Heather Nova is the Bermudian Songwriter who grew up on a boat in the Caribbean and went on to sell over 2 million albums in her 15 year career to date. She has released seven albums and has opened for artists like Van Morrison and Neil Young as well as performed with artists like Sarah McLachlan. She has also had hit records with co-writes featuring artists like ATB (Renegade), and Eskobar (Someone New).Her brother is the Reggae singer Mishka.
By the end of the 1980s, after leaving RISD, Heather moved briefly to New York City (where she unsuccessfully tried to interest some major labels in a demo including Columbia , who rejected her, only to sign her five years later ), before moving to London, England. She has British citizenship due to her Bermudan origin. In 1990, she released her first recording, an EP called 'Heather Frith' — she had not yet changed her name by then. The name change came a year or so later after several gigs in the Netherlands, where, after finding out that the Dutch have trouble pronouncing "Frith," she chose a name that would be easily pronounceable in every European language, "Nova," her Canadian mother's maiden name.
The new name debuted in 1993 with her second EP 'Spirit in You' and her first full album, 'Glow Stars'. The success of the album led her to record and release her first live album, 'Blow', the same year, which she supported by a tour of Europe. A year later in 1994 she released what many consider to be her finest work to date, the emotional yet jagged album 'Oyster', for which she toured for almost two years. Another live album, 'Live from the Milky Way', was released in 1995, and after its release she toured for nearly three years straight, twice joining Sarah McLachlan and others on the North American Lilith Fair, which is a music festival with only female performers. Heather is also a frequent performer at European music festivals such as Roskilde.
In 1998, the long-awaited follow up to 'Oyster' was released. After the release of 'Siren', Heather took a break while various television show and film soundtracks licensed some of her songs and her record company (Sony Records/The WORK Group) released various singles from the album, which received only moderate play on America's MTV2, Europe's MTV and Canada's MuchMusic and on mainstream radio, although she was popular on college radio. Also during this time, she recorded a version of the often covered Billie Holiday song, 'Gloomy Sunday', for the German WWII drama Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod. In 2000, she released yet another live album, called 'Wonderlust'.
Over the years, Heather has written and recorded over a hundred songs, so that her albums are selected from work that has often already been performed live, rather than being conceived during rushed songwriting sessions. Half the songs on 'Siren' had been written during the 'Oyster' sessions and were frequently played live prior to being committed to a studio session, and most of the songs for 2001's 'South' were written between 1999 and 2000 while she was on hiatus from touring. With the release of 'South', she returned to the international spotlight with an appearance on the soundtrack of the John Cusack movie "Serendipity", a couple of music videos, and a collaboration with Swedish band Eskobar, for a song called "Someone New", also released as a video, which proved so popular that it was played primarily on America's MTV, not just MTV2 (which is normally reserved for less-popular songs). 'Storm', Heather's fifth studio album, was released in late 2003 on Big Cat Records, as was 'Redbird', released in 2005.
In 2002, she self-published 'the sorrowjoy', a 72-page book of her poetry and drawings. An album of the same name was released in March 2006, which featured Nova reading the poems from her book set to ambient music. The album has only been available for purchase at concerts beginning with the Intimate Evening tour, from the fan-run websites, HeatherNova.Net and HeatherNova.De, and from the official website, www.heathernova.com.
The album Storm was released in 2003. It was a more refined album, using Mercury Rev as Heather's backing band. The album was Top 5 in Germany and Top 10 across Europe. It was an album of dark ballads, marking a step away from the polished sound of South. It was also Heather's first release on her own record label, Saltwater Records. Despite being pregnant, she toured hard with a new line up and band, before returning home to Bermuda. (A live DVD was made of these concerts (live at the Union Chapel)
Truth And Bone
Heather Nova Lyrics
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And these hands I can feel them tugging at my sleeve,
I move through the day in the rhythms that I've known.
I've got this crazy dream of stripping down to truth and bone.
All of it, all of it, all of it stripped down.
All of it, all of it, all of it, to truth and bone.
My body's full of longing for you to know me well.
I move through the day in the rhythms that I've known.
I've got this crazy dream of stripping down to thruth and bone.
All of it, all of it, all of it stripped down
All of it, all of it, all of it, to truth and bone.
I think of sinking in way over my shoulders,
Let the water, the water take me in and I
Need you to cut through to where I'm hidden,
I'm awkward and I'm too polite and I want
Two stars for arms like orion I could
Breathe in and breathe in and breathe out.
If I could only lose myself
I would lose myself in you,
I move trough the day in the rhythms that I've known.
I've got this crazy dream of stripping down to truth and bone.
All of it, all of it, all of it stripped down
All of it, all of it, all of it, to truth and bone.
The lyrics of Heather Nova's song Truth And Bone explore the vulnerability and desire for authenticity in a romantic relationship. The singer describes feeling the presence of their partner both physically and emotionally, as demonstrated by the imagery of hands tugging at a sleeve and the reference to secrets kept inside. The singer realizes that they have been living their life according to familiar patterns and rhythms, but they desire something deeper and more raw. This leads to the central theme of the song, the desire to strip down to truth and bone.
The singer longs to be fully known by their partner and to shed all the layers of pretense and superficiality in their relationship. The refrain "all of it stripped down to truth and bone" emphasizes this desire for raw authenticity. The bridge of the song expresses a desire to lose oneself in the other person, to have them see through the singer's polite exterior and into their true self. The comparison to the constellation Orion adds a cosmic element to the longing for connection.
Line by Line Meaning
Sometime I can feel you breathing into me.
Occasionally, I can sense your breath blending with mine.
And these hands I can feel them tugging at my sleeve,
Furthermore, I feel your hands tugging at me.
I move through the day in the rhythms that I've known.
I follow the patterns and routines I'm used to during the day.
I've got this crazy dream of stripping down to truth and bone.
I have a wild desire of exposing my true self, baring it all.
My mouth is full of secrets I'm too afraid to tell.
I'm keeping hidden things that I'm scared to share.
My body's full of longing for you to know me well.
I crave for you to understand and know me deeply.
I think of sinking in way over my shoulders,
I imagine submerging myself way too deep.
Let the water, the water take me in and I
Allow the water to embrace me and take me in.
Need you to cut through to where I'm hidden,
I require you to cut through my barriers and find the real me.
I'm awkward and I'm too polite and I want
I'm socially uncomfortable and too courteous, but I desire more.
Two stars for arms like orion I could
If only I had arms like Orion's stars, I could
Breathe in and breathe in and breathe out.
Take deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling.
If I could only lose myself
If only I could get rid of my current self.
I would lose myself in you,
I would merge and dissolve myself entirely in you.
I move trough the day in the rhythms that I've known.
I follow established routines and patterns during the day.
I've got this crazy dream of stripping down to truth and bone.
I have a strong yearning of revealing my deepest self, hiding nothing.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: NOVA
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind