Featured image: Claire de Temmerman
One of the joys of listening to music – for me, at least – is interpreting the lyrics and putting your own meaning to them. Some songs are so open-ended that the possibilities are endless.
But when I listened to ‘In The Morning’ by Dora Noszkay, a twenty-year old Manchester based synth-folk artist, the meaning became abundantly clear – and wholly relatable for most university students.
Noszkay explained to aAh! Magazine that the song has personal roots for her: ” I wrote it when I was seventeen and about to leave little old Todmorden [Todmorden is a market-town in West Yorkshire] to move to Manchester for university.”
“I was really excited but also a bit scared, so I guess the song is about new beginnings and not quite knowing what to do about them.”
This newly released single is a reimagined version of the song she had originally written in 2017, when she was leaving home to come to Manchester.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the song has now taken on new meanings for Noszkay, who had been living in France up until recently.
“I ended up basically fleeing the country two hours before they shut the borders thanks to our friend COVID-19,” Noszkay explained. “Instead of moving somewhere new and exciting, it felt like leaving a place where I’d just started to make a home for myself.”
“I think you can hear the difference in the two versions of the song I’ve put out – the one from 2017 is bouncier and brighter, this new single feels a lot mellower to me.”
Mellow is certainly one way to put it. Reassuring is another word I would use to describe this single.
Upon listening to it, I felt tension ease away and my mind wind down to a relaxed halt. The song provides a much needed calming effect upon the listener – needed now more than ever.
Ultimately, the beauty of this song is that it can be relatable to people at all stages in their life. We all have new beginnings, and we all have apprehensions about embarking on unfamiliar paths in life.
But as the lyrics say, “The sky’s okay, it’s not falling down on me.”
‘In The Morning’ by Dora Noszkay is available on Soundcloud.
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