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Around this time last year, as I was trudging through snow towards university, I had the first idea for this song. It was early morning and since the trams didn't run cause of the snow I had to walk. The sky this day was shrouded in dark-grey clouds and there was a fine, snowy mist all over town.
As I was passing through a more vacant area, close to a park, the lights and buildings I was heading to, appeared blurry and were only schematically recognisable because of the fog. With its gloomy sky, glistering snow covering the streets and the nearby trees and those diffuse lights and shapes that draw me towards them, this very moment had a very desolate but also enchanting feel to it, especially since there were almost no other people around. This moment gave me the incentive for the song and as I got home I took some notes for the potential lyrics.
After this point the song was almost doomed to become just some scribblings that never get finished if it weren't for a songwriting contest held little time later by Paul Marx Media which motivated me to pick it back up. While working out the basic premise, the setting got changed to a more rural, forest-y environment (which is also partially inspired a video game I played around the same time called "The Long Dark"). The first draft I presented Paul was very similar to the final version, but missing the last 4 lines. He already quite liked it, but stated that the ending was a little weak. Since I wasn't a hundred percent content with it either, I reworked it again, simultaneously working on the music and melody. In the end I had won the contest and Paul and I started recording it.
The recording was finished in summer but since it is a song about the winter I decided to publish it around the same time I started writing it, one year later.
one step after the other | slowly pacing through the snow
the odd treetops up above me | the creeping cold from down below
twilight shimmers through twigs and branches | obscuring the view, make it hard to see
the night is approaching | increasing fatigue keeps binding me
all is not lost, all is not gone
shadows start to stretch beyond the white | the weather's testing my persistence
foxes and deer keep a close eye on me | wolves are howling in the distance
fingers are stiff, toes becoming numb | my legs so heavy they feel like lead
the long dark is coming | I can barely see what's up ahead
all is not lost, all is not gone
there's still a light in the distance | that helps me pushing on
it's the light of the bonfires | that's keeping me warm
they're guiding the way | of the path I'll take
making me calm | keeping me awake
the things I left behind | are better off without me
there's nothing I regret | as long as you are happy
now I'm sitting by the fire | waiting for the dawn
all is not lost, all is not gone
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