Behind the song: Lonely Birds

A song about the western loneliness epidemic and how we forgot those who are left behind

Hi friend!

I want to introduce you to one of the songs on my album. It’s called Lonely Birds and is about the western loneliness epidemic.

I wrote it when I had become mostly bedbound by chronic illness and was isolated and lonely myself, but I started noticing how lonely other (able-bodied) people were too. I noticed how they isolated themselves without needing to — or, more precisely, how our society created isolation.

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Purchase or stream here

All income for the first year (possibly more) will go to Open Medicine Foundation for vital ME/CFS and Long Covid research. You can support the cause by purchasing the music on Bandcamp.

If you can’t listen to music, then here are the lyrics.

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I grew up in East Africa where everyone says ‘hi’ when walking past you. A brief moment of connection, but connection nevertheless. Or where people show up on random occasions at your house — something I have never experienced in Denmark.

I also noticed how no one had seemed to notice I was gone. None of my old friends checked in on me and I felt how structural loneliness had become. Our western (or is it more northern) societies are facing a loneliness epidemic.

In Denmark, the number of people who feel lonely has doubled since the year 2000. In 2021, 27% of men felt lonely, while 34% of women felt lonely. It was especially the elderly above 75 and young people between 16-24 who felt lonely.

Lonely Birds is the last song I wrote for my debut album. I wrote it using only an iPad and crappy headphones. I was lying in bed and was not able to get to a piano, so I used GarageBand on my iPad which has this programme where you can tell the app which chords to play when and in what rhythm (it has four rhythms to choose from). So I plugged in the chord progression (it’s basically an Andalusian cadence) and I started humming into the microphone of my crappy headphones. It sounded absolutely terrible, but I started to hear a melody.

This is what my first go at the melody sounded like:

I also did a technique I love doing very much, called Mumbling, where I sing the melody and mumble whatever sounds come to me. Eventually I had the first line: See them swim into murky caves | Looking for the light or rainbows and with that mental image I immediately knew what the song was about.

There was something very lonely about swimming into murky caves to seek happiness — knowing, as the writer, that they would never find it, but instead disconnect themselves from others — swimming away from them.

This song is a great example of how limitations can create magic. I didn’t have the energy to create a new chord progression for the chorus, so the chords stay the same throughout the song, except for the bridge. I think this gives the song that lonely, slightly monotonous (but in no way boring) feel. Had I had more energy, it would have been a completely different song.

My favourite lines in the song are They never look into each other’s eyes | They shield themselves from harm | Away from storms | And the minefields of their hearts. We would rather avoid intimacy and connection than be vulnerable. I’ve struggled with this myself and it has created a lot of loneliness within me too.

Jonas Müller (my brother) plays the piano and David Hagen plays the double bass. François Perdriau has mixed the song and Pete Maher has mastered it. I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to have my song accompanied by such excellent musicians. They really brought out the vibe in the song.

All proceeds for the first year (probably more) will go to Open Medicine Foundationfor vital ME/CFS and Long Covid research. You can support the cause by purchasing the music on Bandcamp and by sharing as wide and far as possible.

Tell me…

Have you felt lonely of late?

Do you have a loneliness epidemic in your country, too?

What are your favourite lines from the song?

I’d love to know in the comments!

Thank you so much for reading this post. If you know someone who could benefit from this, then please share this page with them. You are also more than welcome to share it in your Facebook or other support groups.