by Richard Thomas a.k.a. Mint Biscuit
I spent three or four years as a student in school and University, playing in rock bands and organizing music events. These years were the best of my life, filled with music, love, learning, friendship, and joy. It was also a tumultuous time, with stress, illness, and injury plaguing my life. In the band “Mint,” we played loads of gigs around my University town of Durham and recorded an album, “Leaving It Late,” which marked the culmination of our collective collaboration with a flourish.
After going “off the rails” slightly for this short period, I had to force discipline back into my life. I quit the rock and roll lifestyle completely and returned to being the hard-working, sports-playing, family-oriented guy I was before. I played rugby four times a week. I completed my degree eventually and got married to my girl.
Listen to the song while reading the text.
The urge to make music never left me, though. After a break of maybe ten years, hardly touching my guitars, and having gone through a horrible phase of mental illness, I decided to start recording my tunes, not with any commercial success in mind, but just as a way to show that I could still be productive and creative. I wanted to lay down some of my better compositions so that my friends and family could understand the sort of musician I wanted to be all this time.
And so began the collection of tunes by me as a solo artist, “Mint Biscuit.” Recording in my front room on essential handheld equipment. Posting on Bandcamp, YouTube, and Soundcloud at first, later getting distribution arranged to other platforms such as Spotify. After a while, people started to encourage me, and I thought the best thing to do would be to make up some short runs of CDs and send them out for free to my old friends from school and Uni.
It is now five years later, and I have released over 50 separate albums, EPs, or singles, printed and distributed almost 1500 CDs, and clocked up 30,000 plays on all platforms. And I have been fortunate enough to have had local, national, and international radio play. Although I don’t gig, I am loosely part of a friendly community of local musicians and have gained encouragement and support from new fans. But really, it’s all been driven by myself and my need to beat the “voices” that otherwise drag me down.
My music is roughly described as psychedelic, bluesy, and indie rock. Primarily instrumentals, I seem to fire these out without much thinking. And occasionally, I write a whole song with lyrics, too. My albums “Leap Of Faith,” “A Trip Outside,” and “When The Floodgates Open” are my three lyrical albums to date.
“Gathering Flowers” is my most recent song. I wrote the guitar part about three years ago, and it has begged me to add vocals ever since. I wrote the lyrics just a few days ago! So, it’s hot off the press!
The idea of gathering flowers came partly from my wedding preparations sixteen years ago. My mother- and sister-in-law sent me to the woods to gather acorns and flowers for the table decorations! I think it was a good way of getting me out of the house while my wife tried on her wedding dress! Haha! We live in the English Lake District in a beautiful part of the world. So, “one more for the river, one more for the sky” reflects that natural beauty.
The “girl and a boy” in the lyrics could be me and my wife, my new niece and nephew, or any other couples in my family—even my Mum and Dad. My family is going through a tough couple of years at the moment. My elderly Grandmother died earlier this year, my Aunt has cancer, and so does my Dad. He has just this week gone into hospital with kidney problems. So, it is a very sobering time and also a time to reflect on life and death and the need to celebrate them in turn.
All my relatives also are very keen gardeners. My Mum and Dad have a beautiful garden at home in Wales. So, gathering flowers is something they do regularly as part of their rural existence. “Gathering flowers out on the lawn” reminds me of my last visit home, with my brother’s two kids playing happily on the grass, the younger one discovering a leaf for the first time and pulling it to pieces!
The harmonies may not be 100% perfect, and I realized after a while that I had not set the gain response correctly on my microphone, so the vocal sounds a bit furry – but I think the honesty and the innocence of my composition shine through. It is a poem about how we transition into the next world.
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Gathering Flowers I’m gathering flowers to help me get by One more for the river, one more for the sky I’m gathering flowers to help me get high You’d better believe that it keeps me alive I’m gathering flowers for the one Worshipping flowers under the Sun I’m gathering up in a state of joy Gathering flowers for a girl and a boy I’m gathering flowers, and I’ll tell you why I do it to cherish the ones who have died I’m gathering flowers, wrong or right See how the flower catches the light I’m gathering flowers, up at the dawn Gathering flowers out on the lawn Gathering flowers for the ones who are born And for the ones whose hearts get torn I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers to help me get by One more for the river, one more for the sky I’m gathering flowers to help me get high You’d better believe that it keeps me alive I’m gathering flowers for the one Worshipping flowers under the Sun I’m gathering up in a state of joy Gathering flowers for a girl and a boy I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers for the grave Sprinkle them on the mistakes we made Gathering flowers for the feast Gathering West and gathering East I’m gathering flowers, for you my dear Gathering flowers to draw you near Gathering flowers for our love Gathering for the Lord above I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers I’m gathering flowers
Beautifully performed (There is something natural and authentic about harmonies not being 100% perfect).