Du Nord: The Believing heart lost years (EN)

The Cookie Witch

"Good afternoon Chariot, ready for another lesson?" He said.

"Almost good night actually, the sun's about to set" I say, looking up at the darkening sky.

"You've already learnt to tune by ear, you know how to read sheet music, you know what a chord is, you've even got the hang of playing, you've learnt everything I've taught you with the guitar, but for a "degree" if I may say so, I want you to be able to compose a sound, can you do that?" I nod my head in agreement.

"So I already know how to play the guitar? There's nothing else for me to learn?" I ask him.

"Ah, you already know all the basics, we've played a lot of songs together, but copying is one thing, creating is something completely different, I know you can do it, today we're only going to play a few sounds, this composing a sound is a homework task, think of it like this, from now on we're going to play a lot of songs together which can inspire you" Pierre said and I understood, I'll try to think of a sound, it'll be interesting to create my first song.

We start playing, I accompany him, he can really do anything with the guitar, I observe him since I hadn't picked up this song yet, so I accompany him and I start playing better than when I started, in less than three months I'm already very good at using the guitar, what do I think I'm going to play? It has to be a song that's going to be like me, something that's going to charm people, that's going to have a sparkle, so it's going to attract a lot of attention.

[...]

"From that lesson on I just kept repeating sounds, but inspiration came, I started thinking about what would be the official sound of Shiny Chariot, even then, I spent many days discarding ideas, I wanted something that really emanated hope, the energy that I wanted to pass on as the little cookie witch at the time, which would be energetic, which in this was starting to come out the first version of the theme that you listened to so much, when it came just at Christmas and I took hope."

Monday 25 December 2000, Annecy, France

I wake up from bed, I look around, I realise I'm not in my room anymore, it's not the Cavendish house anymore, I woke up today hoping I'd be there, I even had a dream that I was spending Christmas with them, but nothing came of it, I get up from the sofa, get some breakfast, eat a bit watching the sky outside snowing, having some memories of the Christmases I spent in Edinburgh.

"Merry Christmas" said my father, appearing in the kitchen.

"Ugh, Merry Christmas" I say to him with a little disgust.

"What's the matter, girl? It's our first Christmas together in years, don't you remember when you were four years old and got loads of presents in town? It was a very magical Christmas for us, look at us, we're together as a family" I'm just turning my face away.

"A family was what I had until you took it away from me, I was living very well with my mums, you ruined everything, even at Christmas you ruined my day" I say in frustration.

"What negativity, seriously, I'm going out for a drink because I can't stand this atmosphere, even on Christmas Day you're grumbling" said my father leaving the house and then I sat down to watch TV, which is showing some cartoons.

I'm listening to some songs, and it reminds me of when Pierre told me to write a song at the beginning of the month, and if I get inspired at Christmas to create this energetic sound to be a kind of theme, a song that everyone will listen to and remember me by, that's what I have to think about, I'll run and get some pencils and sheets of paper with lines of sheet music.
I'm going to start listening to the songs and putting the notes where I imagine they are, which I'm also going to take out on the guitar to check, that's exactly what I wanted, something that would capture more of the soul of hope and also the magic, Christmas is helping a lot.