Click to listen to Countdown Days
It’s taken 14 years for me to finally record and upload Countdown Days online, and this is the ‘Superstition’ version, with a Stevie Wonder hook. In the winter time 1997/98 whilst living in a Danish coastal village called Tisvilde (Pronounced tiz-vill-deh), I was inspired from the yearning for summer. The winters in Scandinavia are cold and dark.
At the time, I was waiting for the world to change as I knew it, with our first child Llewellyn on the way. I had hooked up with a young local twins, Kristian (Vocals) and Andreas Grauengaard (Drums) and Simon Abrahamsson (Bass) to frequently jam with. These guys, nearly half my age, had some awesome raw talent. It was fun and it broke the monotony of winter. With them I experienced a glimpse of single-teenage life in a secluded coastal Danish village. The song was written for our jam sessions, and was great to hear with a three piece rock feel.
In Tisvilde, summers are a buzz with the beaches filled during the day, and in the evening the small cozy clubs are alive with music and a party-like atmosphere. A great time and place for people watching.
During the winter, the Tisvilde transforms into a ghost town, and many of the houses becoming inhabitable with the water-pipes freezing over. This secluded environment inspired the opening line ‘Just thinking bout’ warmer days and mid summer nights. These cold lonely winters I feel like I’m loosing my mind’.
The song encapsulates the contrasts with young love and the change in season. Summer with winter and love with loneliness. In Northern Europe, the transition and changes in seasons is an amazing experience when you have lived it, especially living through your first winter. You can really ‘loose your mind’ in a good way through the springtime, and the new green on the trees can be really stunning.
I have recorded Countdown Days many times over the years, but never really completed a full arrangement. It’s always been a more casual song to play to friends and family. Whilst getting my head around the Garage Band audio recording software, I used this song to learn ins and outs of the program, and I could then concentrate using software instead of spending time thinking and creating a new song. In saying that, the guitar and bass lines are new to this version. I also borrowed Stevie Wonder’s superstition riff to add a bit more edge and personality to it.
It’s great to finally have this song released after such a long time. It brings great memories for me from the days that it was written, and also great new memories from the days recording it 14 years down the track. Having moved back to Denmark, the creative spark has ignited new ideas and songs to come.
Throughout this year, I’ll be playing the song live at Cafe Retro with guitarist Henrik Jensen and Chris Lee Ramsden on bass. (Sign up to http://www.Facebook.com/JomarMusic to be notified of Gig Dates).
Kristian and Andreas Grauengaard now organise the successful annual music festival in Tisvilde, Musik i Lejet, which brings in 5,000 people to the town each year. (www.musikilejet.dk).
To hear the other songs from me, visit my music page on Facebook. www.Facebook.com/JomarMusic
