Episode #217: Sunset Swim (Song starts at 5:27)
Going back to March 1997, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I had just arrived from New Zealand to settle into the big city of Melbourne, Australia.
This was the first song I wrote since we’d left NZ.
As the title suggests, this song is inspired by a sunset we experienced in an incredibly beautiful place called Sprits Bay, in the far north of New Zealand.
I feel we were so lucky to have stayed there when we did. There was an old camp (just a couple of cold showers and a toilet), a long long golden beach, no cars, no shops, miles away from any flight paths.
We lived by the tides, catching our dinner from the beach in the morning and then off the rocks in the after noon and evenings.
When you do this for 2 weeks, your brain is somewhere else. You are really lost in nature. imagine it: not going to the shop, not getting petrol, not putting the radio on. Just the sound of the waves day and night.
Anyway, one evening we had a swim in a spectacular sunset, I say ‘in’ the sunset because the ocean was as red as the sky and you couldn’t really tell where the sky finished and sky began. Bliss.
Contrast that, then, with the big city 2 months later: tangled tongues, everyone out to convince someone else they need to buy something, do something, experience this, that - the trams, the cars…yes, it was somewhat of a shock.
When the day came we finally had found somewhere to live, got jobs (which all happened on the same day , after a few weeks). We had $10 left to our names after we’d paid the bond. We had a a couple of pots and pans, some crockery, a mattress - all very romantic and somewhat intense.
So the first time I had a couple of hours to myself, with my keyboard set up, I pulled out the words I’d written and decided to to write a song,
And what I wrote was a rocking sort of an up pop song.
Because I’d come ‘across the ditch’, as they say, from NZ, to start all over again: find a new band and see where it would take us.
I was determined to create the band, asap. At 30, I felt like my was racing by, to a degree. Here we are in 2024, and I’m still a driven artist, songwriter, musician and painter.
This podcast is part of the big picture, the backstory to some songs. If you will. It’s been such good fun exploring the songwriting process by looking at how my songs were composed, what inspired them.
But more than that it’s been fantastic to hear back from listeners that my podcast and blog has inspired them to get creative (again) , getting into songwriting and recording, etc.
Each week it’s my ‘online gig’. Thanks for tuning in for this episode. It’s such good fun to produce these episodes. I fly by the seat of my pants, there is no script. It’s creative, energised, relaxed …I’m basically entertaining, I guess. That’s what I do.
Ok here we go. Join us in the great outdoors….and the in the studio. Great to be in nature and it’s great to be in the studio writing songs about it. Sunset swim....rolling!
Here’s where you can find the lyrics www.petepascoe.wordpress.com (search for Sunset Swim).There’s links to lots of my music and art here. Enjoy.