Return Me

T he meaning of “home” is a recurring theme in my songwriting. I found myself writing about it again in the midst of what felt like a watershed moment last year when the world’s media turned its attention to the climate crisis.

I started, once again, to ask myself if it is time at last to return to my first home – by the Blackwood River where I grew up and where my family still live. It’s a question that seems to have no answer, despite the number of songs I have dedicated to it.

This year everyone’s life has taken another, unexpected existential turn – I’ve talked to friends who have found themselves asking similar questions and perhaps struggling to put a finger on where that safe place is that they would return to if they could.

For me, it’s not just a physical place, it’s also a moment in time – ‘home’ is my childhood: naïve and splashing in the river after school on hot, summer afternoons where crickets clicked a casual tempo and life felt immortal. I feel incredibly fortunate to have those memories, like a luxurious soft blanket I can wrap myself in when the worries mount up.

I hope you all are safe and well out there, and that this song can give you pause for thought and help connect you with your own safe place, wherever that may be.

Emily x