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ONLY OCEANS final cut | Adam Holmes (Official) | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: ONLY OCEANS final cut
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Core Theme
The content details the personal and professional journey of Adam Holmes, a songwriter who pivoted during the pandemic to offer song commissions, using his craft to help individuals express their stories and emotions, leading to profound personal and artistic growth.
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my name is Adam Holmes and I'm a
songwriter from Edinburgh in
Scotland I was lucky to spend the first
10 years of my career touring the world
albums above all else I consider myself
a songwriter and so when the world came
to a standstill in
2020 I had to think differently about
how to be a
songwriter this is the story of how I
helped David and Kevin tell their story [Music]
a well-written song can take you on a
journey it can provide healing it can
take you places that you maybe wouldn't
go andless you had connected in that
[Music]
Sal I live at the medals in Edinburgh
and I was walking around the medals one
day I can recall having a really really
clear thought it was like it
arrived like what if you write songs for
fans like what if what if you can sort
of use yourself as an instrument to help
people communicate things or help people
tell their
story it's such a gift that feeling when
it arrives and it's like and it
says what it needs
to to say and it's such a kind of image
isn't it that
like only oceans divide us you know it's
like a really special couple of words in
song how the commissions worked was I
decided I was going to do them I
advertised them on social media and I
did mail outs to my mailing list so 90%
of the commissions that I've done came
through that
David found my music through a playlist
searched my website and discovered from
my website that I was doing commissions
and just and booked
one at pitch workor social every year we
do a best albums of the
year uh newsletter sort of thing that
goes to all of our uh listeners and
Adam's Dreamweaver album made that list
that year not long after that list came
out I was on his website and I know
noticed that he was doing these song
commissions it was during the pandemic
and artists were more affected than
anybody as far as making a living and I
thought well I would love to support
that how would I do that what would be
the idea for a
there um I first about Adam's
commissioning project uh VI an email um
and it was at a time when I was just
starting to think about a very special
year that was coming up for myself and
my wife Judith uh so it came at just the right
right
time one thing I remember that he said
to me in the various Zoom calls that we
had about it is he was looking for what
I wasn't
saying you know usually I would talk to
people for 30 minutes about commissions
I talked to David I was on the FaceTime
with him for like 3 hours you know I
just was really getting a sense of him
as an individual and get in a sense
of what existed around him and how he
thought and what he felt and and also
trying to pay attention to maybe the
undercurrents right because there's you
know the self that we present to the
world and that never really makes for a
good song like it's always the part of
conceal the song I commissioned Adam to
write I wanted to ref reflect the fact
that we'd both reached a certain age in
our life Judith and I and that we'd been
able to negotiate 40 years of marriage
and negotiate is the right word I think
you know they I think any lengthy
marriage doesn't just occur naturally
you both have to put effort into it and
put uh put quite a lot of work into
it we both had parents who got divorced
in very ugly acrimonious
circumstances and so I wanted to
celebrate the fact that we kind of
broken the cycle of what our parents had
done done so that was that was the kind
of start point and also I wanted to get
someone whose art I really admired to to
to commission someone to do something
which frankly I was incapable of doing
myself which was writing a love [Music]
song just that for the verses basically
which I don't know what it was in the
demo but [Music]
[Music]
what I understand about what Kevin has
done for a job is he understands Meyers
Briggs personality testing incredibly
well and he is able to speak with people
analyze their uh behaviors and
preferences and offer them a perspective
on where they fall within the categories
of Myers
bricks both Judith and I are quite quite
quite introverted we're quite shy we're
quite retiring we're not naturally
outgoing and um uh gregarious so it was
it was a really interesting experience
to try and get all the stuff that was
inside out and to to to put it into kind
of a work of art that I thought was
going to endure and that that reflected
who we both were as
people the sense I had was that Kevin
was having his life in VAR you know
where normally he was the person who would
would
be asking questions getting to know
people uh finding out what people liked
and what their preferences were he'd put
me in that
position uh frankly it was Agony uh I
can well remember the first time the the
process of of meeting Adam for the first
time was was very challenging CU if you
have a preference for introversion most
of the work is done inside yourself
inside your mind so just sit when
someone who said tell me your story it
