Holy Moses! Wield the knife! No one can save you…
Alan Abernethy in the background of your conscience.
Let JustVera drag you under… CRUSADE

I am a traveler of the night
I’ll take my sleep by day, while you’re awake I’ll shun the light
I’ve come here to this foreign land
Where crusaders came with God and banner,
sword in hand to claim the sand
A far off place to feed their greed,
A gift for the pleasure of the Papacy

I am the shadow of the light
(Everywhere you can hear the sound
of the rumblin’ Earth as it spins around)
I am the darkness of the dawn
(I’m beside you all night long,
But I dance all day to a different song)

A new day is dawning
But I will be there
In the background of your conscience
Coming to the fore
From the ends of the extreme
And your periphery
I will slowly drag you under
Making you believe
I will slowly drag you under
I will slowly drag you under
I will slowly drag you under

This is the time
This is the place
Coming to a head
For the whole human race
By sowing fear greed and avarice
I’ve made a virtue out of
Every single vice

A new day is dawning
But I will be there
In the background of your conscience
Coming to the fore
From the ends of the extreme
And your periphery
I will slowly drag you under
Making you believe
I will slowly drag you under

Holy Moses!
Wield the knife
No one can save you
They’re all running for their lives!
My day is come
You see me on the news
I pull the strings
I walk in everybody’s shoes
I am your friend
I am your neighbour
I’ll be your lover
Even dress up as your saviour
I am the voice
whisperin’ in your ear
Incite your darkest urge
Of hatred and fear

I am a traveler of the night
I’ll take my sleep by day, while you’re awake I’ll shun the light
I’ve come here to this foreign land
Where crusaders came with God and banner,
sword in hand to claim the sand
A far off place to feed their greed,
A gift for the pleasure of the Papacy

I am the darkness of the dawn
(I’m beside you all night long,
But I dance all day to a different song).

From the ashes of the conflict
A new age will dawn
You’ll be on the front line
A sacrificial pawn
As the age of absolution
Draws to an end
Chaos emerges…

(Lyrics by Alan Abernethy)

‘Make me believe nothing’s going on…’ Serenn crying her heart out. With the help of Jarek Adamowski, Andrea Spaziale and Jean Lui Toudou. The best guitars, drums and bass around on Kompoz. Some team. Probably the most powerful JustVera-track so far.

Make me believe
Nothing’s going on
That this dream
Can still be built upon

I know that time
Won’t change what we’ve done
But can we find
Who we will become?

There’s a light shining in your eyes
(History taking hold)
What’s in the past and in our minds
(A story to be told)
Stay with me for another day
(Let my desire unfold)
Speak the words that I long to hear you say
(Say, say, say, say)

Say, say, say, say

And give me hope
(Give me hope)
And give me hope in this
Universal cold

Aching to breathe
Stringing me along
Minus thirty five degrees
I can feel this is all wrong

I know that I’m
Not having fun
(I’m so done)
Isn’t it time
You’re the one who’s on the run?

When you leave your memories behind
You’ll find
I’m not so easy to unwind
I wonder why
There’s no winner in the games we play
Love’s just a casualty of the war we wage
(Wage, wage, wage, wage)

Way-ay-ay-ay-age

(Keep it steady)
(Fire when ready)
And aim for the soul
In this
Universal cold

Universal
Universal cold

(Lyrics by Serenn)

 

https://soundcloud.com/justvera/just-dreaming-justvera

Just Dreaming…
With a little help from my friends: Rab M. (engineering/mastering tips), Alex Zulaika (drums), Michel Pilotte (synth, bass and guitars) and Steve Rice (songwriting, lyrics, vocals). Quite a pearl in the Justvera crown.

