I received some terrible news today... At the end of 2020, my closest friend from my late childhood/teens passed away.

We did everything together; same school and class, bike rides after school and to each others houses on weekends, learnt guitar, discovered our own music (outside parents influence), got into playing video games, watched all the action movies, played He-Man & Transformers, did sleepovers, stayed up late, walking for ages through town at 2am to get snacks from the 24 hour supermarket, etc etc etc.

Because I had a number of relocations in my early years prior to meeting him, my friendships were short. We met as we approached that fundamental transition into teenhood, becoming our own people, establishing core memories, so many of the things we did together have stayed with me through my life.

Even after another relocation interstate, I tried to visit back when I could, and we tried keeping contact via mail. We lost contact by the new millennium, before the social media explosion. I often searched his name online, hoping to reconnect, but I guess he became a recluse, because there is nothing online about him, other than his obituary. It was so gutting that when I finally found something about him online, it was too late...

I've been a mess all day, feeling like my treasured childhood memories and any hope of reconnecting with the person I shared them with has just been ripped away. This short little video game-esque tune is about all I could manage tonight, although I would like to do a proper tribute song at some point when I feel more ready.

I kept this to just a single 'voice' to mirror feeling like I'm playing music alone now that the person I started my journey with is gone, with the reverb adding to the lost and empty feeling. I tried to mix a little upper and downer in the melody lines, trying to capture the upbeat tunes in the video games we played together, but now feeling those memories have a sombre vibe to them.

Tags: week 11 2022, View by:Jai Cafarella