was actually really challenging and I
found it and I think he found it equally
um quite a ult first hour and a half
that we spent together with him
literally trying to pull this stuff out of
of
me the broadly speaking when you're
writing commissions for
people you meet up with a woman who
wants a commission and she says well I
felt this and I was feeling that and I
wanted to express and and you meet up
with a man and they go in 1965 I had 17
you know so
initially I sat down with Kev and he he
he just he listed loads and loads of facts
facts
and I was kind of like we're going to
have to and and what did you feel about
that I needed I needed a bit more I had
to push him to be like and how did that
make you feel you know and uh God bless
him he was he was very accommodating
eventually the moment when he finally
broke through when I was telling the
story is was when I finally decided what
are you what are you getting so uptight
about what are you worrying about what's
the worst that can happen as a result of
this this this story being told and I I
sort of get myself of talking to and
said look you you started this nobody's
forcing you to do this just tell the
story just be open just be honest just
say as you feel [Music]
[Music]
it only oceans this is called yeah there only
only
o should we get are we play on the go
from the last s year about a year yeah
so the people you're working with can
understand under the time is going to
be it may be quite lonely sometimes CU
you actually have to read or you try
weeks I was born in 5 East Scotland in a
one room
hospital and for the uh first five years
of my life I lived with my
grandparents and my
mother so I had a great family uh life
for the first 5 years but it really
wasn't the typical one cuz my mother
mother having me out of wedlock when
you're 18 years old in a little village
in Scotland must have been very
traumatic and came with a lot of Shame
and it affected our relationship for our
whole lives and it affected her on a
probably when I was about
three uh my mother met my now
stepfather you know so for a couple of
years they they dated and then he he
went off to Canada to sort of make uh a
home in Canada and my mother and I came
about maybe five six months later I
think it might have been and it was very
traumatic for me because as I had
mentioned really my parents were my
grandparents my mother was really not
very much in my life so here I was off
in an airplane to Canada with somebody I
barely knew to go and live with somebody
I knew even less it was a it was a tough
time I I scheduled some time to write
the song and then I thought nah no I'm
not going to do it it doesn't feel right
don't know why and it was about a week
later and I was sitting in here watching
um a movie so I stood up I walked to the
kitchen I popped the kettle on and it
was just like there it is that's it went
and sat down got the guitar and it all
of it was just there in like I don't
know it felt like 10 minutes I'm sure it
was longer
but it you know I've not had that yeah
I think do you know it's working nice
having that two like the sort of
mid-range stuff and then another layer
of that toy stuff with a bit more Focus
yes I have that sort of lower anchor
it's nice yeah
yeah
go I've gone for lamps only in here just
you know get with the vibe with the rest
of the room we're with you
[Music]
o one night at about 2: in the morning
the phone rings at home and you know
when the phone rings at 2: in the
morning you don't expect good things you expect
expect
emergencies it was my sister my half
sister in Vancouver who has been pretty
obsessed with figuring out uh my background
background
well she had connected with somebody on
Facebook in Scotland and asked them or
said to them hey I think you might have
the same father as my
brother and as it turned out they
responded very
positively they had known about me but
of course they didn't know even my last
name they didn't know I where I was they
had no idea but my father had said that
this I hadn't been looking she had but
when she found them it was like wow
that's amazing and the great thing was I
was going to Britain a month after that
I already had the ticket to go to
Britain a month after that so I was able
to meet these folks within a month of
hearing about them so that was terrific [Music]
[Music]
the first night uh in a little town called
called
inuri uh in aberin Shire I met with just
my siblings we had dinner it was lovely
um we spoke about my father obviously a
lot I learned uh you know kind of a
little bit about who he was and had a wonderful
wonderful
time the second night was a bigger
thing being in that room with you know
about 35 people uh most of them that
looked like me or my kids was amazing uh
I mean everybody was just so great it
was effortless really it was like
stepping into a family gathering that
you kind of knew people to some degree
it just felt it felt
uh really good I don't know how to put
it in different words you know it just
that song
um just as a songwriter in my own right
holds a very
special place in my heart it was like watching
watching
uh watching something unfold you know I
didn't really feel like I had a had a
sense of control in it it was just like
oh there's that bit oh there's that oh
that fits perfectly with that bit like
boom boom boom it just kind of unfolded you
know so [Music]
in
1951 to this world I came my parents
were not M to my
