Album Notes

My name is Jimmy Bowens. I’m a musician from Ireland. I sing about death, love, not getting to sleep and small towns on the edge of the sea which inspire me forever. I love music and I love to think about people liking my music.
For the past three months I’ve been coddled up in my small bedroom in the South Korean countryside trying to record a whole album by myself. It’s got eleven songs and they were all recorded in an unused room where I work, my kitchen and my bedroom. I think you can hear my bedroom in some songs, others you can tell there is a kitchen there somewhere, I love that about this CD, the rustic, honest and frank production is everything I hoped it would be. I loved making it and in the process I figured out a little bit more about who I am and that’s just fine with me.
I asked a few different people way back when this album was being born in my head what names they would give imaginary songs, one of those became the title of the CD and three others are there on the track list today. In a way, that summarizes my approach to writing, people just tell me inadvertently what to write and then I use my own feelings to give those accidental ideas life in my music.
‘this used to be the way home’ is about wondering where the time you thought you had to figure your life out has gone. It’s about nostalgia, staying awake at night, winter in your home town, child vampires, bohemian relationships, forgetting, remembering and death.
My music is mainly modern acoustic with hints and pinches of electronica. I like long melodies and sombre tones and I try hard to achieve a specific atmosphere within each song. I like to think that this album will create a vivid world for you when you listen to it.
I still believe in the concept album and I have arranged the songs to represent a journey, each song is a particular place along the way and hopefully you can experience the relationship each song has to the next. The characters on the cover are the protagonists and you are the silent watcher. I hope you enjoy my album.
Thanks for reading this far down my first person bio and if you write to me I promise I’ll write back whether you like my songs or not. Also, if you would like me to play at your party, or in your garden, pub or on the side of a street you like, let me know. I’m always open for adventure.

Love yourself.

Jimmy.