Somewhere Between Here and Happy
On finding the good in ordinary days, accepting change, and realising that moving forward doesn’t always mean getting back to where you started.
Table Of Content
There’s a strange thing about recovery that I don’t think I fully appreciated when all of this began.
You spend so much time trying to get back to normal that you don’t always notice how much your idea of normal has changed.
At first, there’s a fairly straightforward goal. Get better. Get stronger. Get back to doing the things you could do before.
But life doesn’t always work like that.
Sometimes the physical progress comes before the mental adjustment. Sometimes you have a really good day, followed by one that reminds you there’s still a way to go.
And sometimes you realise that the version of yourself you’re trying so hard to get back to might not be the person you’re going to be anymore.
That’s been on my mind quite a bit recently.
And, as has become something of a habit, I’ve ended up turning those thoughts into songs.
Another six songs, another chapter
The result is Somewhere Between Here and Happy, a six-track modern country EP.
There’s a mixture of slower, emotional songs and more upbeat, feel-good tracks.
That balance was deliberate.
A lot of the music I’ve written previously has explored difficult experiences, recovery, relationships and some of the things that are easier to put into lyrics than to explain in conversation.
Those feelings haven’t necessarily disappeared. Life doesn’t work quite that neatly.
But I didn’t want every song to be about struggling or overcoming something.
Because that’s not what every day looks like.
Some days are genuinely good.
And I think it’s important to recognise those too.
You don’t always recognise how much you’ve changed
The opening song, A Little Less Like Me, is probably the closest connection to some of my earlier writing.
It’s about looking back and realising how different things have become.
Not necessarily worse. Not necessarily better.
Just different.
I’ve found myself thinking about how easily we measure our current lives against what we used to be capable of doing.
The things that once felt effortless. The confidence we had. The assumptions we made about how life would unfold.
It’s easy to get caught up in those comparisons.
But perhaps growing, recovering and moving forward aren’t always about becoming the person you used to be.
Perhaps they’re about learning to appreciate the person you’re becoming.
The conversations that never happen
The second song, The Things I Don’t Say, explores something a little more difficult.
The thoughts that stay in your head.
The times someone asks how you’re doing and you give the usual answer because explaining everything would take more energy than you have.
It’s not always about hiding something.
Sometimes you genuinely don’t know how to explain it.
And sometimes you don’t particularly want another conversation about what’s wrong.
There are moments when you just want to sit down, enjoy someone’s company and feel like yourself.
I think that can be difficult for other people to understand, particularly when things look fine from the outside.
But not everything needs an explanation, and not every difficult moment needs a solution.
Sometimes just having someone there is enough.
Good days don’t make headlines
This might be my favourite idea behind the whole EP.
Good Days Don’t Make Headlines is a much more upbeat country song, built around a fairly simple observation.
We spend a remarkable amount of time remembering the days when everything went wrong.
The unexpected phone calls. The setbacks. The appointments. The things that suddenly change your plans.
But what about the days when nothing happens?
The mornings when you wake up feeling reasonably good.
The drive where the music’s playing and you’ve got nowhere urgent to be.
The evening when everyone is home, there’s something to laugh about, and nobody needs anything fixing.
Those days rarely feel particularly significant at the time.
Yet after experiencing periods when life feels anything but straightforward, I’ve started appreciating them much more.
Sometimes an ordinary day is exactly what you need.
Learning to enjoy the journey
Halfway to Somewhere and I Still Believe in Better bring a little more energy into the EP.
They’re both about moving forward, but from slightly different perspectives.
One is about accepting that you don’t always need a destination.
The other is about refusing to lose faith in what might still be ahead.
I’ve always been someone who likes goals, plans and measurable progress.
Whether that’s work, fitness or something else entirely, I tend to want to know where I’m heading and how close I am to getting there.
But life has a habit of ignoring your carefully constructed plans.
And when that happens, it’s easy to feel as though you’re falling behind.
I’ve been trying to change how I think about that.
Not every bit of progress can be measured.
Sometimes it’s simply having the confidence to try something again.
Sometimes it’s being a little less frustrated by what you can’t do.
And sometimes it’s realising you’ve had a good week without spending the whole time worrying about what comes next.
That still counts.
Somewhere between here and happy
The final song gives the EP its title.
Somewhere Between Here and Happy brings together everything the other five songs have been exploring.
It’s not about reaching some perfect ending where everything is fixed.
Because that would feel a little dishonest.
There are still things I’d change if I could.
There are still frustrations, uncertainties and parts of life that don’t feel quite how they once did.
But there’s also a lot that’s good.
Family. Laughter. Music. Ordinary moments. New experiences. Small achievements that probably wouldn’t have meant much to me a few years ago.
And perhaps that’s the point.
Happiness doesn’t always arrive as some enormous life-changing moment.
Sometimes it’s something you notice in between everything else.
When you stop comparing today with yesterday.
When you stop waiting for everything to be perfect.
When you realise that, despite everything, you’re actually doing alright.
The six songs
A Little Less Like Me — Recognising how life has changed you.
The Things I Don’t Say — The thoughts and feelings that don’t always make it into conversation.
Good Days Don’t Make Headlines — Finding happiness in completely ordinary days.
Halfway to Somewhere — Learning to enjoy the journey without knowing the destination.
I Still Believe in Better — Holding on to hope and believing in what’s ahead.
Somewhere Between Here and Happy — Making peace with where life has brought you.
More than just the music
I’ve said before that writing songs has become an unexpected way of processing experiences and emotions.
That still holds true.
Sometimes a few lines of lyrics manage to capture something I’ve struggled to explain in any other way.
And sometimes it’s simply enjoyable to create something.
Not everything needs to be particularly deep or meaningful.
But this collection of songs feels like a useful reminder of something I’ve been learning over the past few months.
You can acknowledge that life has been difficult without allowing those difficulties to define every part of it.
You can miss things about the past while still looking forward to the future.
And you can have things you’re still working through while enjoying the life that’s happening around you.
I don’t think I’ve reached some magical point where everything suddenly makes sense.
I’m not sure anyone ever really does.
But I’m learning to be more comfortable with that.
Somewhere between here and happy.
For now, that feels like a pretty good place to be.
Listen to the EP
Somewhere Between Here and Happy is a six-track collection of modern country songs exploring change, perspective, resilience and finding happiness in everyday life.
[Listen to Somewhere Between Here and Happy — Suno playlist link]
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