“Solip” – Coming Nov 2025

“The tree & me” Lyrics

Have I ever told you about the tree and me?
The one proud of pine
In the home where we reside,

Next to the fire and your family, this Christmas eve?

I’m sure you’ve seen its stump blackened & dumped

In the hallow of the woods
When you were up to no good
Magic coursing through its fibres,
Full of fervour, full of fever,

As full of doubt, love and strife,
As full as you and I

I knew on the day,
Lost in the dark,

Fallen amid the trees

Thrown here and everywhere about

No, I was not drunk, or foolish,

I ran for my very life,

A gang had set upon,

Wished to end mine with a jagged knife

A clapped one about the face,
Watched his socket collapse,
Watched his vision grow dark,
As I took off with a sprint
With the wind at my back

Quivering, cold, freezing

A meal for the elements

A meal for the bats, and the beasts,
For creatures that feed on
what’s left of the ligaments
The thud of my heart,

From rapid, now grew nearly still,
The cold began to tap it,

Of all of life’s will,

With just enough left

I damned my wretchedness

I damned my birth, my worth,

Accounting now for nothing now but piss,
I willed that bitter night,

“take this pitiful life,
make it quick”
is all I did request,

But even that I could care less

And then as if a torrent
Fed through my aching skin
As if an angel took passage
Through my bones

And set a fire within

Warmth stirred within me,
And hot vapour from my eye,
It was pines that set upon me,
And nestled around my spine,
With a wind’s whisper
It said plain and clear,
“You will not die tonight
You’ll make New Year”

True as a bawling baby,

I gave in to its embrace,
Knowing full well I had gone mad,
But knowing no higher state,
As I hear it say,
“You are never alone,

And never could be

There’s soul in the wind,
And in the soil underneath,”

Now, naturally my boy,

I don’t dare think you’ll believe,
Not in front your new god

Who stands out odd
In the image of you and me,
But not of the rivers,

And not of the breeze,

Now, as that tree lay dying,

Sparks flying from it’s blackened bark,
Having lightening descended,

And left its most vicious mark,

I could not leave it pining,

Left for dead in the dark,

Not when such sweet saving words,
To me it did remark

So, I took back its body,
And a custom long forgot,

Long before the new god took over
And turfed the old ones off,
Back when the sun, moon and stars
Meant more to us than talk, and thought

And told the new god,
Told him plain and clear,
“He will not die tonight, He’ll make new year
You a never alone
You never could be
There’s soul in the wind
And the soil underneath”
Just a tree told to me,
So, I believed,

So, I believe

Credits

Recorded at The Famous Gold Watch, Berlin
Production – Conor Kilkelly & Cameron Laing
Mastering – Tobias Tinker
Conor Kilkelly – Vocals, Guitar
Stephanie Hannon, Lotta St. Joan, Alex Spencer – Choir
Felix Buchner – Bass
Tobias Tinker – Accordion, Piano
Rioghnach dunne ward – Cello
Denise Dombrowski – Violin
Sound Engineer – Bob Spencer