From A Spark To A Song – If You’re Passing By
“If You’re Passing By” is a song about redemption, with grace blooming from confession and peace arising from forgiveness. It’s a song about the freedom of letting go in order to redefine your own life, accepting without surrendering. It’s about allowing yourself to be fragile without the fear of being perceived as weak. It’s about arising from despairs. It’s about the courage to leave, not the distress of running away… arising and evolving… allowing yourself a rebirth… “I guess it’s time to go”…
I initially wrote “If You’re Passing By” for the “Love Is A Promise Whispering Goodbye” album, but finally decided to keep it for myself, like so many other songs I wrote during that particularly confused and melancholic period of my life, somehow reluctant to publicly unfold the reminiscence of inhibited moments, thinking they were feeding the perpetual bleakness of the shadowing despairs I was accepting to live with at the time. I’ve learned over the years that time doesn’t heal anything, it only gives a greater appearance of life to what’s dead, and becomes the personification of some bright colors to our same old black and white illusions and fake plastic chimeras.
Therefore, I’m really grateful that the “Vague Souvenir” album offered me the opportunity to revisit some blurry memories and recollect some foggy souvenirs. Especially when I look back at what I thought “If You’re Passing By” was about… To take it back where I left it after all those years offered me a better perspective on a song I thought was reflecting my dreadful pessimistic state of mind and was the expression of my fatalistic desperation… As if, maybe, I thought it’s raw emotional honesty was somehow negative. I now realize I couldn’t be further from the truth, couldn’t be further from what the song is actually about. Even if my heart might have been too troubled to perceive the multiple layers of that intuitive spark of life my soul seeded through the words and the melody, what seemed to be hidden at that time is shining quite brightly to me now.
“If You’re Passing By” is a song about the communion of redemptive sorrows and hopeful forgiveness. It’s rebirth trough confession, evolvement through mercy. It’s not about acceptance, it’s truly about letting go.
– Alex
Comments (6)
Ben
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That song has been such a corner stone in my heart for this project, I had many questions about how it would be received, it’s so personal and at the same time very fragile. To expose that side of us was scary for me, I didn’t want to be vulnerable…. or maybe inside of me I really wanted to but didn’t have the courage. But to go there all the way, and like Alex said… not to accept but truly let go was so liberating from the past… from so many illusions. It gave us the opportunity to grasp it together as one…because back then when it was written we struggled to be together, not because we didn’t love each other… but sometimes we just didn’t have the strength. I always loved that song.
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Chris
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Yes it’s true, ”I guess it’s time to go”… Shadows of the past are not a good reason to stay in place. I’d rather live my life in the rain, the cold and stormy weather being alive instead of limiting myself to the urge of finding a place to feel safe. Waiting and hoping that a happy feeling will come inside of me as I am empty of passion and commitment… Life has its ugly parts as Alex shares; bleakness, shadows and illusions… but at least, if we go through them, we know we are not dead!
I don’t want to dream of simply laying passively under an imaginary sun, feeling like if the past was over but still not feeling alive… I want to ”go”! Go away yes, but go back also!
Back to living, back into the action, back into reality, back into the roads of life… No matter if the past was bright or not, ”I guess it’s time to go” for me is not only ”going away from the past” but ”going back into living” most of all!!
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Marjo
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To me, this song is about growth… inner growth, the one that takes place through time, as a result of decisions you make, steps you take and faith you put into it in order to be able to make things happen. And sometimes, life doesn’t seem to show you the way, neither do circumstances help you make up your mind… In such times, you know that only your decisions can make you move forward! And for me, in such times, a song like “If Your Passing By” comes along my way, encouraging me to just live my life, starting from where I stand… with only the eyes of faith, to lead my actions and give me the direction… no matter how freaky or unsteady this might be!! Such a song helps me remember that in the end, this will lead me somewhere worth looking for!!
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Anna
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I’m really happy that Alex finally decided to share this song on the ‘Vague Souvenir’ album. Thank you for being so courageous and exposing yourself in such a way… not many people would have the guts to do so… I know I probably wouldn’t of had the guts to do so… This is why I am grateful that you did and that you enlightened the way for many others. Like you say ”time doesn’t heal anything” and if we let time pass… we’re only lying to ourselves and sleeping our lives away… Being truthful to yourself can be scary… but to accept to let yourself fade away is even scarier. ”Wake up, Wake up, I think it’s time to go” those lyrics have never sounded so good!
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Elizabeth
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” “If You’re Passing By” is a song about the communion of redemptive sorrows and hopeful forgiveness. It’s rebirth trough confession, evolvement through mercy. It’s not about acceptance, it’s truly about letting go.”
This is such a powerful statement…i cannot imagine a better flavor of wind to have beneath your wings as you soar!! FLY, Alex, FLY!!! I’ll never forget your statement at the concert Friday night in Montreal – it’s not about the landing, it’s about taking the risk… (and about the journey itself too) amen
love you and believe in you always!! praying!!! mom e
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Mary
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This is truly one of my favorite songs on the album. The music, the intensity of the guitars during the chorus and the bridge… the melody carries me away every time, I find it very inviting. It’s inevitable, every time I’ve listened to it so far, it brought even more to life the struggles, the intensity that I sometimes live when I need to let go… caught in between my desire to change the past and my fear of the future… I get stuck in a place where I become frigid, and it boils inside … a place where I don’t see clearly anymore, I can’t see hope or love, I try to find ways to live peace by controlling the exterior, I am uncomfortable and my only solution, my only way out is to collapse. But as you say, time won’t change anything, freedom is rebirth trough confession, evolvement through mercy… and all this is available by letting go…
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