Track By Track: Fionn Regan – ‘The Meeting Of The Waters’

A guide to his new opus...

Fionn Regan has always known never to anticipate when his lyricism will strike.

A wonderfully talented songwriter, he's aware that to chase the muse, to force his art, is to disrupt the wonderfully natural way his music unfolds.

And so we wait. New album 'The Meeting Of The Waters' was recorded at Abbey Road studios, and it's a carefully constructed return, one that combines sudden inspiration with the fine-honing of the studio.

Fionn penned this Track x Track guide for Clash, and we think it's rather special.

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'The Meetings Of The Waters'
Ferns they will bend
and the moon it will send
its light down your collar
your bones they will mend
I know they will

This is one of the first songs I wrote for the record and it became a light that guided the rest the songs, it's about turning over the ground and renewal.

'Cormorant Bird'
Like a lot of my songs feels to me as though it came from nowhere, it just evolved, very naturally into being. In the lyrics…

You pulled a rainbow from my skull
and you said look at that
the fire you have within
will never dim its climb
the cloud pulled it’s curtain
but a light stayed where you sat
in the blackberry bush
where the bulbs shatter white…

I’m talking about inner light prevailing and for me has a certain kinship with some of my earlier songs from the end of history.

'Turn The Sky Of Blue On'
Trace your eyes across the broken wave
summers on your wing
talk until the break of day
turn those skies of blue on

All I remember is I was sitting in the sun with a straw hat on when I wrote it… there was a summer season where a few of the songs arrived quickly, I was sat looking over a field on a slope which eventually met the sea.

'Cape Of Diamonds'
In our dreams we will talk forever more
blaze our path by the gate to shore
swim at night with the moonlight on our skin

This is another from the same summer season… it feels good to play it loud… I always wanted to write a song like this and here it is.

'Book Of The Moon'
If you got a low
I’ll be your sail
find the light source
in the storm of your head

It's a song about looking up even when things can be challenging, I always try to do this…

'Babushka – Yai Yah'
I wrote this song at the speed of light… on the way home one night, for me the album feels like it’s mostly the countryside… this is the one night in the city song… then it’s back to the countryside for the rest of the album…

'Ai'
This is pronounced “I” and means “Love” in Japanese…

'Wall Of Silver'
It’s so hard to say it
when your heart is frozen
like a winding river
below the ice keeps rolling
and you pray the sunlight
will come and crash the surface

I think this song is pretty simple and so it kind of speaks for itself in a way…

'Euphoria'
You say your hearts of glass
will it shatter on the rocks
I know about the rain
I grew up with it

This is a winter driving-through-the-mountains song…

'Up Into The Rafters'
Harbour lights they swoon for you
you’re carved into my arms
glass half full and tiger scream
the comets crown your eyes

This is a song set on the coast and it has an epic sea shanty atmosphere to it.

'Tsuneni ai'
This means ‘Always Love’ in Japanese… It’s kind of like a horizon at the end of the album – maybe it sounds like how Japan is in my imagination.

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'The Meeting Of The Waters' is out now.

For the latest Fionn Regan tickets click HERE.

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