"While most of the songs on the record date back a number of years, "The Day I Grew So Old" is one of the newest. I was messing around with guitar effects one morning on an electric 12 string, and started playing the main chords to the song. I loved the sound of it (it reminded me of "Monster"-era REM) so I fleshed out all the music and structured it in 5 minutes. I had some ideas for melody and lyrics, but didn't feel I would have enough time (as that part of the song writing process usually takes me a LONG time), so I handed it over to Trisha so I could begin work on post-production for the rest of the album.

Trisha quickly returned with a cut of the song that sounded good, but ultimately didn't quite cut it. I listened to it over and over and every time it felt like something was not quite right. Not but a day later, an altered melody immediately came to me and I wrote maybe a dozen verses for the song, inspired by said new melody. I chose what I felt were the strongest stanzas (some of my favorite lyrics I've done), and Trisha and I went back and forth on new vocals and arrangements for the song. I think we ultimately ended up with 3 different vocal cuts, most of which ended up in the final cut. I felt that the layering added an additional presence to the song, as it was one of the louder ones on the record.

I agree with Trisha's sentiments below that there's still something that seems a smidge off, that maybe with a little more time we could have gotten it just right, but that's how it goes more often than not in the making of an album. You have to make a decision that may work now, but may not over time. No matter, it's still a song I really do admire a lot.

On a side note, I admittedly would like to one day release a compilation of sorts with all of the alternate unreleased versions of tracks, including Trisha's original version of this one. I did and do feel really bad that she put a lot of work into a version of the song that no one got to hear, and feel that just because a version doesn't make the record doesn't mean it isn't still worth exploring and having available. I could easily see after another Apples album or 2 having enough material to release said odds and sods collection that I think would be an interesting counter narrative to the ones we have on the album…." - Billy (writer/ instrumentalist)



"April 1st, 2014, was the first time I heard the music for 'The Day I Grew So Old', or as it was called then, 'New Bright Song'. It had a kick-arse, sunny sound to it, and I could tell it would be fun to sing. The trick this time was that Billy had asked me to have a go at writing lyrics, since he hadn't come up with any yet, nor any set in stone vocal melodies - though he did send me some rough ideas for those.

It's an interesting experience for me trying to come up with lyrics for someone else's music. Suffice to say it doesn't come too naturally, though I generally do manage to come up with something. In this case, the lyrics I put to the song didn't really suit it - reflecting back, I think they lacked the sort of 'oomph' that was preferable for this song. So with new lyrics composed by Billy, and a few tweaks to the vocal melody, we were good to go.

It still took me a while to get the vocal tracks down to my satisfaction and Billy's. Some songs are just a lot harder to nail down than others. Listening to the song now, I still have moments of self-doubt where I wish I could go back & do it all again. But for the most part I'm happy with how the song sounds - it's a happy song that makes me smile!" - Trisha (vocalist)