Mara and the Pillows | SHOP | Listen: Strawberry Hermitage (2010/2011) | Listen: Unimaginary Friend (2011)

LYRICS

1. Wear It Like It's Black
2. Not In Love
3. Gone
4. Golem
5. Wastebin Of Sorrow

x. Recipe of how it came to be
x. How to download and share WEAR IT LIKE IT'S BLACK - AUGUST 2011

kept inside a golden cage
of jewelry, expensive dresses
the brightest colours of the day
in perfect pearls with satin sashes

in feathers like the whitest snow
you shower me in flowers
shower me in gold
it doesn't matter what you give

I'll wear it like it's black
I'll wear it like the night
I'll wear it like the darkness
I'll wear it like it's black

my heart once burned for you
but now it's cold, beats no more
withered on your marble floor
swallowed the key, I'm ebony

in crystal mirrored memories
you shower me in diamonds
shower me in sunlight
imprison me in adornment

I'll wear it like it's black
I'll wear it like the night
I'll wear it like the darkness
I'll wear it like it's black

I'll wear it like it's black
I'll wear it like the night
I'll wear it like a thousand crows - black

your shooting stars, they are just trinkets
rolled in carpet that smells of dog
take my breath, my eyes won't twinkle
my soul is lost, loves no more

I'll wear it like it's black
I'll wear it like the night
I'll wear it like the darkness
I'll wear it like it's black

I'll wear it like it's black
I'll wear it like the night
I'll wear it like a thousand crows

black - like my eyes
black - like my lungs
black and scarred - like my heart

(ingredients: a clarinet, a harmonica, a pa-pa choir, sighs, a lead vocal, a good microphone)
NOT IN LOVE - JUNE 2011

you're not in love
just a little bit confused
by the way I make your toes curl
and scratch your back

you're not in love
just a little bit enchanted
your bad eye just shimmers like that
you just want my moonlight

you're not in love
just a little bit intoxicated
by the skin that I'm in
but you're not in love

I'm not in love
just a little bit smitten
it's not like I waited for you
but I just wanted your scrambled eggs

I'm not in love
just a little bit bedazzled
by your pretty face under my dress
I just like the way you wear my lipstick

I'm not in love
just a little bit under a spell
by the skin that you're in
but I'm not in love

now come on out and be a dear
get your perky ass right over here!


(ingredients: a bunch of grunts, a lowered E and A guitar string, a toolkit drum ruffle, a jar of hot pickle and a jar of mango chutney (drum lids), a percussion pan lid hanging from an elastic string and two designer spoons, a can with a little water, an alt flute, saxophones, clarinets, vocal sshk sshk percussion, vocal whisper pah pah percussion, a humming vocal, a nonono vocal, a paper clip box shuffle, a background choir, a lead vocal, a good microphone)
GONE - MAY 2011

I'm sorry I made your heart bleed
I saw a hungry soul to feed
with rainbows and unicorns
in clouds of a distant beach

belly dimples, pistol shrimp
might just be pussy whipped in pasty crimps
gut baby fish with hugs and kisses
in Cornish dreams with corny wishes

but all those thoughts on the tracks
only caused useless acts
to bind us while we must part
and crack up broken hearts

oh oh oh oh oh, I'm gone
never meant to be
oh oh oh oh oh
but maybe you'll find me

a kiss, no contract but a spell
like cranes in a wishing well
bambi eyes staring back at me
destined to never mean to be

curled up inside your hair
I'm everywhere but not really there
between those walls, I'll look right through
throwing rocks at distant truths

but all the writing in the wall
only lead to our fall
to slide in, take us apart
become the void in broken hearts

oh oh oh oh oh, I'm gone
never meant to be
oh oh oh oh you're the one
only to set me free
oh oh oh oh oh, I'm gone
never meant to be
oh oh oh oh oh
but maybe you'll find me

but maybe, you'll truly find me
one day in the mud
beyond the yellow door
your teeth mark the spot

but all the birds in the cracks
only sing of useless facts
to fly off and fall apart
can never mend broken hearts

but maybe, you'll truly come and find me
one day in the mud
beyond my yellow door
your teeth mark the spot


