My fellow monkeys,

Woohoo, here’s some new music!  ”Softly Softly Catchee Monkey: an über-acoustic, inter-album EP, made for primates, by primates,” has been released!  Produced by Neil Shah and featuring Massimo Majorana on drums and percussion, it’s been a whole lot of fun to record this three-song acoustic project and release it as something a little different in between full-length albums.  It’s now available on iTunes and the usual online retailers.  Click here for more details.

A word about the title:

Softly Softly Catchee Monkey is an expression I first heard used by my dad as I was growing up – I have some vague recollection of hearing him say it during a chess match when I was a kid (nerd alert!).  Bemused by the absurdity of the phrase, I would shake my head at its use (it’s not unusual to hear it in New Zealand), but began to understand that the phrase was used to indicate a cunning, patient and determined tactic.  I’m going to simplify here, because I’ve heard variations on the same theme (even the phrase itself alternatively appears as “Slowly Slowly”, rather than “Softly Softly”), but the origins can be found in a strategy used to catch monkeys in the wild – namely a stealthy, measured and persistent approach.

When I began playing some unplugged duo shows with Neil Shah in New York, I joked one day about our acoustic renditions of the ALL or NOTHING songs being “Softly Softly Catchee Monkey” versions, for no other reason than we were playing them quieter and more softly than usual.  The name stuck.  When our enjoyment of the stripped-back versions of the songs led to the recording of new songs for this EP, and the time came to choose a title, it struck me that not only did Softly Softly Catchee Monkey make musical sense, but it also encapsulated an underlying theme of the songs.

It sometimes seems that the journey of self-discovery is a little like catching monkeys in the wild – no sooner has a layer of self-deception been dispensed with, than another appears, in the same way that a monkey will dart off just as the would-be catcher is certain that the game is over.  There’s always more waiting to be revealed, and the further one goes, the more the mystery deepens.

I wrote No Solid Ground during a time of being frustrated with my tendency to chase after some idea of perfection, and in doing so, miss the perfection that was already here.  And that pretty much sums up the title for me: hunting for something that can’t be grasped, held or contained, and so missing it again and again between glimpses and near misses.  Until, finally, the hunt is abandoned, only to reveal that damned little monkey laughing and pointing from a nearby tree, having all the while been following close behind.

Recording Softly Softly Catchee Monkey

In other news…More or Less, the third radio single from ALL or NOTHING in New Zealand, is scheduled to begin airing on NZ radio in March.  Hiding So Long has made its Australian radio debut and is gathering momentum as the first Australian radio single from ALL or NOTHING.

Softly Softly Catchee Monkey: an über-acoustic, inter-album EP, made for primates, by primates.

*A short collection of acoustic tracks released after ALL or NOTHING, as a musical interlude, prior to the recording of Simon’s second full-length album.*

Read about the title, Softly Softly Catchee Monkey, here.

Track list

1. No Solid Ground lyrics
2. Whisper From The Dark lyrics
3. Hiding So Long (acoustic) lyrics CHORDS
   

Album Credits

• All words and music by Simon Spire
• Produced by Neil Shah
• Simon Spire – lead and background vocals, guitar
• Neil Shah – piano, violin, background vocals
• Massimo Majorana – drums and percussion
• Recorded at Neil Shah Studios
• Mastered by Rick Fisher at RFI/CD Mastering

Where To Purchase

• iTunes
• CD Baby
• Amazon
• and other online retailers

*

Sorry I’m too late for you

It’s taken all this time to move

And how long have you waited here, but I never heard my name

I’ve been in love with photographs while you fade

Like a tourist in a gallery, keeping two feet away

But long have we been free?

*

I should have known better than to break a heart

I should have known better than to tear it apart

I should have but I couldn’t and it’s beating without a sound, not a sound

*

I saw a glimmer of a shadow and it was shimmering

I’d like to know how to get to where it was living in

And the soul of the world took a big deep breath it was hovering

In a song that washed over it all

*

And if I had it all over again I wouldn’t wait until the end

We’re here, we’re leaving it bare

I won’t miss it once more I’ll never miss it again

*

I should have known better than to break a heart

I should have known better than to tear it apart

I should have but I couldn’t and it’s beating without a sound, not a sound

I should have known better than to break a heart

I should have known better than to tear it apart

But now I hear it in a whisper from the dark, singing out

*

Call my name once more out loud

So I can hear a forgotten sound

And a touch I never knew

A hand is opening

I’ve been staring at silhouettes

But I won’t miss it again not again

And I’ll never say, Not too close to me

And you can set it all free

*

How long have you waited here?

How long have you waited here?

*

And if I had it all over again, I wouldn’t wait until the end

Whatever I was trying to find was a wasted life

There’s no safety line this time no

*

Chorus

*

I’ve been in love with photographs…

But how long have we been free?

*

Is there a place where the ground won’t move?

A carefully organized, single room

I’d search every corner, exposing my lies

So nothing is left as a nasty surprise

*

I will admit

As much as I would like to get it right I’m still mystified

And I will admit

Even with all I want to be I might just end up me

*

I’ve been here before I never thought I’d return

As if I had learned all I needed to learn

But what a beautiful surprise to find, that what is found is too big to be held

Saying once more there’s no solid ground

*

I will admit

As much as I would like to get it right I’m still mystified

And I will admit

Even with all I want to be I might just end up me

*

Why does the earth seem to fly without having to try?

Why does the sight of the mystery, move too fast to be seen?

And why is the moment I find what’s here, the moment it disappears?

So I sit down and stop; and look around and see,

What am I trying to be? If only it were me

*

I try not to try but tonight any more seems like less

And I feel the sky laughing as each mountain-top reveals the next

And I wish I could tell all that I wanted to say

And I wish I could just hold it all

Here in my arms and kiss it all today

*

Chorus

*

I try not to try; I’m still mystified.