Living Room Sessions: Where Have All the Colours Gone
2 SEP 2019
I’m kicking off a back-catalogue series just now while I’m working on a new EP (in the name of going backwards to go forwards, or some such thing!). This consists of me making a lo-fi video in my living room at home of some of my key songs, and popping them up here with a bit of their back story. The great thing about this is that it is making me get a bunch of these up to scratch for live performance again (I see you, November), so really it’s a win for us all isn’t it.
LIVING ROOM SESSION #1.
Track: Where Have all the Colours Gone
Year of release: Dec 2014
This little number is the very first track I wrote solely as The May Project, and one of two I released together (the other was called ‘Aurora’) - they were to sit alongside a capsule clothing collection for my clothing label, Etta Every. The collection, like the song, was called ‘Where Have all the Colours Gone’, and consisted of a handful of very brightly coloured, simple pieces, built around tonal variations of primary colours. I wrote the track while studying an electronic music production course at SAE (recommend!), and I wanted it to be bright, fun and cheerful without taking itself too seriously. But life wasn’t so peachy just at that point, and naturally that juxtaposition of the ideal and the actual worked itself into the song, and as is my wont, it became a cheery sounding track with slightly less cheery lyrics. It’s a little bit wistful, I like to think, because if I do write something darker I like to sprinkle it with a dash of hope.
The image for the cover art (above) is actually layers of fabric from the collection that I threw in the air and photographed falling, and then superimposed them on top of each other. It’s a key image for me because I keep it in my mind beneath the black and white that is the visual presentation of most of what you’ll see of The May Project: a testament to the possibility of there being so much more depth hidden behind a plainer surface.
Anyway, here’s my living room take of the song, wearing Etta Every (I cringe slightly to show this, but here it is nonetheless!), and you can find lyrics, a link to the original version, and the collection gallery below. Enjoy!
Listen to the original version here
Lyrics:
Life is like a riddle when you’re stuck in misery
Staring upwards blindly, can’t see the forest for the trees
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
Chasing after shadows that are always just out of reach
Forever dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing all the ‘t’s
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
This is something new and I am simply trying to see
A new expression and a reason to believe
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
Torn apart in desperation, trying not to bleed
Reaching out for someone’s hand to hold and set me free
Where have all the colours, where have all the colours
Gone, gone?
Being awake is like being alive
I am breathing because I know
That I can see it coming,
See it beginning to change.
"Where Have all the Colours Gone" collection by Etta Every
Photography by Evie Mackay
Hair and Makeup by Lauren Gunn
Models: Bridie Crawford @ Unique Model Management and Lydia Grace @ Red Eleven
