a damn
They’ve heard it all before

The possibilities are limitless
Ask the astrophysicists
We can watch the birth of the universe
Now to rent or buy

At the other end of town
Biologists have narrowed
All the particles, written articles
Defining life

We’ve got 28 names for Longleaf Pines
But the trees don’t give a damn
They’ve heard it all before

We’ve got 28 names for Longleaf Pines
And I still don’t understand
How the leaves and branches grow
For to name is not to know
But what I know
Is I am small

When I carve my name inside a heart
I cut it deep in the bark
I cut it deep in the bark
When I carve my name inside a heart
I do it to make my mark
And I call it love

We’ve got 28 names for Longleaf Pines
But the trees don’t give a damn
They’ve heard it all before

We’ve got 28 names for Longleaf Pines
And I still don’t understand
How the leaves and branches grow
For to name is not to own
For to name is not to know
But what I know
Is I am small