She called from across the stream
What’s your name, will you play with me?
I just stood there mesmerized
A shy little boy, at the age of nine

That’s the way it began
Soon we were holding hands
And dreaming, just dreaming

Now our hair is turning grey
How I miss those simple days
Just dreaming, just dreaming

The actors, yeah we’re still the same
But now we’re playing grown up games
I still hold you close at night
You listen to my dreams of flight
My best friend through thick and thin
Our lover’s touch, it never ends
And dream we do again
Dreaming, just dreaming

I love the way your body moves
When you look back and bend
You know just what to do
To put my head in a spin
Give it all back to me
As we chase our dreams

What I need, what I need
What I need is your sweat dripping in my eyes
What I need is your laughter I can’t describe
What I need is your smile to never fade
What I need is you here ’till my dying days

Find me, I’m not too far away
You need to find me
Look in between the sheets
Find me, I’m never out of reach
Find me, you’re such a little tease
Find me, I’m just a kiss away

(Lyrics by Steve Rice)

https://soundcloud.com/justvera/mirror-man-justvera

Hear all about it: Mirror Man. How I love David Gardiner’s poem/lyrics AND vocal performance. Expect the unexpected…

There’s a man behind the mirror by the table in the hall
Though the social worker tells me that he isn’t there at all
But I’ve seen him in there staring and he wasn’t there before
With those eyes that seem to follow you, and chill you to the core

He’s old and stooped and wrinkled and his beard is long and grey
I’ve asked him what he wants with me; of course he doesn’t say
But he’s watching and he’s waiting and there’s hatred in his stare
And I know he sees inside me, that to him my soul is bare

I know I shouldn’t talk about him, no one understands
They haven’t seen what I have seen, or travelled other lands
They haven’t any notion of what worlds might lie beyond
Like a little swimming insect that has never left its pond

They want me to move out of here: I know I never can
I’d have to pass the mirror and defy the mirror man
He never would allow it. No, there wouldn’t be a hope
He would put me to the guillotine, the cutlass or the rope

And the door behind the mirror man would open for my soul
And the doorman at the gates of Hell would find me on his roll
And tell me they’d been waiting and my place was long prepared
That the kind of life I’d lived would mean I never could be spared

And the door behind the mirror man would close for ever more
And everything would seem to be the way it was before
The table and the hat rack and the ducks upon the wall
But not a trace of me, as if I’d never been at all

(Lyrics by David Gardiner)

This is not another JustVera-track. This is Bryan Shoemaker (lyrics), Jarek Adamowski (leadguitar), Maurizio Marini (drums) and Alan Abernethy (vocals) at their best. It’s such a joy to collaborate with these profesional and talented guys. Take your time and discover the power and the beauty of this song. Because it’s not that often you can enjoy magic.

Once in a lifetime

Here we are
In the mix
Play your cards
No defense

Arms length
Instinct
Walk away
Don’t let ’em in

Catch me
Hold me
Can’t you see
through my indifference

This game makes me
Swallow my pride
Don’t let it show
Want to
let you
in my life

Once in a lifetime
Out of the blue
Out in the open
Now

How far now

If you come in
How far now
If you come in
How far now

If you come in
Love is real

Once in a lifetime
Out of the blue
Out in the open
Out in the open
Dreaming

Floating

Silent

Loving

(Lyrics by B. K. Williamson)

https://soundcloud.com/justvera/ghosts-justvera

Usually I create my own collaborations, but this time I was invited by Duane Lajoie who asked me if I could put his words to music. Quite a different way of working and pretty much out of my comfort zone…

Ian Cube -lead vocals- stepped in and we turned Duane’s lyrics into a real song. And finally Alan Abernethy came along to top it off with his tasty oohs and eerie screams. Check it out!

