We recently featured a Song of the Day from the Chicago-based singer-songwriter Tyler Sjöström‘s new EP Bones, Hold Me Up. We were so taken by the album that we asked him if he’d be interested in streaming his new EP ahead of its official release on May 26th. We’re pleased he said yes. Listen in full to Bones, Hold Me Up along with his Track-by-Track below.
Bones, Hold Me Up
Track by Track lyrics & synopsis
“Holding On” lyrics
Holding on
I am holding on
Holding on for you
Holding on for you
Keeping on
I am keeping on
Keeping on for you
Keeping on for you
I don’t wanna go numb
But that’s exactly what I’ve done
I wanna stay young but I’ve grown old
I wanna fly
Like in every dream but then I die
Yea
Holding on
I am holding on
Holding on for you
Holding on for you
Keeping on
I am keeping on
Keeping on for you
Keeping on for you
I’ve been feeling so dumb
What the hell have I done
Going numb don’t make you bold
I’d rather die
Than going on living a lie
Yea
Every monster has his line
All these tourists camera fine
My whole family’s dying
And I’ve screwed trying
Holding on
I am holding on
Holding on for you
Synopsis/meaning:
The song chronicles a time in my life when everything seemed to be fading and falling apart. Surrounding me were family health issues, personal and spiritual doubt and unrest, coupled with just a very poor outlook on life in general. But a singular person became a rock in a seemingly unsteady place. Holding on to her as a firm foundation is really what allowed that time, and really the time now, to be a survival story. “Holding On” sounds like a “happy-go-lucky” tune which is why the lyrical content, though somewhat dark and at times tragic, can be re-imagined as a normal Jane/Joe trying to put a happy face on what is often a hard life. In reality “Holding On” is an homage to that one person who cares enough to be a steadfast anchor in turbulent waters.
“Ghostly” lyrics
I will weep
On soiled ground
Though I have turned
The wicked round
It seems my brain
Is left to rot
Rot in half
The other knot
But I ain’t coming home
To see my bride
She’s dead and gone
On the other side
I will creep
By the willow tree
Hold my breath
As if to see
Her ghostly
Idle hands
Will learn to dance
When I sell my soul
At the crossroads
Seems the devil
Has come to pass
Pass over me
To everlast
But I ain’t coming home
To keep my pride
To let it grip
Like the wretch inside
I will creep
By the willow tree
Hold my breath
As if to see
Her Ghostly
My love is gone
I will hold darkly
To her memory
Even if I see
Her ghostly
I’ll cut down the willow tree
Synopsis/meaning:
Ghostly is an allegory on my spiritual life at the time of writing. Embellished within is a fictional story about a man who had lost his wife at some point, crossed the devil’s path, and is attempting to come to terms with life after his loss. It is meant to excavate a time in which I felt bogged down by doubt, questions, and the desire for a sign of divinity. The “willow tree” exemplifies that place where comfort can be found but only in a ghost of something that was no longer there. Cutting down the “willow tree”, or ridding myself of a comfort with no foundation, has allowed me to grow and move on.
“Amboy Crater”
One hand on the wheel I am
Driving through desert land
Oh those Joshua trees
They were holding you
They were holding me
Dam that Amboy crater
You love her you hate her
I’m not sure if I’m gonna make it
Can you hand me a blanket
Landing at the Grand Canyon
We kick back we’re singing
Wind blows over our cliff
Death is a drink and trip
Yeah bought a big bud three buck
Hit hard and up chuck
The Tetons were laughing at me
I laugh back and swim in the sea
The light shine
Yeah the sun burn down on me
It’s so hard to see
Where my life’s going
How my time goes so quickly
It’s so hard to be
Synopsis/meaning:
Amboy Crater is one part a retelling of an epic road trip through America, and one part an analysis of life as seen through an actual near death experience in the desert. Over the Summer in 2015 a few pals and I took a jaunt from LA, California to Denver, Colorado camping in a number of national parks and taking in the beauty that is generally called the American Southwest. We fell in love with the dryer side of our country that somehow is teeming with life. However, happening upon a peculiar crater in the Mojave Desert between destinations, my compadres and I decided to venture off our planned trek taking a detour from historic Route 66. We found we weren’t entirely prepared for the short, extraordinarily hot, trail to and fro the crater, which was blanketed with old, black lava flows. On our leg back from the crater our water bottles began to melt under the excessive heat, losing all of our hydration to the porous ground beneath us. I began to feel faint, stumbling nearly the entirety of the way back. Just before blacking out I had that stereotypical flash of my life before my eyes. The rest finds itself written into the song.
“All Up In Arms” lyrics
I was just a boy
Shooting at the lake
Ending lives
A weep would overtake
I’ve been burdened by a love
In the Montana grace
I am burdened by a serial
Comical waste
And I don’t know where
To go from here
Bones hold me up
Don’t tie me down
I’m all fed up
Stuck in this town
Church on every corner
I’m sick of the sound
When the music’s over
I can’t be found
And I don’t know where
To go from here
Here we are again
All up in arms again
It was a story when
We were there
And these memories
They will mean nothing you see
If I just let them be
And not teach me
Synopsis/meaning:
Ending the EP is the two part track “All Up In Arms”. Like many of my songs it, is the combination of an old and new tune. Marrying the two sentiments of historic, weary aimlessness and a current, hopeful determination. Though I don’t journal half as much as I’d like these days, this song is the epitome of what it’s like to look back through old entries only to notice recurring negative thoughts and feelings that could all so often be thwarted by merely looking back on life’s cyclical nature. Life often sucks, but part of the point in living it is to learn from it.