Remember Jenny by Remember Jenny

1. Preface
Personal passage:

My dearest listener/reader,

I warmly welcome you, to what has been a yearlong eulogy of a profound loss, which has transitioned my life in every sense of the word. I abundantly apologise, should you have wanted an upbeat and spritely preliminary paragraph, which has now led, to an inevitable deflation on your part, but I promise my words will find assent soon enough. On Saturday 24th April 2010, my grandma: Jennifer Hyde, died; only eight days after becoming aware, that she was a sufferer of pancreatic carcinomatosis (widespread cancer). Similar to most who undergo bereavement, I had a serum of miscellaneous and volatile emotions brew within me, but at the same time, I tried to find a focus that would occupy my mind... Thanks to a combination of an uncompressible faith in music and my rather obsessive tendencies, I visualised one harboured in songwritting.

Not long after undertaking this craft, I was asked to launch a project for one of my school subjects, the logistics of which could be anything at all; I opted to write an album, dedicated imperishably to the woman who had nurtured my life-for the last fourteen years of hers. The first semi-rhetorical question, which I think must arch across the intrinsic, mental lobes of any writer, is ‘Right…Where to begin?’ I had mountains of motivation and perfunctory levels of impetus, but somehow I could not put pen to paper (or in my case, fingertip to key)!

A song that I had written circa six months earlier captured my attention one day after a gruelling clear out of my computer’s multitude of useless files. Despite its verses yearning to be rewritten, the choruses had an incredible fluency to them- which let me assure was completely coincidental, as by that time, my lyricism had barely surpassed the efforts of ‘Axel F’ in its ‘Crazy Frog’ offspring. I decided to use ‘The Build’ in my album (after reassembling its verse content severely). The song, which I later appointed as track one, encapsulates the enigmatic essence of time, and what better opening entry could I have asked for, then a song which catapults the listener into the era of ‘Grandma’?

Half way into my album’s songwritting, a partly calamitous, partly enthusing realisation took a swing for me; if I was going to stand a chance at actually recording this, I would need instrumentalists to put my musical prototypes into practise. This stroke of mindfulness had its dubieties, such as: ‘Who the hell, is going to want to spend a year with me, writing rhythms to lyrics that all centre around MY family relative?’ however salvation was found in the form of one of my long-standing friends ‘Mr. Richie Parkhouse’, who joyously accepted the offer immediately after being asked...

And so here I am 10-12 months later, writing what you will wilfully find to be quite an evocative opening passage, to an almanac of endless love and commemoration. There are a vast number of songs on this album, which I simply do not have the paper space to analytically detail, but oh well; we’ll have to file them in the ‘open to interpretation’ cabinet. I look forward to writing, for you, yet again come the preprint of the next album- that is dependent of course, on whether this instalment is notable at all. Until then, I wish you; you’re beloved, and your lovers, the most potent merriment and prosperity.

Yours Sincerely:

Your Pen Friend:

Remember Jenny (Matt Smith)

MUSIC BOOK COMING SOON