Song Highlight: “Outside Yourself”

Filming the clip for '“Outside Yourself” with filmmakers Sinead Lau-Evans and Luke Evans [Photo Credit: Caleb Evans]

“‘Outside Yourself’ was a song I wrote on guitar, rather than piano. It just seemed to write itself from the chords I was playing. I love the thought of paying kindnesses forward into the lives of people around us. I feel like my life has become some sort of ‘kindness pool’ where so much kindness has been shown to me that it’s easy to share it with others.

“Another thing about showing kindness to others is that it connects us with other people, helping with our own sense of loneliness - especially in a world where we can be connected to thousands of people through technology, and yet feel alone. Showing kindness to another person links you with the world at large and makes the world a better place.

“When we went to record the song on my Outside the Inside album project, I didn’t realise that Rick [Producer] and Eddie [Engineer] would want to use my original guitar track (normally this is just a ‘guide track’: to show people how the song goes and which is later replaced). But the whole song seem to link in with the guitar track that I’d originally recorded in my little studio on the Sunshine Coast. It felt surreal to hear my acoustic guitar track being the bed for all the tracks that were then layered from some of the best musicians in the world!

“‘Outside Yourself’ was the first single off my Outside the Inside album, and I got to film a video clip with filmmakers Luke Evans and Sinead Lau-Evans. They just caught the vision and ran with it. It was a LOT of fun.”

Outside Yourself

Verse 1:

I was lost in all my pain
I was caught up on the inside
I didn’t know who knew my name
I was trying to survive
Trying to survive

Verse 2:

I caught a glimpse of a man like me
He was struggling with a burden
I’d walked that road, I’d climbed that hill
And I knew that I could help him, still
Knew that I could help him

Pre-Chorus 1:

No man’s an island to himself
You gotta live for something else

Chorus:

You gotta live outside yourself
Outside yourself, outside yourself

Verse 3:

There’s so much more on the other side
The grass is waiting to be watered
Don’t hold it in, just let it ride
Be the change you wanna make outside
Change you wanna make, yeah

Pre-Chorus 2:

No man’s an island on his own
You gotta live for what you know

Ending:

No man’s an island to himself
You gotta live for something

Words and Music by David Willersdorf
© 2018 David Willersdorf / Whistletone

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