Let me tell you a little about this song I entered into the CBC Seachlight contest…
“Not The Same (Without You Here)” is sung from the perspective of someone who has lost their partner and is reminiscing aloud in the hopes that they’re being heard. Kind of “love echoing through the halls of time”. Sure, there are thousands of songs like this but this one’s my take.
My dad died just recently and I was thinking of my mum when I wrote it. If anyone has lost a loved one, you know how it can leave you lost, disoriented, without anyone to talk to, and basically wondering what the hell happened and why. You can cry for weeks without anything getting better. Hopefully, at some point there comes a time when you realize the sun is shining and it’s just snowed a shitload and you’re transported back to distant memories. Remembering still makes you cry, but somehow it’s slightly better. Stating baldly like that sounds awkward, arch and sentimental. However, the song doesn’t seem to cross over into that…which is why it works.
It’s is a simple song with a country lilt to it. I don’t write many country-feel tunes, but it seemed to fit the ethos. More than that, it’s a song that means something, can be related to by almost anyone and conveys it well. This is why I entered into this “contest”.
Fun fact: it was written and recorded in the afternoon on Dec. 20, 2012. I don’t usually keep track of when (or where) I write songs but I built in “the day before the end of the world” into it so it would stick.
Okay, a final word about the Searchlight contest: I won’t be surprised if I don’t win this because it’s actually set up as a contest not of “the hunt for Canada’s best new artist” but a contest of who can harangue their legions of friends/followers through social media to vote for them every day for the next several weeks. I love the CBC, but this is not the “artist search” it’s being touted as (I’m not bitter, just seems disingenuous, especially to the non-entrants who listen to the radio every day and think this is what their tax dollars are doing…but I digress). Having said that, I would like this song to be heard by more than just 5 people and I know that if every one of you were to click that link once a day it might happen.
Also, I encourage you to listen to the song before you vote:
http://music.cbc.ca/play/artist/Jonathan-Seet/Not-The-Same-Without-You-Here
And vote with this link:
http://r3.ca/0Y5M
First round voting closes on Sunday February 24, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. ET. You can actually vote from anywhere in the world.
