UNSURPRISINGLY, Simon Joyner’s grief over the death of his son was for some time too devastating to admit creativity – in fact, it took him over a year to reignite it. “At first I preferred to retire from music becauseI didn’t want to face writing about it,” he explains. “I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to write about anything else until I did. One morning I started playing guitar again, in a circular pattern, and sang Owen’s name for over an hour – somewhere between religious chant and primal scream. It unlocked me; I sat down and started writing and it all came very quickly.”
Joyner describes his use of different perspectives on Coyote Butterfly as “hoping to get close to a truth but knowing it’s impossible. Grief is transformative but not a linear experience. You don’t reach acceptance by progressing through organised stages. It’s more like those little boats you see getting thrown around in hurricane footage. The album reflects that.”