“I remember, oh so long ago. You had me at the first hello”.
This had to be the first song on the album just for that line alone.
There is quite a story to how this was written, as it started out completely different.
About a year ago I was in the mood to record some original music, but at the time I had a bad cold and could not sing a note. So I decided to set myself a challenge and try to write a classical piano instrumental. I ended up recording two pieces. The first is called ‘Song For the Lost’, which I was so very proud of.
The second is called ‘My New Sky’. Not for any other reason that I liked this as a title. There were no words because as I said before, these were to be instrumental tracks.
A few months later, I was listening back to My New Sky and I wondered if I could turn it into a song as I felt the melody was quite strong. So I set about writing some lyrics and recorded a lead vocal to a simplified piano backing track.
I felt that it sounded quite special, almost operatic. However, it was not a ‘Nick Ryder’ song and I could not imagine it fitting alongside what I would normally write. Maybe one for a different project one day..
A few more months later I had come up with a song idea, and needed some lyrics. After a couple of days struggling to come up with anything, I remembered My New Sky and realised that most of the words to that song fit perfectly for this new song. And just like that, The First Hello was complete.
I wanted the chorus to be big, loud, simple and catchy because I was thinking of a live performance whilst I was writing this (and indeed the whole album).
I was also thinking about the very first time I met my wife, Gemma. I can honestly say that on that night, she did indeed have me at the first hello.
More often than not, once you come up with a story of what a song is about, it can end up writing itself, and this is certainly what happened here.
So there you go. If you’re still reading then I applaud you!!
Photography by Steve Dutton
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