03 The Last Time
All we ever feared / Was killing time / Several hundred years / Amount to / Castles that we’ll never own / And songs I write / But cannot sing myself / Our dreams of spaceships / And their secret plans / To take us somewhere else...
What a thrill it was to create this impromptu sci-fi art film with The Collective NHV. That chilly November 2021 evening, we had only intended to shoot photos for the Fracture album cover. But when I arrived at West Haven's South Street Beach and saw the thing that they had built - a fiery crash landing set against the evening tide - the story began to write itself. I sang live to an instrumental of the song while a group of passersby gathered on the hill overlooking us. The Collective NHV recorded the primary vocal footage in a single take then grabbed additional non-singing footage and wardrobe changes to flesh out the storyline. The result is a haunting study in perspective and perception that will no doubt leave art critics with plenty to unpack, and the rest of us with something interesting to enjoy.
''The Last Time'' is a personal favorite song with an interesting backstory. I wrote and recorded an early version in the early 2000s (still available if you know where to look). At the time, the themes of loss and redemption came from personal relationships and the struggle not to lose myself in them. On the Fracture album, “The Last Time” reveals new dimensions, challenges our shared attraction to illusions and predilection for the unsustainable. “The Last Time” is not just about loss and redemption. It’s also about power… Power with a killer bassline.
Into what unsustainable patterns have you fallen? How can, or will, you break those patterns?
The Last Time
All we ever feared
Was killing time
Several hundred years
Amount to
Castles that we’ll never own
And songs I write
But cannot sing myself
Our dreams of spaceships
And their secret plans
To take us somewhere else
The mirror’s cold
The glass is too
Tonight I feel so old
So used to
Pain from this malfunction
Filling up my mind
And spilling on our bed
This little robot
Should be sleeping
Should be sleeping
Should be
Locked away in
Solitude
Like the last time
(Just like the last time)
Like the last time
(It’s always like the time)
Full of empty
Platitudes
Like the last time
Like the last time
Fall apart
Like the last time
Like the last time
What else can I drink
To ease my mind
When every thought I think
Returns to
Cards and pictures
Countless roses
Precious moments
Moments laid to waste
Don’t turn your back
Don’t walk away
Don’t be that way
Don’t be your
Self
Locked away in
Solitude
Like the last time
(Just like the last time)
Like the last time
(It’s always like the time)
Full of empty
Platitudes
Like the last time
(Just like the last time)
Like the last time
Fall apart
Look at what it’s done to you
Like the last time
Break my heart
Smile if I’m still hurting you
Like the last time
Like the last time
Like the last time
Written and performed by Ionne
Published by Brand Label Music (ASCAP)
Copyright 2022 Ionne. All Rights Reserved.