The Cub
Or maybe we should have called it “The Rug”
After 5 months off stage, it was exciting to be back up there. After such a break and 5 brand new songs it was a daunting experience but the hours of practice over the last few weeks paid dividends. Our first ever sold out show turned out to be an amazing experience but the meaning behind it deserves some explanation.
I began writing The Cub early this year. Four songs, “The Cub”, “Playing with wolves”, “The End”, and “Darken Slow”; that tell a story of growth and change were inspired by my 32 counties in 32 days tour last summer. The idea really only formed a coherent story months after the tour ended. I came across the Galway Fringe Festival right around the time I finished writing the songs and decided I would premier them there, before they were recorded.
Weeks after I planned the show, I came across The Art Assignment and their episode about making a rug. It inspired me to get involved and make my own rug specially for The Cub which represented the growth I personally experienced throughout the tour and express through the songs. The rug changes as it grows in colour, texture and pattern but no matter how large it gets, the fabric it started off as is always an integral part. “The Cub Rug” is flawed. The strips of fabric are not uniform. There are tags and flaps hanging off all over it, I missed a few stitches here and there and other stitches are too loose or too tight— And that is totally fine.
Just like the rug, the songs build upon each other. The title track, The Cub, is about seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Playing With Wolves describes how a young man realises that nobody is truly out to bring him down but nobody is going to make it easy either. The End is a simple song. It’s uplifting with the main theme that in the end, the little things don’t matter because “nothing is meaningful” and once you accept that, and live your life without worrying about creating meaning, you can start enjoying it. Finally, Darken Slow is written about a sunset bringing darkness to the world so slowly you don’t realise anything has changed until you take a minute to look and realise the world is a totally different place.
So that’s the meaning behind this whole thing. I’m glad to report the show was a total success and we hope to be able to perform it again some time. In the mean time, I’ll be putting plans together to record the songs professionally.
Thanks to everybody who turned up on the night. You really made a good night into an exceptional night.
If you want to hear some of our previous work, check out our soundcloud (embedded below).
