What The Water Gave Me (feat. Dan Shears) (Patreon)

Hello Humans,

I’m so excited to finally share this with you.

I’ve re-recorded What the Water Gave Me — a song I first released in 2012 with Birdeatsbaby on Feast of Hammers.

It’s my most streamed song of all time across all platforms, so it feels very special to revisit it with a fresh approach.

This new version has been lovingly re-arranged with accordions, backing vocals, and the best bit of all - it has now become a duet with the wonderful Dan Shears from The Velveteen Orkestra.

The song was originally inspired by one of my favourite artworks: Frida Kahlo’s What the Water Gave Me.

This image of her feet, poking out of the bath, while an entire inner world unfolds on the surface of the water, I have always loved.

For me, the song became a way of exploring what happens when we try to numb pain and push trauma down, instead of allowing it to surface.

A famous Frida quote was “I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim.”

That resonated deeply with me during my own struggles with alcoholism and drugs. Writing this song was part of processing and understanding that what we suppress doesn’t disappear, it just waits. For me "the beast" in the song is the entity I am most afraid of - my shadow side.

If you want to revisit the album it is available on bandcamp here and all streaming platforms.

I’ve been playing with The Velveteen Orkestra for a few years now, and working with Dan is an absolute joy. He has an incredible voice and range, and as you know, he’s also very funny, so there’s been a lot of laughter woven into this process too.

I’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes moments from the studio with you soon, and I really hope you enjoy this new version of the song. Let me know!

We will probably add some more instrumentation to it at some point, but for now it will just live here, on Patreon for your ears only.

Thank you, as always, for being here. Happy New Year!

Love,

Mishkin

PS - All Patrons get a 25% discount on the Birdeatsbaby's Bandcamp page. The updated code is now "patreon26" for the year.

PPS - If you missed my Christmas Livestream, it's available on catchup here