“Embracing A New Age”
Released on Pastiche Records March 16th 2026
I wrote “Embracing A New Age” 6 months before lockdown in the latter half of 2019. It is a ballad about rebirth, reinvention and welcoming change. Little did we know just how much change the world would have to imbibe in the wake of the cataclysmic events of 2020. The song unwittingly suddenly had global relevance.
I remember thinking, as i played through the rather optimistic chord voicings with theiir bright and heartening lyrics that there were some golden moments even in lockdown. Nature was allowed to flourish for the first time in more then a century. People were forced to slow right down and reconnect with one another, digging deep into their souls to light upon a more profound significance to their collective and personal significance.
The song speaks of regeneration ; “shedding one's skin” and “changing the light that comes in”. It sings of breaking away from worn emotional grooves to reach for something luminous and glowing inside oneself. It has jazz chords but isn't a typical jazz ballad. It also has chord changes inspired by the music of Pete Townsend and the Who, one of my favourite British rock bands! As luck would have it, I met Townsend, one of my all time musical heroes in the summer of 2025 and was blessed to be able to tell him how his musical influence had permeated the song.
The process of songwriting doesn't always come easily. On this occasion, words, melodies and chord changes seemed to flood the compositional palette making it less of a sweat. Who knows, perhaps I was shedding my own skin as a songwriter in the process?
