The Story of Silence: Feeling all Medieval

I recently read The Story of Silence by Alex Myers and it reminded me of the power of books to transport us to other worlds, other periods, other lives. It is about a knight, assigned female at birth, who is raised as a boy for inheritance purposes. Set across southern England and northern France, it ultimately becomes a book about discovering your gender identity, nestled into this world of swords and castles, wizards and dragons, minstrels and lots of watered-down wine. I didn’t just enjoy the book, but felt lost in the medieval world, so much so that I started to write a (rather ahistorical) song based on these vibes - not a song that I’ll be sharing, but just one written to express my fascination with this world I’d been absorbed by. 

Lewis Chessmen at the British Museum (one of the few medieval-themed pictures I had in my camera roll)

The process of getting lost in a world and then needing to express this through song is nothing new. Steinbeck’s America in Of Mice and Men was one world that I found myself drawn into, and turned out to be essential to the writing of The Dog is Dead. But it isn’t just that I’ll become transfixed by a story and then decide to write a song; I NEED to write a song. Songwriting is not typically something I proactively decide I’ll be doing - it is something that I am suddenly compelled to do. Whether this is inspired by a strong emotion, a random thought, or a particularly enrapturing book, I do not decide to write, but instead I feel I have to write or I’ll burst (dramatic, I know, but I don’t know how else to explain it). So it was only natural when my enjoyment of The Story of Silence led to a song, as many things do. 

I’m glad of this constant reminder that songwriting is an inherent part of who I am and how I express myself, and that will remain true whatever world I dip my toes into in the future.