Ghosts Ghosts
Who is afraid of ghosts
Ghosts Ghosts
Who is afraid of ghosts

My picture is in all the papers
And I am the talk of the town
The tabloids try to drag me under
But they cannot keep me down

I have become a big rock star
With money, fortune and fame
Though you see my name in lights
I will always be the same

Ghosts Ghosts
Who is afraid of ghosts
Ghosts Ghosts
Who is afraid of ghosts

When on stage people want you
And skeletons come back to haunt you
It is no big deal
Once you start to feel
Those naysayers can never taunt you

Ghosts Ghosts
Who is afraid of ghosts
Ghosts Ghosts
Who is afraid of ghosts
Ghosts Ghosts
Who is afraid of ghosts

Not me

(Lyrics by Duane Lajoie)

One of the guys at Kompoz who is famous for his production of quality lyrics is B.K. Williamson. The usual workflow with JustVera is to create lyrics for an existing piece of music. This time we turned it around: I asked him for his best, most precious lyrics and I composed the music to them. Then I asked Ian T. (guitar) and Serenn (backing vocals) for some contributions and bumped into Alan Abernethy (lead vocal). Personally I think he did an awesome job with his interpretation of B.K.’s lyrics. Sofar the background info.
Just listen to the result and get caught by the sad story of addiction…

There’s a young girl shining in the moonlight
Wind in her hair and light on her feet
Gotta be true if it feels right
Givin’ herself to everybody she meets

Jenny got caught in the neon
Spinnin’ around in the sweet summer heat
Innocence shown like a beacon
attracting every other junkie and thief

Deep inside she feels the burning
Runs like fire through her veins
Sudden flash she feel the yearning
Can’t tell the pleasure from the pain…
No…
Can’t tell the pleasure from the pain

Another lost soul for the taking
Wanders on through this shadow land
Once in the light now forsaken
A map pain in the palm of her hand

All her life she’s been running
So much more than she can see
And with her heart on the line
Oh…
She dives into herself

Can’t tell the pleasure from the pain…
Can’t tell the pleasure from the pain

There’s a young girl…

(Lyrics by B.K. Williamson)

There’s a personal story to the lyrics of Girls on planes. In fact it’s about meeting your highschool love after many years. And the romance that might revive. A fairytale basically. Anyway, I wrote this one some years ago and decided to reveal the full potential with the help of my UK friends Ian T. (guitars) and Nigel R. (vocals). Britpop rules!-).

There is this girl on the train, head down consumed by the pain
There is this girl on the train, whiping her tears, but in vain
And all the words he said haunt her head
Over and over

The tears now show on her sleeve, as minor traces of grief
The tears still show on her sleeve, when she is rising to leave
And all the words he spoke haunt her head
Over and over
Will they ever leave

And all the words he spoke haunt her head
Over and over

Do you remember the girl?
The one that could not forget
Those words so terribly sad
Would you believe we just met
Now flying business class 8 miles high
Heading for romance
Love will wing it all

(Lyrics by Justus)

 

https://soundcloud.com/justvera/the-gift-justvera

I wrote this one at least 10 years ago. (For those who know Justus: it was an instrumental called ‘All about you’.) I always considered it to be special, so I decided to invite some friends to re-record it. As a start BK Williamson wrote some really beautiful lyrics, which reminded me of Eleonor Rigby. Then Nicola Offidani added smooth guitars like only he can and Maurizio Marini showed his jazzy talents on drums. But the biggest change and improvement probably was created by Shakunetsu O. She turned the lyrics into a truly heartbreaking story. Hearing is believing…

He liked the colors inside the box
They made him laugh an’ forget for a while
Took him to a place where everyone smiled
They all stood together and everyone fit…
and everybody had a friend

She covers up his eyes so he won’t see her cry
and tells him of the gift he holds inside…

He lay his head upon her lap
He asked her please, in a voice so meek
Can you tell me why nobody speaks
Nobody says hello or goodbye…
Why am I not like them

His body left him just yesterday
In the middle of the night with nothing to say
He drew his last breath all alone in his bed
His mother still wonders what went on in his head…
They all say he’s in a better place

She covered up his eyes so he wouldn’t look surprised
at the freedom of the gift he held inside…

And no one came to say goodbye

(Lyrics by BK Wiliamson)