My Father’s Voice

A song about trying to understand a father who was only around occasionally.

Out of all the songs on Burning Barns & Bridges, this is probably the one people ask me about the most.

When a parent isn’t around very much, you end up building them from stories, old photographs and the occasional phone call. You know they’re real, but sometimes they feel more like an idea than a person. I wanted to write about that strange feeling of missing someone you never really had.

The song isn’t about blame. It would have been easy to write an angry song, but that’s not what I was feeling. It was more complicated than that. I was curious. I wondered what parts of me came from him. Whether I laugh like he does. Whether I love music because of him. Whether, if we passed each other in the street, I’d recognise something familiar without even knowing why.

I think a lot of people have someone in their life they’ve spent years trying to understand. It doesn’t have to be a parent. Sometimes you reach a point where you realise they’re just another human being with their own fears and mistakes. That doesn’t erase the hurt, but it changes the way you carry it.

Writing My Father’s Voice helped me let go of the idea that every question needs an answer. Some relationships never become simple, and that’s okay. Sometimes all you can do is tell the truth about how they shaped you.

For me, that’s what this song is. It’s not about finding perfect closure. It’s about learning that you don’t have to hear someone’s voice every day for it to echo through your life.