Those Tired Eyes

In 2002 I moved from my homes in North Wales to London to begin an undergraduate degree in Music Technology. This was done with the express intention of quickly becoming a pop star. I'm writing this in late 2023 and I still fully intend to be a pop star, just you wait and see.

On moving to London I quickly launched into the open mic circuit and began gigging fairly regularly, playing my own songs. Playing solo with just my acoustic guitar is something I've done a lot over the past 20 years, but if I'm honest I don't really enjoy it. When I write songs I hear a much fuller version in my head than I'm able to re-create with just my voice and acoustic guitar, so after a couple of years of playing, to my mind, incomplete versions of my songs to some very small audiences, the enjoyment had dissipated somewhat.

The inevitability of life in London also lead to me getting a "proper job" and over the next few years, whilst I did write some songs (some of which are now being properly produced and released) these became fallow years for me in terms of songwriting and performing.

In 2013 I moved back to North Wales and shortly after to my current home in Chester with my partner, Dawn. Through connections with old friends I quickly began gigging, but this time on the covers-band circuit. I joined a band called The Perpetrators and began playing solo again, but performing covers. I fully intended to begin writing and producing my own songs, I built up my home studio and with my knowledge of music production was well ready to begin writing and producing. But it didn't happen. Band practice, gigs, work, life in general, all provided ample opportunities to not do the thing that I kept meaning to do.

Then COVID happened, and like billions of other people I found myself stuck at home with nothing other than my day job, which I was now doing from home, to keep me occupied. I launched my Youtube channel, did some live-streamed gigs, and began regularly uploading acoustic covers. There were no more excuses so I finally got round to writing and recording my own songs again. The first of which was Those Tired Eyes. A love song about the endurance and flourishing of love through the most mundane of things, I was both proud and excited to discover that I could not only still write a tune, but could actually put my knowledge and home studio to some use.

I decided to make a video. Many of us had been launched into the world of incessant Zoom meetings, and I chose that as the format, asking friends and family to make short recordings that I could drop in. I'm still really pleased and proud of the result: a silly, feel-good pop song with an entertaining video featuring many of my favourite people.

You can watch the video above, and read the lyrics below.