Foundation to my
foundation and I still recall the colors
my baby sister's clothes I never knew my
mother but that's the way goes that's the
way Only The
Ocean the
only time
Earth in the space [Music]
that I think when we talk about
family that's a big part of what we talk
about right is like our
roots and obviously there's a lot of
reference to that in the song we talk
about in these roots I've found my soil
like a space to grow [Music]
in there's something about blood isn't
there there's something
from feeling L some forgotten feel from
a long long time ago a long long time
only in the space
that us I'm an Oran on the
sun I'm an [Music]
[Music]
or I think it's that take I think we've
got it honestly I just think this might
be yeah what do you
think play it without worrying about it
cuz that takes there yeah yeah
pressure's of just have fun with yeah
just have fun with us okay I know I
shouldn't have said it
oh that was just like an open goal there
I had to go [Music]
[Music]
there after I'd written the song I sent
it to David and I sent him my voice memo
and I said I just told him about the
process and I said this is what's
happened listen to this [Music]
[Music]
it really just felt like he was we were
in this amazing process together so when
I was sharing it with him it was it was
not like look what I've done it was just
kind of like look what's happened that
we've do you know what I mean that we've
both kind of uh isn't this mad this is
like it's like me and David's baby
basically this song and um
so uh it it felt more like showing him
something than asking a question if that makes
makes [Music]
[Music]
sense at 2: a.m. one night me I heard
the phone start ringing my baby sister
called me to hear my heart was s was
music to my
ears and she showed me seven pictures
and the Man look like me she grew the
roots and plucked the fruits down from
my family tree from my [Music]
[Music]
blood may not mean this world to
you and these roots are
found oh my
may not lean this world to
you these roots are
my and these Ro are [Music]
found
wow I'm pretty spe less except to repeat
in these roots I found my soil that's
the line wow
fantastic Adam you're something
God
beautiful I can't wait to uh play this
for uh all the folks that have been
impacted by it you know this is uh just another
level thing I've been thinking a lot
with these commissions is it's like
playing someone in a film and um you
just hope that
you've done them Justice and done the
story Justice and
and um the more generous people are in
their commissions the better the song is
always you know and and David was so
generous and not only in telling me the
the cool exciting stuff but all of it
I met Judith when I was 24 and she was
29 and I was 24 going on about 12 I was
a very immature young man and I suddenly
met this woman this this extraordinary
woman who would put up with Nimo
nonsense who would not take any of the
the crap and I wanted to try and tell
the story of how we both how I brought
something to her life and she more
importantly had brought something to my
life that was that was really
significant in fact I'd go further to
say really significant is the single
most sign significant thing that's
happened to me over the course of my
life I wanted to celebrate the fact that
no matter how bad it had got we'd been
able to find some kind of way of working
through it and keep it
going it wasn't like Kev sat down and
was like write me a love letter for my wife
wife
right I think what he thought he wanted
was like a sort of anniversary gift
right I think from being with him what I
think think he actually wanted was an
opportunity to like to say certain
things to Judith to really
honor her and what she brings to his
life the easiest way to make something
Universal is to make it really really
personal I just feel that this song
really is for them I'm really
appreciative that they're willing to
allow me to share it cuz I I love it as
an example of a commission curious to to
see how people connect
it I think it's also important
that men find a way
to be romantic and to
be to to make gestures towards their
wives because I think socially it's less
acceptable and the other way around and
and I think this is a beautiful example
of of that [Music]
[Music]
well I heard I heard the song For the
First Time several times it was a very
collaborative process so after that
initial conversation he came back with a
couple of clarifying questions and then
I guess within about 10 days or so there
was a a draft version of the song you
know very rough and ready uh acoustic
guitar not particularly well recorded
but that didn't matter but with the with
the words and also u a written um copy
of the words so that was that was the
first step and from that he was able to
refine it he was able to take some
feedback not about the tune definitely
not about the kind of feeling of it but
there were just a couple of little
factual things about you know dates
because it does feature something about
dates and places and locations so it was
just a matter of sort of correcting that
and then the final draft um the final
version I heard none of which Judith
knew about I I did this all in the
background uh without her having any
knowledge of it I wented the first time
she heard it for it to be as it was for
perfect I think we first heard of Adam
Homes at Shetland Folk Festival and it
would be about maybe 10 years ago 9
ago I was just totally blown away just