(ingredients: an accoustic guitar, a lead vocal and a good microphone)
GOLEM - FT. WEERTHOF, MAY 2011

laat je aan me uitbesteden
drenk me in je mensengloed
ik kan voor jou je landschap kneden
als je me uitlegt hoe dat moet

idem ibidem
olen golem
tiedoton kone
ik ben jouw golem

mun suussa sun sanoja
minun sydän on savesta

door wat jij aan mij ontleende
geef ik jou wat je al kent
jouw fluviatiele leemte
vul ik aan met sediment

idem ibidem
olen golem
tiedoton kone
ik ben jouw golem

uit mezelf heb ik staan janken
toen je mij hebt weggedaan
je hebt het aan jezelf te danken
als iets door mij is stukgegaan

ik hou veel van jou
olen golem
tiedoton kone
omdat jij dat graag wou

mun suussani sun sanoja
ja sanon rakastan sinua

(ingredients: a clarinet, a finnish golem choir, Mei Ling's squeeky toilet door, a dutch male lead vocal and a crappy casio and perfectly off key piano played by Michiel van de Weerthof, freesound samples 13809_melack_IMPresora and 68176_zebraphone_16_drone_in_C_ambient, special thanks to Miika Manninen)
WASTEBIN OF SORROW - FT. MR. DASS, NOVEMBER 2011

went down to the wastebin today
threw my life away
got bins for paper
got bins for glass
got bins to throw away my past

(throw away my past)
(oh yeah)

went down to the wastebin today
threw my love away
it don't matter
how much you separate
some things unrecyclable

(throw it all away)
(mmm mmm)

wrapped it up in plastic bags
bits and pieces, tattered rags
blister, packed up, broken, fucked up
end up in a garbage truck

(forgotten with the other muck)
(oh yeah)

threw it all away
threw it all away
threw it all away

threw it all away
threw it all away
threw it all, all, all away

(just bin it)

(ingredients: a humming choir, an old vinyl record crackle -'lp-noise' by Lonemonk on Freesound.org-, a bunch of flies -'flys' by Galeku on Freesound.org-, a slightly off key background choir, a guitar, a clarinet, a lead vocal - special thanks to guest pillow Mr. Dass for main songwriting, direction, guitar and background vocals)
RECIPE OF HOW IT CAME TO BE

Once upon a time, on a rainy day, I found an ancient sound editing program (audition 1) hidden on my big old granny computer. I have no idea where it came from, for I had definitely not added it, but it must have been hanging out there for quite some years already.

The program is so old that it doesn't allow much more than simple editing. However, I found that this limitation - with it's modest toys - provided a large playground and endless imagination (while having too many and too detailed toys to play with usually kills all the fun).

Playing around with it, I recorded a voice - with the microphone of my headset - that demanded a choir. So, having no other singers around, I recorded some more. The choir came to live and demanded other instruments.

But I only had two instruments laying around, a clarinet and a guitar. The clarinet I hadn't played for a long time, I never quite mastered playing the guitar and, despite my efforts, I did not find any musicians hidden in any of the cupboards.

For recording, I was stuck to my little bedroom (the wires of the headset are rather short and my old granny computer found unmovable), so I went hamstering about the house and dragged whatever objects that could produce some kind of sound back into the bedroom and then waited for them to tell me what they wanted to do (very rarely I used a sample, found in the webs somewhere or recorded with my mobile phone).

While the words and melodies poured out of my fingers, mouth, nose and ears, I couldn't get myself to stop. I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, the time passed without a glance in the mirror or on the clock.

Practically every night, one could find me imitating percussion, trumpets and singing saws and banging about on household equipment with ...other household equipment (you can view the ingredients below the lyrics of each song), while sitting in my little bedroom, between the pillows.

After a few songs and a few weeks living like that, my cat was fed up by the neglect and resolved to confront me, making me realise that it's actually quite neccessary to eat, sleep and moreover, wash myself (as well as the pillows).

So these days, I put some effort in taking care of the household again. The pillows get their fresh cover on regular basis and I make sure to spend a lot of quality time with my cat. But, occasionally I return to wander the roads of midnight madness to make more music. HOW TO DOWNLOAD AND SHARE

If you wish to download any of the songs, click the downward arrow on the right side of the player while the song is playing and click "Download", or, click a "Download" button in the playlist (only available on "all song view").

Please be nice and do NOT upload the files to any public places/websites (such as youtube etc.). You may, however, either share the files by email, usb stick or some other physical data carrier with anyone you wish to share it with, or, share the link to this page anywhere you wish.

If you wish to support Mara and the Pillows, you can make a donation with Paypal by clicking the yellow donation button on the right bottom of this page.