‘Pure Blue Green’ was produced by the mythological Youth (U2, Primal Scream, The Verve, Beth Orton, one half of electronic duo The Fireman with Sir Paul McCartney). The first time Youth heard her songs, he was astonished and told her “this is really well-rounded, amazing, sophisticated song-writing’”. “ I didn’t even know who he was,” admits Kirsty, “ The first time I met him, at his house, his 76 year old mother answered the door wearing a bomber jacket and she was really posh and really lovely and heavily into very intense hip-hop. She said ‘I’m really sorry, Youth is asleep’. So I thought Youth was a youth, like 19 years old.”
Finding an instant connection through their musical, ideological and psychedelic minds, they became inspired collaborators, recording the album in October/November 2009 at State Of The Ark Studios in Richmond, Surrey, the vintage boutique studio owned by song-writer/producer Terry Britten (and loved by Regina Spektor), a tantalising grotto of valve equipment, a Steinway B grand piano, a Hammond B3 and a dazzling vintage Wurlitzer. Prior to recording, Kirsty and her musicians (drums, upright bass, keyboard, guitar, trumpet, trombone, saxophone) spent two weeks on an experimental adventure – relocating to Spain where they played, sang, swapped instruments, fought, cried and laughed “until, by the end, I had a proper, real band, as opposed to me singing over some session musicians”.
Also intrinsic to the album was assistant producer John Ellis, the renowned keyboard player/producer/multi-instrumentalist who previously worked with Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and who Kirsty describes as “an old spider wizard who lives in a ballroom in Manchester”. Recording the album at State Of The Ark over two intensely productive weeks, Kirsty and “the boys” were continually inspired by Youth’s mesmerising talk of voodoo music, New Orleans funeral marches, circus music, Bond themes and the classics of the 1970s. Kirsty had a ball. “Youth is a maverick, renaissance artist so it was an amazing experience,” she smiles. “He’s so creatively open. Essentially, he’s the guy you see at festivals next to the speaker, dancing away on his own. He really feels it.”
The result, ‘Pure Blue Green’ is sublime, gracious, lusciously melancholy and inspirationally uplifting. ‘Scares Me’, a lyrical paean to the terror of true love, is a brooding atmospheric with a Bond theme overtone, a song which ends in the most dramatically lengthy single vocal note since, say, the one which closes Bill Withers’ ‘Lovely Day’. “I wanted to blow Youth’s mind,” remembers Kirsty, “so he would let me finish for the night and I could go to the pub. So I held that note and Youth shot up in the air and went ‘yes!’ And I went to the pub.” The stunning ‘Butterflies’ is the delicate, yearning, piano reverie which Kirsty calls “my beautiful, little simple song”. The country-tinged, irresistibly melodic ‘Late At Night’ was written in Youth’s Spanish home, in a circular room with circular doors and features Bernard, The Bird Of Time, a plastic bird which flaps its wings and sings, bought from a local street vendor. “Bernard somehow turned into our mascot,” says Kirsty. ‘Willow’, meanwhile, is a soul-wrenching stunner which features “a Nintendo DS solo”, ” ‘Sweet Ole Love’ is Kirsty’s lyrical favourite: “I fell in love with love’s own face, there was nothing I could do/I have drank a few, I drank a case, then I got drunk on you/It hurts me so to feel this cold, the remedies I’ve tried/I wish a brand new heart would grow so I’d feel warm inside.” The magic glimmers on: ‘Spider’ is her voodoo song, a horn-and-handclaps musical folk-tale as eerily evocative as prime-time Joni Mitchell, ‘Cool Down Rewind’ recalls late 80s Edie Brickell, ‘Shine All Your Light’ shimmers with piano-swoops and the plink of steel drum, ‘Old Josie Brown is classic camp-fire story-telling,” “I think it’s time,” decides Kirsty, wisely, “for music with real soul.”
It’s been an artist’s life forever. Born in the UK, brought up in Gibraltar, she travelled the world as a kid (Venezuela, Singapore, Florida, the Philippines), partly because of her Gibraltarian dad’s work and partly because of the disintegration of her parent’s chaotic marriage. Kirsty’s home became music: “Music was the only place that felt like home, always.” At her many worldwide schools, 19 in all, she would pick up a guitar, play piano and work things out by ear, “harmonies were easy, hearing chords on guitars was simple”. She’d also been painting, sculpting and crafting forever. “I recently made a shaker that was made with shards of glass inside and I can see and hear diamonds falling,” she explains. “I just love sound.” She also, naturally, finds colours in chords and blends them together exactly as a painter would. “I am,” she cackles, “a massive hippy.”