totally totally blown away that Kevin
would have done something
he's always a great one for
surprises and um I remember that evening
so clearly it was just the most
extraordinary extraordinarily wonderful
beautiful evening yeah it's in my memory [Music]
[Music]
forever he'd said we have to be back
here at a certain time on this
particular day so we were here and uh
somebody came to the door and I went to
the door and it was Adam with his
daughter Rosa they were soaking wax it
was raining a lot and um he Adam just
said you know I've got something for you
here you didn't know about this did you
and Rosa gave he said to Rosa give
Judith this and she had the song written
down and in a frame and he had a stick a
memory stick and he had the song on it I
was just kind of totally blown away I
didn't know what to say what do you
say it was just just like a dream come
true when you when you have appreciated
somebody's music so much and seen them
in lots of different places then to have
that person come into your home it was just
just
amazing it was truly
amazing that's the great joy that the
song brings every time we hear it it
just reinforces what we've done what
we've been through what we've achieved
where we've got to in our lives and it
um I ration listening to it it it's not
played on a regular basis it's played at
moments when we think it's it's it's not
needed but it's a good moment for us to
just remind ourselves of uh where we
were where we've got to and how we did
it we wouldn't sit down and play it
together but I would play it I might be
on a train for instance if I was going
somewhere or just by myself and just
when you don't think of yourself in that
way and it's not what anybody would ever
really say to you is it
we don't say that to ourselves enough at
all so to have somebody sing that for
yeah it's a it's a massive gift it's
Unique and it's a oneof and it's uh I
[Music]
I've watched you from a distance I've
watched you from afar and know what a
woman you
are two souls in a world of Sorrow we
were born 4 days apart and oh what a
woman you [Music]
[Music]
are and I watch your color shine and the
way that you greas this world and I knew
I would spend tomorrow in the arms of my Dar
Dar
girl we never had a family home lived
above the local bar and oh but a woman
[Music]
nth floor of a council highrise no heat
but it was ours oh what a woman you
are young love in the heart of London
Young Love in a Cen
bar what a woman you
are through the years we
together traveled over the whole wide
world with the work that took me further
from the arms of my darling
girl we've lived our lives together
we've lived Our Lives apart
oh oh [Music]
[Music]
your laughter soft and tumbling his
ears you [Music]
[Music]
are in the heart of gard's T I'd live
for a million [Music]
[Music]
years and I made my own transgressions
as a life and a love done World felt the
touch of a true salvation in the arms of
a darling
girl we've traveled such a long way
we've come so very far oh what a woman you
you
are oh what a woman you [Music]
[Music]
are oh [Music]
I was raised in a a two- bed flat one of eight
eight [Music]
[Music]
kids it was a very chaotic
environment my mom ran it as a mental
health droping Center for people in the
community you could come back one day
and there'd be someone you didn't know
sitting drinking a cup of tea playing a
guitar smoking a rollup and I kind of
learned about uh humanity and I guess to
some extent I learned how to read people
and how to listen to people and on some
levels in terms of keeping myself safe
as a kid I learned
how to listen for the things that they
maybe didn't know that they were kind of
saying doing the songwriting commissions
you have to look at the time that I made
that decision it was Co I went from
being a tourm musician doing 150
concerts a year all over the world to it
was it was just gone the the whole
industry was gone and I had this little
kid and I had some followers on social
media and I had to make some money to
Rosa it's changed me as a
songwriter what I learned
was I'm just a collection of
opinions so it's really changed the way
that I
approach my own art because I feel way
it helped me to to be more open
to the influence of [Music]
[Music]
creativity I went from being as I said
before a guy who was just touring all
over the place reacting to the world to
coaching other songwriters helping them
with their social media helping them get
gigs helping them write their songs or
record their songs Rose as six and I
want to be at home and I want to be
around for her and I want to have my
boots at the door and that's very much
my definition of success now before I
had a lot of external influences I had
people say no you want to go and sell
out this and you want it to be this
exact sequence of events and I never
felt great that never felt like success
to me what did feel successful is when I
you know sometimes I think like who
would I be right [Music]
[Music]
now if that hadn't
happened I'm appreciative of the
opportunity that I got
to find a different version of success
and find a version of success
which fits around being a
parent I'm never going to look back and
and wish that I'd been away on tour the
whole time that Rosa was little and so
this new life that I've created for me
and for
her feels way more uh aligned and I feel
it I think we'll get some stuff out of
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