Yes, I’m playing my first London gig in a wee while this weekend! Don’t forget to check the other dates I have but if you’re around this Sunday, you can come to The Gunners Pub in Finsbury and enjoy a set from myself and two other musicians. I’ll be on at 8:30pm.
It’s been a busy busy week for me as my sister just got married and I have been in Scotland for the last 6 days. It was such a beautiful and fun week and now I am very very sleepy! I am finishing up this newsletter in the airport as my flight is delayed. Hopefully I get home with the last London train (editors note: she did not make the last train and got home at 1:30am).
I have been taking a minute or two to think about this newsletter and the things that I can offer you, and have realised I have a whole treasure trove of demos that you may not have heard yet. So today I want to share one of them with you.
My friend Hannah (who has started her own newsletter! go check it out) and I had a project in 2021 which involved writing songs based off of Craigslist adverts. The adverts we chose were always peculiar classifieds, and this one in particular was about someone finding a dead bird in their mailbox.
Hannah wrote the lyrics for this one and sent them over to me, I wrote a melody and recorded this demo:
Lyrics
can a bird reincarnate while falling?
i could drop it off the roof
what am i supposed to do
with a dead bird in my mailbox?
i have used the strongest disinfectant
but the odour sticks around
you must be insane, cuckoo
to leave a dead bird in my mailbox
who who
put the dead bird
put the dead bird in my
who who
put the dead bird
in my mailbox?
is a shoebox better than a flannel?
would a carton do the job?
what did i do to inspire you
to put a dead bird in my mailbox?
i don’t have a garden for a funeral
should i leave it in the park
under the trees that it once knew
r.i.p. dead bird in my mailbox
who who
put the dead bird
put the dead bird in my
who who
put the dead bird
in my mailbox?
now the bird has flown to higher places
i am picking up the mess
what did i do to deserve to
find a dead bird in my mailbox?
when i lie awake at night it haunts me
i hear birdsong in my sleep
who will come to rescue, a dead bird in a mailbox?
who who
put the dead bird
put the dead bird in my
who who
put the dead bird
in my mailbox?
Hannah and I have plans to release these Craigslist songs one day, but we have been so busy with our other projects that we’ve had to put this one on pause. It will happen one day! It was such a delight to write with Hannah and I have no doubt we will be working together again, soon enough.
things i liked
✶ I am writing this whilst listening to this performance from Olafur Arnalds, and am desperately wishing I was in Iceland right now
✶ I’m taking Marlee Grace’s newsletter class on Skillshare and have been enjoying learning some new things and reinforcing stuff I already know about writing a weekly newsletter.
✶ I have been obsessively listening to this Treasure Planet song and I can’t even pretend its bad, it is so good and I love the Goo Goo Dolls for the two songs they put into the world which grace my ears on a regular basis
✶ Chalky, my sister’s neighbour cat:
Thanks for listening, and I will be sharing some more treasures from the ‘vault’ soon enough!
Don’t forget, you can support this project directly by taking a minute to do one of these things:
buying a ‘Gneiss Guy’ tote bag on my Bandcamp
listening to my music on Spotify and adding it to your playlists
forwarding this newsletter to a friend!
and if you haven’t already, subscribe:
Til next time! Be good,
Olivia 🌈✨🏔🎶
