Poet and Songwriter Gabriel Moreno – Songwriter #5

Gabriel Moreno is a regular visitor to Hastings and a very moving performer and poet. He talks about his poem ‘Mortified Too’ and explains his feelings about the lyrics to Jude Montague.

A song for me is an opportunity to try and discover what is bothering my subconscious and hopefully create a musical artifact which might resonate with listeners and their own thoughts and turmoil. A song is also a ritual of catharsis which ends in an offering. An offering which is hopefully pleasant and meaningful to others.

In this new song, ‘Mortified Too’ I explore the doubts and tribulations we face when our emotional bonds are coming to an end. It is conceived as a break-up song in a romantic affair but reflecting deeper, I can see it is actually a song about human connections and how hard it is to understand the other.

The lyrics are written in the form of a letter where the writer is trying to calibrate their value in the mind of the lover. There are many questions implied in the song but the main interrogation is: does this break-up mean as much to you as it means to me and am I wasting my time and mental space by wondering what went wrong and whether they could ever make it right?
I see this song as an extension of the movie, ‘Speak to her’ by Almodovar where the main topic is how we are living in parallel realities when we love. We project our wishes, desires and tales upon the other without a defined sense of what they really feel or think.

‘Mortified too’ starts and ends with questions regarding the purpose of our emotions though in the end it is clear that whatever happens we will probably fall in the same traps of love we end up escaping from. As the dark bear Bukowski would say, ‘Love is a dog from hell.’

Mortified Too

Are you mortified too? that this all went to hell?
Do you stay up at night, wondering what move you might have made?
Is it only me, dismembering the tale?
Are you telling our friends that our play had to end for you to change?

A bond’s not a wave, which you ride when you fancy the motion of pain,
I’ll tell you again, our hook needs a line and you blemish the page,
Do you think of us in this or in any other way? Or is it me just slashing the air again

with questions, projections, meanderings that don’t matter anything to you, to love,
or to anyone else.

Will the memory hurt or is it just a note
In the nocturne of pain you wrote for yourself in New Mexico?
Did it escalate when the curtains fell?
Or was it always a drag to see me in rags while you wore your stilettos?

A bond’s not a tie you undo in a day when you need a new lie,
I’ll tell you again, you’ve broken my stern and the leakage is bad,
Is this something that burdens you, my love? Or is it me just playing with the lights
of a lifwe that was dark before you got near and now that it’s clear
we just have to pack it up and sing a goodbye?  And sing a goodbye.

Will it hit you one day, while sitting on a bench?
In a park in Madrid where  your will and my dreams were born again.

A bond’s not a wave, which you ride when you fancy the motion of pain,
I’ll tell you again, the spark lies inside and your blocking the way,
Do you think of it in this or in any other way? Or is it me just slashing the air again

with questions, projections, meanderings that don’t matter anything to you, to love,
to us or anyone else?

GABRIEL MORENO

Gabriel Moreno is a Gibraltarian singer-songwriter, currently based in London. An irresistibly engaging performer, he combines a latin exuberance and passion with a rare lyrical calibre (he is also an accomplished poet, with 12 books published to date). Performing on nylon string guitar and accompanied by pianist Ned Cartwright, he creates a live experience that has been described as ”Taberna Folk” – at once both energetic and intimate, anarchic and absorbing.

He has thrilled audiences across South America, the USA and Europe, including recent sets at UK festivals Wilderness, The Great British Folk Festival and Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, and has been championed by the likes of BBC 6 Music’s Cerys Matthews, with his sonorous baritone and poetical lyrics often seeing him compared to such luminary wordsmiths as Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Bill Callahan.

Moreno’s unique artistic voice lies in the meeting and fusion of different identities. Born and raised in Gibraltar, a British territory bordering southern Spain and just 8 miles from Africa, he has since lived and performed across the world, absorbing influences from music, literature and art everywhere he went. Now considered one of the most compelling and distinctive artists in London’s thriving folk and roots scene, he was previously the longtime curator and host of the legendary Lantern Society folk club, and in 2022 was awarded the title of Cultural Ambassador of Gibraltar.

Moreno won the Introducing Stage at the Great British Folk Festival in 2019, and although the Covid-19 pandemic forced a temporary hiatus for many artists, he could never let his creativity stagnate; 2023 sees the release of his 3rd album since the start of the pandemic, Wound in the Night, with an accompanying packed touring schedule across Europe, as well as a second book of poetry in that time entitled Heart Mortally Wounded by Six Strings.

Gabriel Moreno will be appearing at The Pig, Hastings on Saturday 31 August for a Backroom Sessions ‘Montague Armstrong presents’ monthly event. Tickets available online soon.

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