(3/6/5) 022: TJ Douglas - Spring Turns Into Summer
In case you missed the very exciting news, yesterday was the 14th anniversary of Gold Flake Paint. We formed on May 14th 2010, with little thought but a lot of heart. So a quick thankyouthankyouthankyou for being here to support this new journey, it really means so much to still have an audience after all this time, and all the ups-and-downs, and all the many shapes we've taken over that time.
When I think of what means the most to me from over those years, I think of artists like TJ Douglas. We first covered TJ's music many years ago on the old blog, and they quickly became one of my very favourite songwriters, the kind of which I probably would never have found if it wasn't for being a part of this wider community of good people doing good things, all for the sake of the song.
To see TJ still making beautiful music after so long feels me such joy and also helps tie our own story into something bigger, something more meaningful. I'm not sure how much sense that makes, but such soundtracks don't just give our lives so extra meaning, they also sit like marker points along the track, giving our memories of people and places - many of which we've left behind - even more context and significance. What a special and strange thing it is.
TJ is gearing up for the release of Dying, their fifth LP, and 'Spring Turns Into Summer' is a forthright and fortifying pick from it. Endearingly earnest, as always, the track is a piano ballad of searing sincerity. Throw a dart at any line here and get it tattooed on your skin, there's little chance you'll come to regret it.
And Spring turns into Summer
And death turns into life
And I turn into someone else
It happens all the time
and you have a story you love to tell
and a story that loves to tell you
tell me the story about when you learned
which one was telling the truth
Here, TJ's voice is tender and patient, close enough to be an arm around your shoulder, a hand to hold in the dark. Throughout, it's joined only by acoustic guitar and piano, and the result is something heavy but heart-warming, one of those moments that hovers through the house, across floorboards and through doors, to hold you in place wherever it finds you for its four-minutes or so.
A quiet reminder of the power of song.
A quiet reminder of why we're even here at all.
Dying is released June 14th and available to pre-order
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three / six / five is a daily music-sharing project from gold flake paint; read more about the idea here
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