Sway by Perry Rhodes

I find myself longing to sleepwalk my way through the hard parts of life, now more than ever before. I fight this urge with everything in me.

The things that I live for don’t come easy. To write, I have to come to the blank page and face all my flaws and insecurities. The time and energy it takes to record and mix my songs I don’t always have. With all that storms of depression and anxiety take away, I struggle to rebuild.

When I was younger I tried hiding from my pain. I tried to numb it with distraction, sleepwalk through time, to avoid the deviation, to avoid the need to keep rebuilding after each and every storm.

—But something shook me awake.

Existence is messy. All my struggles and flaws are just as much of the experience as all the good parts of life. When I tried to avoid pain, I avoided living too. I lost all balance.

I don’t know how much time I have here, so I want to use the little time I may have left to live, to feel things more deeply, all the good and the bad, I want to love, to lead, to serve, to inspire and create.

The songs on Sway were born from this time in my life. From my struggle to live, to feel all the aspects of life more deeply.

We are here, now, together, let’s make existing mean so much more.

Perry Rhodes is an artist/composer living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. His debut album, Words Underlined has been a shelter for the weary and fuel for creatives in these strange times. These instrumental works paint an ambient soundscape with the creaking breaths of old pianos and cello strings.