I have this recurring dream where I discover a new room in my house. Sometimes it’s a series of rooms that loop around over various floors and secret staircases, all connecting together with breathless excitement and a callous disregard for the basic rules of structural engineering. I explore each one with childhood wonderment.
For as long as I can remember it’s popped up, changing with whatever house I’m in, adapting in tone as my life changes. For example I sometimes now get grown-up bonus commentary about where I might put a studio, or how it might affect local house prices. It’s like a mixture of Narnia, Minecraft and Rightmove.
What started as standard kid imagination now feels like an attempt to rediscover some of the lost mystery about the world, eroded by decades of slowly realising what’s actually going on here. The magic isn’t real, the big wizard is actually a regular fella behind the curtain, tomorrow will be a lot like today.
My cousin once said that becoming a dad felt like finding a new room in his heart. Not a bad turn of phrase for a scientist. When I became a parent myself, I liked the idea that the dream now represented a new dimension of love. Certainly it was written in those frequent moments between fragmented sleep and hazy awareness with a newborn, but to be honest I’m trying to stay clear of knowing what it’s really about.
I’d really hoped to feature it on the new album, make it all big and classic like an old Scott Walker record, but…. well you can’t record everything and we decided to cut it.
Maybe that’s fitting. It’s elusive, just out of reach, maybe not even real? I found a new track on my album today, then I woke up and it wasn’t there.
Except it is. Listen to the demo above, or download it here.
What do you think?
Some people have suggested I add lyrics to these posts. So I will, starting now.
Lyrics
I found a new room in my house today
And now I'm wondering how I hadn't noticed it before
I was straightening a picture on the wall
When I found the door
A room so bold and bright
Bathed in warming light
Had it been there all along?
So that's where those windows look out from
I'd seen them from the outside
But I never knew that they were mine
I found a new room in my house today
Undeniably real, could I have been so unaware?
But when I try to show somebody else
I find it's never there
A room so bold and bright
Bathed in warming light
I go there all alone
So that's where those windows look out from
I'd seen them from the outside
But I never knew that they were mine
So that's where those windows look out from
I'd seen them from the outside
But I never knew that they were mine
I Found A New Room In My House Today