This is the first instance of a series of songs that draw their imagery and topoi from navigation and being at sea. It’s the main thread to be found throughout the album in its entirety, as the title-track ‘Keep Me From Drowning’ already suggests.
The queen of my heart (has been for the last 14 years) now lives in Lisbon, where I wrote the majority of the lyrics for this album. Without her I wouldn’t have this song and certainly not this video (she shot it and got me out of bed at 6). The back and forth between Portugal and Switzerland had me feeling like a working seaman of old, boarding a ship but leaving at least half a heart on land, wondering when he might get back to that place, to that person, to his haven.

Lyrics

I’ve been docking at night
slight touch on the side
ropes get thrownI watch them glide
by and by on my own
I quicken my pace
as though I’m in a race
till I’m at your door
would you let me in
lay me down
would you let me sin
all night
who decides how much time we own?
oh lord, will the tide delay, if implored, its flow?

I must be off and leave you
here’s a song
god knows in how long I’d see you
hope I’m wrong
had to lay down once more
at your side
hope I’m too late to board
this time
who decides, how many oars to enrol?
who divines, who will chart our course?
I hope this time I’ll find it sooner than before
this hallowed ground underneath my soles

may the heavens collide
and storm me back on safer grounds
may the stars realign
and misguide us back
ahead of time
before I ran my course
before I’m swallowed whole
before I even left you at all
before I left you at all