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Other Half of My Heart – inspiration

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The lyrics for “Other Half of My Heart” are here.

If you look at the lyrics for this song, it’s pretty obvious that it’s a love song. You can interpret it any way you like, and make it about anyone that you want. But if you’d like to know who I wrote it about, well then, it’s about my sister Naseem.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/–wKewJIQYPc/VGOAXlhikdI/AAAAAAAAB2o/vwFs3DfUJGM/s144-c-o/USA%2525202011%252520202.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/118294268219415625349/Blog#6080845064578437586″ caption=”USA 2011 202.jpg” type=”image” alt=”USA 2011 202.jpg” pe2_gal_align=”center” ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Hole in My Heart – inspiration

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The lyrics for “Hole in My Heart” are here.

There is an inherent yearning in every human being for something that is greater than themselves; something that transcends their day-to-day existence. You could that that we have a space or a hole inside of us that needs to be filled with something awesome and great. We attempt to satisfy this yearning in a myriad ways: some are constructive, others less so, and some are even harmful to ourselves and others.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-xrdfBt-CXho/VGOAKqVBoOI/AAAAAAAAB2U/aAW6FC39Z78/s144-c-o/sexdrugsmoney.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/118294268219415625349/Blog#6080844842529824994″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”sexdrugsmoney.jpg” ]

In this song, I explore a few examples of the common kinds of things that we pursue to satisfy this yearning: the first being money and status, the second being sexual gratification, and the third being a drug-induced high. I’d like to argue that these are not constructive ways of filling the “hole”; there are better, nobler and more effective ways of achieving happiness and fulfilment as human beings. That’s the point I’m trying to make in this song.

It’s All Illusion – inspiration

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The lyrics for “It’s All Illusion” are here.

Any fans of the poet T. S. Eliot will recognise the phrase “a face to meet the faces that you meet”, taken from his poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”:

“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet…”

I think Eliot has articulated so concisely and yet descriptively a phenomena that we all experience and perpetuate ourselves: we put on a face to the world that does not necessarily reflect what is really going on in our minds and hearts. In the age of Facebook and social media this is especially the case: we can be selective, picking and choosing what we want the world to see and believe about ourselves.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-18ET1Kwxrwg/VGOAQF4hBJI/AAAAAAAAB2g/NvPTvAAnbHA/s144-c-o/T_S_Eliot.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/118294268219415625349/Blog#6080844935825786002″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”T_S_Eliot.jpg” ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Beautiful Soul – lyrics

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Beautiful Soul

Every boy and every girl
Born with such a beautiful soul
Is taught ugliness in this world
Haven’t you heard?
Haven’t you heard?

Such an innocent creature
Born into this life
Carries no preconceptions, no wrongs
But we teach them to be cautious of the other
Not to just trust and love one another
“It’s dangerous”, we say

Every boy and every girl
Born with such a beautiful soul
Is taught ugliness in this world
Haven’t you heard?
Every boy and every girl
Born with such a beautiful soul
Is taught ugliness in this world
Haven’t you heard?

Haven’t you heard?

And wherever you go now
Those little eyes are watching
Every evil you harbour, they’ll see
Please don’t behave as if you think only of yourself
Without considering the needs of anyone else
You know what is at play

[Chorus]

It’s so absurd
How we teach them to choose darkness over light
They heed our word
When we tell them they should fight
Instead of stand up for what is right

[Chorus x2]

Haven’t you heard?
Haven’t you heard?
Haven’t you heard?
Haven’t you heard?

Beautiful Soul – inspiration

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The lyrics for “Beautiful Soul” are here.

In the house where I grew up, we had a copy of the painting “Temily Means Peace” by Western Australian artist Chelinay Gates (shown below) hanging on our living room wall. This picture was a strong image in my mind throughout my childhood, symbolising harmony and unity in diversity. My parents taught me that it didn’t matter what your racial or religious background was, we were all members of one human family. I learnt these beautiful and powerful words: “Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch.” (Bahá’u’lláh)

Temily Means Peace - Beautiful Soul

As I grew up, though, I realised that not everyone was being showered with these same ideals of harmony and unity as I was. In a society where prejudice is such a stealthy but pervasive reality, I found it difficult for myself personally to remain aloof of all the muck and not to succumb to the same preconceived assumptions, indifference and apathy that plagued so many others.
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In the studio, recording our second album

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Here are some snaps from our sessions at Soundbaker Studio, recording my second album!

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In the studio! Recording album #2…

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Shameem is busy in the recording studio during December and January, recording her second album! There will be more news of upcoming shows soon, so please stay tuned. Meanwhile, Shameem would like to thank everyone who contributed to the crowd funding campaign to make this album recording possible – she has thanked all supporters individually in this blog article and this blog article (look for your name!). Thanks to the generous contributions of 104 supporters, 104% of the target amount was achieved.[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-sU9l6G3EnQA/UqRqXz-nnNI/AAAAAAAABNQ/-UHSt90OcbY/s144-c-o/Album%252520Recording%252520011.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/118294268219415625349/Blog#5955001564613024978″ caption=”Shameem dons her cans” type=”image” alt=”Album Recording 011.jpg” pe2_single_image_size=”h400″ pe2_img_align=”center” ]

Crowd funding in November

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November was the second half of our crowd funding campaign, during which time we met and exceeded our target! Enormous amounts of gratitude to everyone who contributed making this sophomore album project possible! I continued to take a “thank you” picture every few days to express my gratitude to all the supporters. Your names are here:

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/118294268219415625349/albumid/5954990946000052241?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]

Crowd funding in October

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We launched the crowd funding campaign for our next album on Monday 7th October, and we’re now almost halfway through the 56-day campaign. It’s been an amazing journey, and I’ve been so blown away by how amazingly supportive and generous everyone has been of the project. Within the first 24 hours we had already met 25% per cent of our target, which climbed to over 40% after one week, 67% after two weeks and 81% after three weeks!
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Crowd funding campaign – the video!

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Today is Day 1 of my crowd funding campaign! Details of the campaign are already on my News page, so I just wanted to give a shout out here to the team from Red Bird Creative who donated their time, talent and skills to creating this neat little video for the campaign – thank you Zoe, Sam, Reece and Natasha!