The tunes were composed in the late summer of 2021. I found this period of the pandemic particularly stressful as I had adapted to being at home all the time and now there was work on the horizon which meant spending extended periods away from home again. Prior to the pandemic, I spent so much time away that I almost lost my sense of home & when the pandemic struck, I realized how the really important things in life could easily slip away from us and pass us by before we take the time to appreciate them. Around this time, most other people I knew were excited about ‘returning to normal’, or at least said they were. Instead of being excited, I found myself anxiously watching the news and constantly googling the situation regarding restrictions, travel bans etc. Leaving the little bubble I had grown accustomed to was completely stressing me out as I had found my new normal within the pandemic and I didn’t want it to end just yet.

Marches by their nature have a sense of resilience, of getting ready for the battle ahead, I think that may be the reason behind these compositions and although they are dark sounding the titles are anything but!

Tigry’s March [comp. Damien McGeehan]
There were 2 stray cats wandering around our house for a while. We would feed them whenever they appeared and to differentiate between the two my wife, Shauna, would refer to one as the ‘tigry’ one. When we were around home all the time during the first lockdown, Tigry eventually began to trust us and now we have a pet cat who sleeps in a basket by the fire. As such, she has done quite well out of the pandemic but her new owners wouldn’t be the greatest with names! To this day she remains known as ‘Tigry’.