i started writing this song in my dorm room in japan in december 2015.
its about a girl whose entire family was lost in the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake. The loss of them, especially her twin sister, sets this person on a course of a lifelong wandering, searching.
Izumi eventually ends up finding someone who was also displaced by the disaster, who convinces their parents to adopt her, and Izumi soon discovers that even though her adoptive family escaped the tsunami physically unharmed, it leaves an unmistakable psychic imprint on them
note: waterfall is code for a woman or girl crying.
if you listen close enough, right after "my sleeping head", you can hear the heater in my house come on.
i recorded this song on Zak's guitar. he's moving out at the end of the month, so I'm glad I got this artifact of his proximity to my life on the album.
lyrics
it started by a waterfall
under rainy skies
we tried to smoke a pack of hopes
but they wouldn’t light
ooo
we swam along
Vale a ton
with our school clothes on
izumi found a wedding ring
made of solid gold
we pretended it was ours
we pretended it was our
i wish that i could say that this is where it ends
it was the first and final day that i remember
being happy as a bird
flying in the sky
i’m
high
now mother just
abandoned us
before we woke
and i’m only sure she’s gone for good
cause she left a note
and i still feel my skin in the place she kissed
my sleeping head
the only words i heard her whisper were
“i did my best”
anna thought it was a dream
hanna thawed
it was a dream
but father’s in his chair & hasn’t moved for days
just soak in every moment while the tv plays
he’s dying in the living room but it’s ok
i guess together everybody goes their separate ways
hey
izumi please
take care of me
izumi please take care of me
can’t do it by myself
i need somebody else
credits
from sky high,
released February 6, 2023
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