Some Things Just Come Undone
“Of course, I go through dark periods and and for sure getting divorced was really intense and really hard. I think it’s hard because it’s not what you necessarily had pictured happening in your life and and there’s a lot of fracturing that happens. It isn’t just two people, it’s like this knock-on effect. It’s like you’re your extended families, everything is affected because the world that you had is split in two and and so, yeah, that’s hard, it takes readjustment. I wrote “Some Things Just Come Undone” because, yeah, that was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do as a parent. Your whole purpose and everything that you want to do is to protect your child, to create a world for them that’s safe and beautiful and, when you’re about to tell them that you’re going to be shattering that world, it’s the worst thing you can ever imagine having to do. You’re telling your kid, “I’m sorry, but this world is about to fall apart that I worked so hard to create for you”, and it’s that also I think the reason I wrote that song, or needed to write the song, was it was this incredible conflict within myself. I always want to be very truthful with my child, very honest and so I thought well do I do I show him my emotion, do I show him how much pain I’m in? Or, do I remain strong for his sake? And I was really torn about which which was best for him and so I decided to put the song on the record because I felt that I’m probably not the only one who’s gone through this very difficult task of having to present your child with this information.”Heather Nova (1312)
The Archeologist
“I’d had an experience that had inspired me that was new. I’d gone to Pompeii to take my son there for a historical visit but then I was so surprised at how moved I was by thinking about the lives of the people you know buried down, and how archeologists dig down and find all these these parts of people’s lives and how, in a way, it’s so personal. You know, you find one little comb or something and you think god that would that was somebody’s really personal possession and that represented moments in their life. I started thinking about also how songwriters in a way are archaeologists because we dig down below the surface. I was needing to do that. We need to do that in relationships a lot, I think, go below the surface and find out what’s down there and what we can drag up and then what’s still alive.”Heather Nova (1313)
Sea Change
“I was in a in a little boat, I live out on an island so when I go anywhere I have to go by boat. It’s a small 11 foot boat with a little outboard engine and i was going across the bay to see my sister. It had been kind of stormy the day before and then it was a beautiful clear day and i just felt that appreciation of of how we’ve got to just grab onto those those good days. And then metaphorically within a relationship because relationships are so ebb and flow, and high and low. It’s those days that are that are good that that you live for.”Heather Nova (1313)
Girl On The Mountain
“I wrote that song for a friend of mine who was going through a difficult time and I wanted to write a song of hope. [The line “you gave the little bird her wings”, what was that about? – Ed.] It’s about remembering when you were a child and you had that strength in yourself and that courage.”Heather Nova (1313)
I’m Air
“That’s a song about…enlightenment is something that you only just, well I can only speak for myself, I only get little glimpses of it. That’s a song about actually how I realized that to be vulnerable is, in a way, a lot stronger than being strong, than being tough because when you’re trying to be strong you’re putting walls around yourself and when you’re vulnerable, you’re open and so you are exposed and you’re able to look more deeply at who you are and you’re able to engage more genuinely with life and with other people because because you’re not building up a wall of protection. That’s a really hard thing to do and it’s something that I realized but I’m still working on.”Heather Nova (1313)
Sea Glass
“I was kind of talking about situations where maybe you go in there and you try to (if someone’s done something that upsets you), I tend to go and talk to them about it and want to know why it happened. It’s a strength and weakness of mine in a way because I always want to know the truth but sometimes that disrupts somebody’s… I don’t know, a lot a lot of people like to just bury stuff and let it go. Sea Glass is basically beach glass. It’s the glass that’s been, someone throws a bottle in the sea and it breaks and then over time the the sea softens it so it’s like a really beautiful piece of of glass. It’s not dangerous anymore and so it’s this thing that’s been washed by the sea and by time, but it’s still very, very lovely and so that was my metaphor for the truth in in this song.”Heather Nova (1313)
Moon River Days
“It’s about my son. The first song on the record and the last song are both for my son. It’s really about that feeling, it’s kind of a song I wrote in which I can feel the nostalgia before it’s over. It’s hard to explain, but it’s about letting go and realizing that childhood is so brief and my son was ten when i wrote that, and I realized that, just around the corner, he’s going to be a teenager and that’s a very big change. He’s probably not going to want to hang out with me as much, and so it’s that bitter sweetness of your child growing up, so I’m just trying to enjoy the moment.”Heather Nova (1313)
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