She Brings Me Back To The Land Of The Living

Meaning can come from surprising places. In 2019, while rehabilitating from a stroke and experiencing aphasia (difficulty with speech and in her case a complete inability to speak), my mother began saying: “she brings me back to the land of the living” seemingly out of nowhere and with little knowledge of its origin or meaning. The phrase seemed fortuitous and mysteriously meaningful. It stuck with me, while I was working on the songs that became this album and it gained further meaning when in 2020 I moved back to my family home in the Dublin suburbs to become a caretaker for her. This lifestyle change and the new role provided purpose and it also helped conceptually form this album.