All Sail Away

The album takes its first turn here. All Sail Away carries the spirit of rebellion, of being pulled into service, whether for war or resistance. I pictured secret meetings in candlelit houses, whispers and plans against oppression — that’s why the track begins with a whistle and a knock. The Boston Tea Party was in my mind when I wrote it, but the song opened into something larger.

It’s about the psychology of war itself: how both sides must believe they are right, that their enemy is evil, that violence is justified. To survive the horror, soldiers must convince themselves of their cause. And yet, when the guns quiet, the questions creep in: Were we truly on the Good /God/Light/Right side? Or were we merely pawns expended physically and psychologically to the benefit of a darker purpose?

I can’t shake the belief that modern wars are “banker’s wars” — orchestrated for money and power, cloaked in convincing rhetoric. War is materialism in its bloodiest form. And yet, resistance is also necessary; people have the right, perhaps the duty, to stand against oppression. That’s the tension at the core of the song: the nobility of resistance alongside the horror of what war becomes. It’s complicated, as all human experience is. When in comes to our participation in war, violence, and chaos, what do we awaken and face? What “sleeping dogs” are better to let lie when the truth may tear the fabric of our reality apart? (Cue Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men).