Author: Karl McHugh

What I really want when I’m writing a song is a title that does most of the work for me. Some titles just come packaged with a whole story waiting to be told, or more accurately, several story possibilities and all I have to do is pick the one I connect with most!

Sometimes I like to imagine that the song title is in the centre of a maze and I’m standing on the outside deciding which path to take. Some paths weave, some paths lead you right back to the start and some paths make a “B” line to the goal. Contrary to what you might think, some songs need to wrap around and bring you right back to where you started. Have a listen to “Rattlin’ Bog” to get an idea of a path that wraps around!

For “Welcome Home, I’m Leaving”, writing partner Annie Hendrix and I had some options. Is the narrator the person that is leaving? Are they telling a story or experiencing the story in real time? Is the narrator the “Bad Guy” in the story? It was during the deliberations of the latter question that Annie made an important point that I now consider with every song I write.

Is the Narrator an empathetic Character?

A fantastic question! I feel this question deserves an entire article to itself but I’ll sum it up quickly. I don’t want to sing a song that makes me look like a horrible person! Nor am I really interested in hearing someone sing a song about all the terrible things they’ve done!

So after these deliberations our path was decided. The narrator coming to terms with being an absent partner while chasing a dream. Chasing a dream is always admirable but failing to create a life of balance has ended in a familiar story of love lost!

Now that we have our path, what kind of metaphorical “bushes” or “benches” or “squirrels” do we see along the way? What are the objects and events that really put a person in the “scene” of the story. The industry term is “Furniture”! It’s always advisable to “write what you know”, so the narrator in our story became a songwriter. Opening the door to the struggling-songwriter story really allowed us to have a bit of fun. It was almost cathartic to unload lines that I would be devastated to hear said about my work! One line in particular that gave us a good laugh is in the chorus.

“I think you’re a drunk playing guitar, in a bar singing songs no one believes in.”

It stings just writing it! We’re very proud of that line.

Trying to figure out the immigration system so myself and my (now) wife could be in the same country has been complicated! I never thought it would take so long. We had been going back and forth between Ireland and America. Staying as long as our visa’s allowed us. For a lot of the time only one of us could work. So money was never in abundance. Thankfully we have an amazing group of friends and family that really supported us. Many times we asked each other “How do other people, without this safety net do it?” It seems almost impossible. The love that surrounds us has not gone unnoticed. 

This song was written during a summer spent in California. A friend very generously allowed us to crash at her place. I couldn’t work so my main job was moral support while Ariel completed her summer job. Feeling a bit helpless waiting for my immigration papers the temptation to write a “Woe, Is Me – I’m a troubled songwriter” song was thick in the air. However, I didn’t think that type of song was what I needed. Instead I wanted to focus on the good things and sing a song that made me feel better about everything. 

A line that both fills me with pride for writing it and pending dread every time I hear it is: “Let’s act like we’re retired, cause lord knows we’ll never afford it. Let’s worry about that later when we’re too tired and too old to notice!” To me this line really sums up the “Look on the bright side” feeling I had at that time, while also alluding to the “this might come back to bite you in the arse” feeling. 

I’m so thankful to Ariel for suggesting that this song be a duet. I played her an early version of the song hoping she might be able to suggest something to give the second verse a bit more energy. She knew straight away! A small change in perspective from another singer lifted the whole song to a new level.