The story behind the song
The doer-dreamer problem
Someone once told me I was more of a dreamer than a doer. They meant it as a criticism. I have spent a long time thinking about whether they were right, and if they were, whether that is actually a problem.
This song is my answer.
“But if we’re all just doing what’s been done a thousand times before / Then who’s gonna dream in colour while the world fades to monochrome?”
The dreamer is not the obstacle. The dreamer is how things change.
Buried colours
There is a section of the song I am most proud of. It is the moment where the protagonist admits they have actually played it safe themselves, they locked their own colours away:
“I used to see it vivid, every shade and every hue / But playing safe’s the sensible thing, at least that’s what they say to do / The bills don’t pay themselves, the risk feels way too steep / So I locked my colours in a box and buried them down deep.”
That is honest. Most people who criticise dreamers for dreaming have buried something themselves. It is easier to criticise the person still trying than to acknowledge you stopped.
One stone, one ripple
The central image is simple. A stone dropped in a still pond. One small action. One wave, travelling further than you would expect.
“We could be the ripple in a still and silent pond / One small wave that travels on and on and on.”
That is what creativity does. It travels. It reaches people you will never meet. It becomes something you did not plan. You do not need to start a revolution. You just need to drop your stone.
This is a male-female folk rock duet. One voice defiant and dreaming, one voice more cautious and guarded. The song is the conversation between them. By the final chorus, they have found each other in it.
Listen to “The ripple” from the album In the fog.