At the formative age of 17, Kirsty left Gibraltar for the possibilities of London, becoming an exceptional art student at Middlesex University, painting both abstractly and illustratively (ice cubes were a favourite) and was good enough as a teenager to exhibit her paintings and sculptures before moving to Leeds for musical study at the prestigious Bretton Hall. Here, a spell in musical theatre began with the now globe-travelling ‘Carnival Messiah’ (Handel’s Messiah performed in a carnival style) where, alongside lead singing, “as people began to fall apart”, she’d double up on jobs (PA to the artistic director, stage manager, costume designer, choreography assistant, understudy). “Everyone would say, ‘get Kirsty, she can do it!’,” she says. In 2001 she moved to Manchester, became a singer/songwriter touring the city’s smokiest gin-joints and sang on one occasion for Latin band La Gran Descarga who, by the end of that night, requested she join the band full-time. Soon, she became the principal singer and song-writer and toured the UK theatre scene for 3 years. Descarga became successful and had a keen live following with international opportunities now emerging from Switzerland to Peru. “But I didn’t want to become a Latin artist,” says Kirsty. “It was a hard decision but I decided to go to Sheffield and write my own album. Which I did, in two months. My whole life, I’ve made my imaginary world real.”
An experimental craftswoman, Kirsty customises her own instruments and creates her own stage-wear, collaborating today with internationally renowned stylist Mrs Jones (Kylie’s white jump-suit, Brandon Flowers’ feathery epaulettes), and is currently working on a musical dress specifically for the forthcoming live shows. “We’re gonna make a big ball-gown train out of spoons and forks and knives and attach little bells all the way down,” announces Kirsty. “So I can actually play my own dress. Great!”.
For years, Kirsty has lived in a parallel dimension, making both music and a living on quietly productive sidelines; today, she runs a musical collective, Odbod, in her Manchester hometown (currently commissioned to record two tracks for the independent London film project ‘Patagonia’) while her name as a solo artist has turned from underground murmur to word-of-mouth phenomenon. In 2010, she just might be a pioneer. “In this new decade I think there’ll be a lot more people like me coming through,” she concludes. “A lot more artists who are doing this because they love music, not because they want to get to the top or be a fashionable person. I think everything will be a bit more real. I don’t mean we lose the fantasy world, that should always be there, but so many songs today are about production and audio glitter. It would be good to be part of a truly magical scene.”
Born in the UK, brought up in Gibraltar, she travelled the world as a kid (Venezuela, Singapore, Florida, the Philippines), partly because of her Gibraltarian dad’s work and partly because of the disintegration of her parent’s chaotic marriage. Kirsty’s home became music: “Music was the only place that felt like home, always.” At her many worldwide schools, 19 in all, she would pick up a guitar, play piano and work things out by ear, “harmonies were easy, hearing chords on guitars was simple”. She’d also been painting, sculpting and crafting forever. “I recently made a shaker that was made with shards of glass inside and I can see and hear diamonds falling,” she explains. “I just love sound.” She also, naturally, finds colours in chords and blends them together exactly as a painter would. “I am,” she cackles, “a massive hippy.”
At the formative age of 17, Kirsty left Gibraltar for the possibilities of London, becoming an exceptional art student at Middlesex University, painting both abstractly and illustratively (ice cubes were a favourite) and was good enough as a teenager to exhibit her paintings and sculptures before moving to Leeds for musical study at the prestigious Bretton Hall. Here, a spell in musical theatre began with the now globe-travelling ‘Carnival Messiah’ (Handel’s Messiah performed in a carnival style) where, alongside lead singing, “as people began to fall apart”, she’d double up on jobs (PA to the artistic director, stage manager, costume designer, choreography assistant, understudy). “Everyone would say, ‘get Kirsty, she can do it!’,” she says. In 2001 she moved to Manchester, became a singer/songwriter touring the city’s smokiest gin-joints and sang on one occasion for Latin band La Gran Descarga who, by the end of that night, requested she join the band full-time. Soon, she became the principal singer and song-writer and toured the UK theatre scene for 3 years. Descarga became successful and had a keen live following with international opportunities now emerging from Switzerland to Peru. “But I didn’t want to become a Latin artist,” says Kirsty. “It was a hard decision but I decided to go to Sheffield and write my own album. Which I did, in two months. My whole life, I’ve made my imaginary world real.”
An experimental craftswoman, Kirsty customises her own instruments and creates her own stage-wear, collaborating today with internationally renowned stylist Mrs Jones (Kylie’s white jump-suit, Brandon Flowers’ feathery epaulettes), and is currently working on a musical dress specifically for the forthcoming live shows. “We’re gonna make a big ball-gown train out of spoons and forks and knives and attach little bells all the way down,” announces Kirsty. “So I can actually play my own dress. Great!”.
For years, Kirsty has lived in a parallel dimension, making both music and a living on quietly productive sidelines; today, she runs a musical collective, Odbod, in her Manchester hometown (currently commissioned to record two tracks for the independent London film project ‘Patagonia’) while her name as a solo artist has turned from underground murmur to word-of-mouth phenomenon. In 2010, she just might be a pioneer. “In this new decade I think there’ll be a lot more people like me coming through,” she concludes. “A lot more artists who are doing this because they love music, not because they want to get to the top or be a fashionable person. I think everything will be a bit more real. I don’t mean we lose the fantasy world, that should always be there, but so many songs today are about production and audio glitter. It would be good to be part of a truly magical scene.”
