Toothless on the Greek mythology that inspired his debut album

Since the end of my first band when I was 15, I decided that the world of music would be a better place if I stayed well away from writing lyrics and stuck to playing guitar. Up until then all of my songs sounded like Guns N Roses b-sides and most lines ended with something that rhymed with eyes... lies, cries, pies, etc.

Lyrically my favourite albums have always been ones that have an overall theme or concept that is not directly related to the narrator, but is used to further their story or help show it in a different way. A kind of gonzo journalism style of songwriting.

For example, Sufjan Stevens album Michigan tells stories about the American state with the same name, while exploring Sufjan's own experiences and relationships within this framework. For the album 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields, Stephen Merritt set himself the challenge of writing 69 songs and wrote the album to this brief.

In the same way that Sufjan does I started trying to retell stories with the songs I was writing. It was my way of learning how to write lyrics. The ideas were already there, I just had to fit them into a song structure. I then started trying to find and retell stories that related to me and what I wanted to say on the album. I started looking into Greek myths and they seemed the perfect fit for what I was doing.

There were clear metaphors and morals with every story. All the characters and stories in Greek mythology also go hand in hand with astronomy, another theme I look at throughout the album.

The first song that's based on a Greek myth that I completed was The Sirens. The Sirens were harpy like creatures that lived on rocks by the sea who sang to passing sailors. Their song was so irresistible that the sailors would run aground trying to get to them. The most famous mention of the sirens is in the Odyssey when Odysseus orders his crew to tie him to the mast as they pass the sirens so he can hear their song. To me the story of the sirens is about temptation and trying to avoid it so with this in mind I wrote the chorus of the song as the sirens call trying to tempt me into joining them.

This is the way to your heart
This is the way to your mind
If you don't want to take part
How will you unwind

For my song "Sisyphus" I reference the myth with the same name. The myth of Sisyphus is about a man who is punished by being made to roll a boulder up a hill every day only for it to roll back down. I thought this idea was incredibly relatable to modern life...doing the same old things day in and day out. I then thought about it being a metaphor for a relationship... for one person you know who you will always be there for no matter what. No matter how many times they make the same mistake and no matter how inevitable it is that they will do it again, you will be there for them.

If you ever let go my friend we will have to start again
Havent even got that far to go
Take it slow

If you ever let go my friend I will never leave your side
Doesn't even matter where we land
Take my hand