The last couple of weeks have been intense lyric wise. Bram took out a full month to write most of the material. The clock is ticking. Lyrics are decisive for all other parts of the show, they offer guidance for the visual team and for the musicians. It’s very simple: everybody needs to know what the songs are about.

Lyric writing takes time. Lots of time. The more time there is, the better the words get. There are only seven weeks left ‘till show time, that puts a bit of pressure on things. But we just keep on going until we’re satisfied with every single word. At the end of this month-long writing and composing sessions with Nel, four songs are in their final form. Four more need rework. One doesn’t require words.

Quite often we start with mock-up words that track the melody and match it in terms of syllables. Once that framework is set, we keep thinking and rewriting until the content is right, the imagery is correct and the lyric has a natural, ‘flowing’ quality. We are going to need to sing these words, after all.

But it all starts from a theme. To start a lyric, we need to know, more or less, what the song will be about. ‘Love’ is always a good one. ‘Loss’ could be another. Themes determine the words, but also the mood and atmosphere of the music.

We finally found the last theme that was missing. ‘Kibitsu’ will be the sixth song in the set and it’s about ‘revenge’, or a ghost that comes back with a vengeance. Kibitsu is also the last composition we need to complete. Once that’s done, we are going to have a full show.