Andrew Stonehome

This song was likely inspired by my first experience with significant depression, which happened during a flood in my hometown when I was 17 years old. At least, I’m assuming that’s where the water and flooding analogies came from because I didn’t connect those dots when I was writing it, which seems odd in retrospect. 

I’ve struggled with depression at various times throughout my life and initially struggled to talk about it with anyone. That’s become easier to do now that I’m more comfortable with myself and as we’ve started doing a better job of working to remove the stigma associated with mental health. I’ve also struggled with anxiety and that’s the theme of a song that I’ll be releasing in the not-too-distant future. As an introvert who loves creating things by myself and just being alone in general, I’m also prone to depression and anxiety when I isolate myself too much. This has been a struggle for me over the past few years while working on this music in isolation. 

The flood that happened in my hometown of Grand Forks, ND was significant. The entire town had to evacuate, the president visited, and our prom was held in the middle of summer in an Air Force base hangar with the band Soul Asylum playing. I got sick after sandbagging one day, which ended up lasting for weeks. I spent most of the time in my grandma’s basement, sleeping, learning how to play James Taylor songs on the guitar, and watching movies (“Sling Blade” and “Welcome to the Dollhouse” were favorites). 

A couple of other notes about this one: 

• There’s a John Denver reference buried in the end of this song - a reference to Olivia Newton-John’s part at the end of the song “Fly Away”.  
• I love the sound of pedal steel guitars with effects that people like Daniel Lanois get and this song is one where I tried to get a similar effect. 
• Some people don’t like it when strings are added to songs that are pop/rock oriented. I’m not one of them. At least in most cases, I would love the sound of playing with a symphony because it seems like it can elicit an emotional element that I can’t get without it.

As with all of the songs on my debut album, I wrote,  performed, recorded and mixed myself it in my 104 year-old house.