The Spikes

An album of ethereal beauty. It is cinematic — an emotional and personal journey. Musically it is more stripped back and quieter than previous material, but also a lot more complex: more layered and atmospheric. Each song is meant to resonate not only emotionally but personally with the listener. None of the songwriting is on the nose. My intention is for listeners to feel the emotion of the song through the music and lyrics, experience it, and interpret that into their own life — their own feelings of life, love and loneliness.

• Dancing (In the Palm of My Hand)

  A powerful plunge into the delicate space between desire and despair. Inspired by the themes of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the song captures the relentless ache of chasing the unattainable — longing, loss and raw emotion, where each note unravels the threads of memory and myth. A song about facing the poignant beauty of what can never truly be held.

• Sapling Tree

  The idea of a traveler's random experiences — life itself as a diverse and chaotic journey. The song uses a 'cut-up' technique, like William Burroughs, to randomly arrange sentences and create fragmented images of love, tragedy and memory. The chorus offers hope and order in the chaos. Its promo was filmed in Tangier, Morocco, where the cut-up technique was invented.

• Garden Song

  A traditional, honest love song — the most classic song written for the album. With love came a feeling of safety and security: no matter what happens out there in the real world, there is always safety in each other's arms, or each other's garden.