Although more comfortable playing fingerstyle guitar, Far Away Blonde (AKA Julie Horton) describes her piano playing more as ‘hopelessly amateur tinkering’ to see if a new song emerges. The result is ‘I’ve Travelled Far’, a sublime, tender song that outlines life’s knotty twists and turns without a hint of bitterness (“Nobody’s out, no one’s alone,” she discloses, bathed in a warm sonic wash, “we’re all in the light heading home”).
‘I got a little refrain going – the mood evolving, and the vocal ‘Mmmm’s’ just naturally emerged, mirroring my contemplation I guess – making a pathway for the lyric’.
Although Julie has travelled extensively, this song is about the life journey she only really started examining a few years ago, written nearer the beginning of that search.
‘At this point right now, I can only really say that I’ve come to one conclusion: that everything is impermanent! Which is good really, as that includes suffering! We seem to be so good at hypnotising ourselves with negative thoughts, getting easily ‘broken’, when there is seldom a need – everything is coming and going as a process’.
I’ve Travelled Far is the second release, and one of two piano songs, from the upcoming debut album: ‘I sent the score to Max Greenwood, who I’d seen play several times, and was keen to have on the album. He’s just got such a lovely touch, and must have liked playing it because he gave me a take adding a six minute outro! Which I would have loved to have kept. And the electric guitar part was in my head all along, as if in conversation with the piano, giving the song a bit of a different edge’.
The arrangement of I’ve Travelled Far is a beautiful, elegant mood change to her first release, ‘Circles’, but is still, unmistakably, Far Away Blonde.
Out August 2nd on all the usual platforms.
