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Souvenirs (so it goes)

by Old Semeil

/

about

Souvenirs is the second release of 2020 for Brisbane based alt-folk band Old Semeil. Recorded began in 2016, between the hills of the Samford Valley and the boondocks of Yeronga, and finds itself finished/abandoned in this year of 2020WTF. The release comes ahead of the band's debut full-length, scheduled for the end of the year. Souvenirs is an exploration of colonialism, travel and conquest. Mixing memory with desire, the song is a weaving of poetic vignettes, the mind making mythical what was once so common and clumsy. It could as easily be a backpackers account of a love affair, as much as it could be a 15th century explorer's uncharacteristic, remorseful diary entry.

lyrics

There was a time, when a day wouldn’t go by
without you burning cigarette holes in the thin film of my mind
but how my heels have wounded well, sometimes you just cant tell
exactly from, where it was that I fell

Now we're pieces of a story, a fable never complete
we'll be chasing that tale with some mad sun dogs in the street
I'll keep my sweet dreams in a glass jar by the bed
and a note book filled up with words, that I never said like,
You must go on living, you are a line, you take what’s yours and I'll take what’s mine
You must go in living, you are a lion, that inky phrase is running, running in my mind.

Well it's old streets of Venice, Saint Mark and a golden cage
there's the trade winds, the spice routes, has anything really changed?
If I put you on show, for a handful of gold, or the look of the towns folks, awe at my haul
I show rich ladies saliva, in the mouth of a monster,
that 3 men died for in darkest Africa,
I was superior, with always plans to return, I leave boy soldiers with arms
bigger than them,
every dear tear falling in frustrations aura,
the humidity is mixing with the salt, and the pitiful wind,
at the slamming of the door,
such beauty I've seen in the back of my dreams,
the treachery in the acquisition of a form thought untamed
Now I’m cutting it's mane, for the parade
And I'll never tell anyone your name,
in time it'll be hidden, from even me, as the land
slips beneath the sea
not with the promised whisper, but a crash of history, oh history.

credits

released September 15, 2020
Written by Gavin Russell with love, help and influence of Sophie Ellis

Sophie Ellis - Viola la la/vocals
Caroline Townsend - B B Bass
Steph 'sk00bz' McIntyre - D-rumz
Gavin Rusty - Guitars/singsong/megaphone/tin sandwich
Davis Dingle - percussion

Steph and Caroline recorded by Josh Wilkinson at Burrow Studios 2016. The rest was recorded by Michael Josephson of Josephson at Josephson Funk Bunker 2020

Artwork by Lana Turner

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Old Semeil Mount Glorious, Australia

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