Pigs Flying
Episode #144: Pigs Flying\xa0 \xa0(Song starts at 5:00)\nOn this episode, I take you down to the beach. It\u2019s the place I go to relax, before I head home and do something creative - like composing a song.\nI also love being beside rivers, but since I\u2019m lucky enough to live the near the ocean, that\u2019s where I head. \nWhen I come home, I feel the creative mood come over me.\nBack in 1997, when I recorded the demo that you\u2019ll hear on this episode, I was living not far from Melbourne\u2019s CBD, a long way from the water. We did have a park nearby, so we were lucky.\nI mention the feeling that comes upon me when I realise I\u2019m in the mood to compose: It\u2019s a bit like when you\u2019re catching a train at an underground station in Melbourne, you feel the rush of air that the train is pushing before it. Then the train comes out of the tunnel and pulls up at the platform and away you go.\nIt\u2019s a bit like that when I\u2019m composing, there\u2019s the feeling, then it\u2019s almost like I get to sense the melody and chords that are coming through. The momentum is there - and away I go.\nLike when I wrote 'Pigs Flying', for instance. Back in 1992 I was often getting home at about 3am from a piano bar gig and some night clubbing. I\u2019d get into my nice warm water bed\u2026 yep they were popular, back then(very welcome warmth if it had been a long wintery frost walk home in the night).\nI\u2019d often pick up my pen and paper and write a few pages of lyrics. They were often complete, not requiring too much editing.\nA day or two later, the feeling of songwriting would hit me, so I\u2019d sit at my old upright piano, pull out a page of lyrics and see what chords and melody came through.\nIt\u2019s a habit - a positive, creative one. I\u2019ve never been one to just whack out a song for the heck of it. I only compose when I feel I\u2019m really in the zone - and I write for the pleasure of writing.\nThere\u2019s an element of performance when you\u2019re writing a song, the words and music seem to put something in motion and you pick up on the energy and steer it through to the end. It\u2019s a real pleasure.\nIt\u2019s also a pleasure talking about this sort of process on these episodes - there\u2019s a few online now (144!).\nI hope you enjoy hearing about how this song came together, what inspired it, plus the song itself - and a visit to the beach.\nSound good? Here we go\u2026.