OLDER was born after a sentimental night of drinking that ended with group hugs. It had become customary but increasingly challenging for I, M, G and me to meet and connect as we did in our youth. The few times we did, it was always an affirmation of who we were, and why we became friends. It was from one of those nights that the song took root.

One of my favourite songwriters, Jonathan Richman, said that the album ‘I, Jonathan’ (incidentally, one of my all-time favourite albums) was the best he ever made because so many of his friends worked on it. It isn’t my intention to place myself in the same stratosphere as JoJo, but OLDER is a little like that. It is inspired by my best friends and loved ones, and moulded by musical soulmates whom I’ve been blessed to meet along the way.

The other thing about OLDER is that it couldn’t have happened at any other time. I don’t know how to say this without sounding dramatic, but I think about dying all the time. Almost every night, I would lie in bed, trying my darnest to be live in the moment while, at the same time, imagining what it’d be like in a not-too-distant future: an older, frailer version of myself lying there, my life fizzling out and wondering how quickly time has passed me by.

Whether we have been graced by the comfort of knowing there is a God, or any sort of solace afforded by spiritual or religious beliefs when thoughts like these come to mine – or not at all – there is no denying that life is magnificent, beautiful and all too transient. I guess I just want to say, when I still have the chance, how much I will miss everything and everyone when it is all over.

—

We are getting older
Drugs getting stronger
But it is fine, just fine
We just take it in our stride

Maybe time’s on your side
Maybe it’s on mine
But we don’t know, don’t know
We just keep what we can find

So let’s raise a glass and celebrate tonight
I wish you a thousand more besides
It’s a sweet and beautiful life
Can’t bear to leave it all behind

The party’s not over
Make mine stronger
One more time, one more time
A million memories tonight

Here’s to love and to anguish
Here’s to those who perished
Here’s to you and to me
Here’s to what will be will be