Armour project, Booth Centre Manchester, 13th July 2017
Behind
brittle barriers
Here's a
question. Is it possible to get a group of non-musicians together in a room for
a couple of hours and get them to write a song? I was asked by Arthur &
Martha to come to the Booth Centre in Manchester to help them find out. I'm
pleased to report that it certainly is possible!
Although none
of our group had direct experience of writing songs they were certainly no
strangers to creativity and ideas came thick and fast. We started by thinking about the theme of our
song – that of armour and protection. We did some exercises to help us find
words associated with armour and words related to how armour makes us feel –
safe, secure, protected.
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| Matt Hill and Christine |
To give us some
inspiration we spent some time listening to and discussing a song called 'I am
a rock' which was a hit song for Simon & Garfunkel back in 1965. The
character in the song is someone who has been hurt deeply and is now a loner,
without friends, hiding behind a self constructed wall.
'I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty,
That none
may penetrate.
I am
shielded in my armor, hiding in my room, save within my womb.
I touch no
one and no one touches me.
I am a Rock,
I am an island.'
© Paul Simon
1965
We wondered
what might have happened to this person to make him that way? We thought the
most likely cause would be a family or relationship breakdown. Those kinds of problems are a known factor in causing homelessness and we found other parallels to the
issues homeless people face.
The discussion
touched on the extreme vulnerability of sleeping rough, when a sleeping bag is
your only armour. We talked about how drugs and alcohol can create an emotional
fortress giving a (false) sense of protection. Above all we felt a sense of
strong sadness that the person in 'I am a rock' was cutting themselves off from
possible support and help. We decided our song would have some elements of
positivity about love, faith and support.
‘The whole thing (‘I am a rock’) is about me. But I am coming out of it. I want to face the music, not run away- to give up on love is to give up on life.’ Karlton
When we came to
write our song we zoomed in on the word 'barrier'. A barrier can be something
that is put in place to keep people out. But it can also be put in place to
offer us protection and keep us safe. We liked that it had two different sides
to it. We discussed the implications of this – positive and negative – on
people who put up barriers to others.
An effective
technique in songwriting is alliteration where several words beginning with
the same letter are strung together. We decided to adopt this and went for
'Behind brittle barriers' as our title. We included the word 'brittle' to
reflect that emotional barriers can be broken down, given the right amount of
love and support.
'I didn't know I had this in me.' Christine.
'I didn't know I had this in me.' Christine.
After some
thrashing out of melody and chords (we definitely wanted the song's music to
sound upbeat) we arrived at a finished version just as our 2 hour deadline
approached. We then ran downstairs to do a very quick and impromptu
performance! (video link)
As a songwriter
I've never worked on a song that was finished so quickly or one that was so
truly collaborative. Each person in the group contributed something useful and
different and the song reflects that with a broad range of ideas. Above all
what I get from the song is a sense of hope – that everyone – brothers,
sisters, fathers, mothers – are hiding behind barriers of some kind, but that
they are brittle and with hope and faith in each other we can find the support
we need.
SONG LINK -
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| Gavin stitching for the Armour project |
SONG LYRICS
Behind brittle barriers
Behind brittle
barriers you can't feel safe
Behind brittle
barriers you can't feel the bass
Barriers block
the way, push obstacles away
Behind brittle
barriers
Cradle me in
your arms and keep me safe
Don't let me
loose or lose my faith
Behind brittle
barriers, behind brittle barriers
People behind
brittle barriers
Clashing
through conflict (Behind brittle barriers)
Sisters and
mothers (Behind brittle barriers)
Encased in
emotions (Behind brittle barriers)
Fathers and
brothers (Behind brittle barriers)
Behind brittle
barriers, behind brittle barriers
People behind
brittle barriers
Soul, child,
adult (Behind brittle barriers)
Don't lose your
faith (Behind brittle barriers)
Barriers block
the way
Push obstacles
away
People behind
brittle barriers
Behind brittle
barriers, behind brittle barriers
People behind
brittle barriers
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