Waiting for the Good News
Written: Late 2014
Recorded: February 2021
Credits: Liam Johnson (guitar)
Waiting for the Good News is the oldest track to feature on this album having been reincarnated from my EP release "No Pressure." The inclusion of this track for the album is for the simple reason that it holds a very special place in my heart because of what it means to me. Starting university and moving away from home for the first time, I found myself having to confront many of my anxieties head-on. After years of struggling to find and maintain friends in secondary school, I found myself in exactly the same situation at university. The feeling of loneliness that I was over-eager to shed had once again become the norm and it crippled me into depression.
I started to believe that my one true companion through life was going to be my guitar and therefore my music. Having bought a new guitar upon my arrival at university with some scholarship money, I became inspired to start writing this piece. I didn't have any preconceptions for what it was going to be. As it developed, the mood of the piece felt like a balancing act between optimism and melancholy as it wavered between major and minor keys, unsettled from start to finish. It allowed me to express my inner turmoil at the time and felt healing at any rate.
When performance classes eventually started and everybody had to perform to the class, I performed this piece to them and gave it everything. For the first time in my life, it felt like I was able to explain how I truly felt to people who were actually listening without needing to say a word. Once I had finished, I suddenly felt connected with them and the loneliness had left my body replacing it with a feeling of fulfillment. A lot of emotional baggage had been lifted from my shoulders that day and that's subsequently what this piece has represented for me. Afterwards, I came up with the perfect title to describe that crippling feeling I was so used to before. Luckily for me, the good news had arrived.
The recording of the piece for this album has been left in one take with all its imperfections left in as a reminder that no matter how self-critical you can be, there's no need to feel shame for your mistakes. You don't need to be perfect. You just need to be you.