Wish You Well
Kirsty Almeida Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Didn't get much sleep last night
Freight train rattled through my head
Whistle blowing love is dead
Is dead
Heart attacked by fear and doubt
Won't be long till the truth comes out
Lover's bonds they hold so fast
Restless future burning bright
The past is holding on so tight
Never heard the warning bell
And I just want to wish you well
I just want to wish you well
Welcome swallows dip and swing
Take their cue from the slightest thing
Rolling fog into my room
Why did you give up on me so soon?
So soon
Restless future burning bright
The past is holding on so tight
Never heard the warning bell
And I just want to wish you well
I just want to wish you well
I just want to wish you well
I just want to wish you well
Why did you give up on me so soon?
Did you give up on me so soon?
I just want to wish you well
I just want to wish you well
The lyrics of Kirsty Almeida’s song “Wish You Well” has a reflective and melancholic tone, with the singer expressing her feelings of disappointment and sadness over a lost love. The first verse sets the scene of the singer's lack of sleep due to a freight train rattling through her head, signifying the chaos in her mind. She deduces that love is dead, which may be a reference to the heartbreak she has experienced, leading to her despondency. The second verse is more introspective as the singer acknowledges her doubts and fear that the truth about her situation will soon be revealed. She understands that first impressions never last, and the bonds between lovers can hold fast, thereby trapping one into a situation one cannot escape. The third verse has a more reflective feel to it, where the singer talks about the future holding so much potential but the past holding on so tight, meaning it is difficult to move on from the pain of the past. She then ends the verse with her desire to wish her partner well despite her suffering, indicating her deep care for her ex-love.
The chorus of the song comes in twice, where the singer repeats her desire to wish her lover peace, like she has found within herself, and moves on from the relationship. The bridge then comes in, and the singer questions the reason for her lover to give up on her too soon, a clear indication of her heartbreak, and ends the song with her initial desire of wishing her partner well, and thus alluding to the possibility of her moving on with her life.
Line by Line Meaning
Up so early feel so bright
Despite not getting much sleep and feeling rattled from the previous night, the singer wakes up early and feels energetic and hopeful.
Didn't get much sleep last night
The singer didn't get enough rest during the previous night, perhaps due to worries or anxieties.
Freight train rattled through my head
The singer is experiencing intense and persistent thoughts or emotions that feel overwhelming, like a noisy freight train.
Whistle blowing love is dead
The artist feels that their previous love or relationship has ended, and they are mourning its loss.
Is dead
The repetition of 'is dead' underscores the finality of the love's end and the artist's sadness about it.
Heart attacked by fear and doubt
The singer's heart is consumed by negative emotions like fear and doubt, which may be contributing to their feelings of sadness and loss.
Won't be long till the truth comes out
The singer fears that something hidden or unknown will be revealed soon, and it will likely be a difficult truth to face.
First impressions never last
The artist reflects on the fleeting nature of first impressions and how they don't always reflect someone's true nature or potential.
Lover's bonds they hold so fast
The artist acknowledges the power of romantic connections, which can be strong and resilient even in the face of challenges or difficulties.
Restless future burning bright
The artist is anxious about the future, which feels both uncertain and full of potential. They may be feeling excitement as well as fear.
The past is holding on so tight
Despite wanting to move forward, the singer feels trapped by their past experiences and memories, which continue to exert a powerful influence.
Never heard the warning bell
The artist feels like they missed important signals or signs that could have alerted them to the end of their relationship or other challenges that lie ahead.
And I just want to wish you well
Despite everything that has happened, the singer still harbors kind and compassionate wishes for their former partner, acknowledging that wishing them ill will not help anyone.
Welcome swallows dip and swing
The singer observes a pair of swallows, noticing how effortlessly they move and how in tune they seem to be with their environment.
Take their cue from the slightest thing
The swallows are highly attuned to their surroundings and seem to respond to even the smallest changes or stimuli.
Rolling fog into my room
The artist describes a phenomenon that feels both eerie and enveloping, like a thick fog that is slowly taking over the space around them.
Why did you give up on me so soon?
The artist is still grappling with feelings of abandonment and betrayal, wondering why their partner ended things so abruptly.
So soon
The repetition of 'so soon' underscores the singer's disbelief and sadness at how quickly their relationship ended.
Did you give up on me so soon?
The singer repeats this line, perhaps as a way of trying to make sense of what happened and find some closure.
I just want to wish you well
Once again, the artist returns to a place of compassion and kindness, expressing their sincere desire for their ex-partner's well-being.
I just want to wish you well
The repetition of this line emphasizes the artist's focus on positivity and goodwill, even in the face of pain or disappointment.
Contributed by Kylie N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.