‘Cause we were lovers

But we swim away

I want to keep you safe from harm
But some fish still got to keep their horns
Let me turn you over let me take you down
Do you want to feel alive (or) do you want to feel alarmed?

‘Cause we were lovers

In each others arms

With the deep to discover

Far beyond the ghosts of our past

But we swim away
But we swim away

We love to congregate

But we swim away

Fun facts:

– an image of the cow was meant to go on my wall collage. I couldn’t find a farm animal book however and came home with a book about fish. It happened to have cowfish in it and so the song was born. The cowfish went on my wall and I realised I was replicating a collage my former partner had given me.

– a lot of fun was had playing with sounds for this track – plucking, scraping, and pinging strings.

– all of the electric guitar parts were recorded at a friend’s house in the middle of the kauri bush in Karekare, West Auckland. I was lent a small cube amp and a previously unknown brand of electric guitar called a Wolf (thanks Dave Bell).

– the single line electric riffs came from the frustration of feeling that the song wasn’t working.

– the biggest edit I’ve ever made on a recording was made on this song. The first chorus was recorded as 4 lines long (same as the second) and I edited it down to 1 line. I still remember Lee setting the edit up while I was deciding. Finally I gulped “yes – cut it” This was definitely the biggest mixing job for Lee – who did a fab job.

– this is the first deviation of song order on the album. Falling Down was written before Cowfish and whilst I wanted to keep the chronological order of songs, it felt like a more gradual transition to go with Cowfish before Falling Down.
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