Mirrors
I first performed this song at a talent show at Don Bosco Camp, a recreational holiday camp that I attended as a young teenager, and later became a leader at. It was an incredibly supportive environment, and I received an overwhelmingly positive response to my performance. This experience instilled a pretty special relationship with this song, which is one of the two oldest songs on the album, along with City of Lights.
I wrote Mirrors at age 16. It tackles the notion that we are our own biggest critic, and often the only thing holding us back is ourselves. The lyrics set up the idea of an antagonist but in reality it’s about the inner battles that we can have with ourselves about who we are. As such, it made a lot of sense for Mirrors to be the title of the album as well.
Whilst I wrote it on piano, I always felt the blues-rock chord progression would be better suited to guitar, and Nick delivered in full. We decided to add in a key change to mix things up, and while the majority of key changes you hear in music step up to a higher key, Mirrors throws you for a loop and jumps DOWN instead. Keep an ear out for it in the bridge, where you’ll also hear my big scream note on the word “you”. I recorded this vocal take sitting down at my desk, just playing around with melody ideas to carry through the key change. I’ve got no idea where it came from and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to replicate it, but it felt special as soon as it came out.