WENDY MCNEILL - SWIFT, AS ONE DESIGNED FOR FLYING - RELEASE APRIL 21

Listen to the new song: https://open.spotify.com/track...

This third single from Wendy McNeill's forthcoming album 'First There Were Feathers', is an ode to a specific variety of bird that left McNeill in awe, as she explains herself; “Swifts are simply amazing birds,” she muses. “They spend up to twelve months in the air without landing to eat, drink, mate or even sleep. Incredible! So with this song I wanted to blend what I find so interesting about swifts with a dreamy, floating soundscape that matches the tone I feel when I see them.”

The video further represents the freedom of swifts via human archetype. “Who is more free and roaming than musicians and circus performers?” Wendy poses, “So I asked the musicians that played on the track to come, and invited the jugglers to add a little magic.”

Playful and yet entirely befitting of its subject matter, ‘Swift, As One Designed For Flying’ is taken from the forthcoming album ‘First There Were Feathers,’ which further blends personal story amidst myth and legend, and is due for release on May 26th.

LYRICS:
SWIFT, AS ONE DESIGNED FOR FLYING

so much of us you can’t understand

even if you held us in your hand

a monomorphic anomaly

shades of black and brown is all you’d see
yes, your vision is poor and your heart is slow
you're featherless- yet you think you know
what freedom is- so on you go

only yours- the tale worth telling

while I live on the wing and die on the wing

as one designed for flying
to eat on the wing

to sleep on the wing

and while I sleep-
I’m dreaming


of parties where we feasted well
above deltas, lakes and through tails of storms
much higher than the martins go

2000 strong- we soared and dove
to play on the wing
to mate on the wing
as ones designed for flying

we drop our feathers one by one

a slow renewal is preferred by some

a full moult would leave us too undone
even we- those nearest to the sun

we pair for life- this you may know

but once we raise our young we go
our separate ways- subsaharan days
10 months of 12 are travelling

to live on the wing
to thrive on the wing

as ones designed for flying
to drink on the wing

to sleep on the wing

and while I sleep-

I’m dreaming

a unihemispheric sleep

fuelled by light and acetylcholine
a slow wave stream of things I’ve seen

and all the things worth having

I’ve lived longer now than most
I’m growing tired but I can boast
if all the miles were added up

I’d have been 6 times to the moon and back

I’ve lived on the wing

I’ll die on the wing

as one designed for flying
I sing on the wing

I dream on the wing

and while I dream

I’m flying...