Deep Inside (a.k.a There's A Way)

This was my favourite song of ours, mainly because it's very personal to me as I wrote the words and the main chords, and because I feel it's the best in our catalogue.

Due to the rise of raunch culture I no longer call it (the quite innocently titled) "Deep Inside", although the guys will still know the song under that name. To me it's better expressed under the title "There's A Way". I think we all need to feel there's a way through our problems, especially at this time in history when so many calamities appear to be occurring and there is so much fear and trepidation about the so-called "end of the world".

My belief is that we are heading toward a new age, that these troubles are just the birth pangs of a new world wanting to come into existence. "Lo, Heaven is laid out all around ye, but yet do no see it", said Jesus Christ. For too long mankind has been focussed on its greed, its avarice, its desire to conquer and possess all that we see. This sickness has its worst expression in how we have treated the Native people of the world. We in the West think we are so enlightened when in fact we are, based on the evidence, quite insane.

I remember a Native American man who said that when he first saw a white, he was immediately struck by the manic look in the white man's eyes; to him it seemed that all white men were possessed by some inexplicable fear which drives them crazy. To the Red Man, life was simply lived, in rhythm with nature and in tune with the Earth; what need do you have for fear when you are living in harmony with All and you desire nothing? Desire breeds fear...and fear drives us mad.

The drive for ownership has gotten out of control in our European culture. We need to return to simple rhythms, not necessary a completely minimalistic life but a life where all things are in their proper persepective. As far as I am concerned, the present tribulations are a gentle reminder to get back in harmony, to reset our values to be in alignment with the gentle rhythms of the earth. To this end we will need new technology, one that instead of being based on the idea of destruction (splitting the atom, the agitation of electricity, the burning of coal), it will be based on the idea of nurturance and creation (the energising power of the Sun, the natural power of the wind, and perhaps also superconductivity).

There's A Way tries to give a beacon of hope; a reminder that although we are all just "flowing with the tide" and "hating what we see", there is something working on all our behalf to push things forward to a better tomorrow. And yes though there is fear and pain, there is also hope, and it is we who need to learn to "see heaven in our midst" so as to make that a reality.

It's all about Mind - how you choose to see things is what becomes your reality.

God bless to all.

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Lyrics (c) Anthony Tobin, 1995 and 2011.

Flowing with the tide

Burning deep inside

Hating what you see

Wanting to be free

There’s a way for you to make it through

People never know

The inside of your soul

They can never see

What you need to be

But there’s a way for you to make it through

And the pain that you feel

You can’t tell if it’s real, yeah

As your life slips away

Hold on to every day

As the world keeps turning

You feel the fire burning

All the sadness you see

Inside of you and me…

As the end draws near

The old things disappear

Have we come so far…?

We don’t know who we are

There’s a way for us to make it through

And through the pages of all time

Comes the rhyme and the song of all mankind

And with the memories of the past

Here at last we can all look back and see

How the war was fought and won

For everyone, the children of the sun

See the light that never ends

Don’t pretend it isn’t burning deep inside...

Foreign Land

I want to kick things off by writing about an original song by Indigo Rush, called Foreign Land.

(Note: this blog will contain posts about our individual songs as well as memories about stuff we did.)

We used to rehearse at our guitarist, Brett Steven's workplace. It was a carpentry and woodworking place in a large warehouse style building on the main highway, just 2 k's out of Bathurst. The acoustics weren't so great but it was good of Brett's boss to let us rehearse there.

We would open the front roller door during the evening and we could see over to the homes that covered the slopes on the other side of the highway. The lights of the homes were a trippy setting for a jam session!

Foreign Land came together at one of our rehearsals. As best as I can remember, Dap was noodling on guitar during a break in practicing. It was an arpeggio in D minor he was picking out, and I remember feeling it had a strange, haunting, almost Eastern feel to it. I improvised some lyrics about feeling alone, and we jammed on it thinking hey this is going somewhere.

Brett came back in and heard what we were up to, and he was inspired to add his own arrangements and riffs to the tune, changing it up just enough so that it had extra polish. Garry laid down a chugging but effective bass line, with extra bits that punctuated the bridges nicely. Cameron added a suitably dramatic drum score and with a full set of lyrics - and getting over the obstacle of forgetting a whole verse that I'd written!! - the song was complete.

Foreign Land is my second favourite song of our catalogue. Like Deep Inside (which I now call "There's A Way"), the lyrics have personal meaning for me. They were prophetic, because they summed up how I felt about leaving my hometown, moving out of home for the first time and venturing into the unknown. Change has not been comfortable for me in the past, but I've had plenty of practice since!

So the song is about change and how it makes you feel; it's also about conformity, and encountering pressures from others when you're out there adrfit in the world and feeling vulnerable. It's also a call to stand up for yourself and resist the pressure to conform.

An early demo recording of the song has Dap (Dave Powter) shouting out one of the ending refrains, he was so excited to hear the song that he had originated coming together on tape. I love that moment, and I still have the demo cassette. A driving, pumping song with a strange feel and great backing vocals from the guys, this song sits fondly in my memories of my Indigo Rush days.

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Lyrics (c) Anthony Tobin, 1997, 2011.


Driving down this road toward my home
I'm left with nowhere left to roam
Say goodbye, say goodbye to all I've known
And find a new way to be, yeah

Way to be, way to be yeah
Way to be yeah

Tailoring my soul to suit your scene
I'm not quite sure what this could mean
I make my mind with all I've seen
You try to give your thing to me, yeah

Thing to me, thing to me, yeah
Thing to me, yeah

Like a stranger in a strange land
I am guided by a foreign hand

Summer comes and so another night
Taking my sight, leaving me blind
The words I cannot seem to find
This is not the way it's mean to be, yeah

Meant to be, oh yeah
Meant to be, yeah
Mean to be, yeah yeah

Like a stranger in a strange land
I am guided by a foreign hand
Guided by a foreign hand
In a foreign land...

What was Indigo Rush

From 1994 to 1998, I was lead singer in an Aussie rock outfit called Indigo Rush.

We were based in Bathurst, in country NSW, Australia. We gigged extensively around the local area, playing in surrounding towns like Orange, Blayney, Cowra, and Canowindra.

We were primarily a covers band, but we did put together a demo of 12 songs, one of which - Rushman - made it onto local radio station 2BS, and thanks to helpful family members it reached no. 9 on their Top 40 request charts.

The members of Indigo Rush were:

David Powter - guitar, vocals, songwriter
Brett Stevens - guitar, vocals, songwriter
Garry Anderson - bass, sound & studio wizard extraordinaire
Cameron Ashpole - drums, percussion, wildman
Anthony Tobin - lead vocals, guitar, songwriter (that's my real name by the way)

We were a powerful five piece, and crowds always responded to our balls-out, hard rock style of playing.

Our set consisted of mainstream rock such as Green Day, Led Zeppelin, Third Eye Blind and Van Halen but also quirkier choices such as songs by Edwyn Collins, Faith No More, and our own original tunes. Worked into our set were originals such as Rushman, Deep Inside and Brave New World.

This blog will reminisce about the times and tunes of Indigo Rush. Please enjoy this memorial to a great time in my life and a great band.