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Intro
Welcome Home
Let That River Go
Pour the Wine
Roll Away
Outrageous Design
Accustomed to the Light
And You Will Lose Everything
It's the Truth
Forgiveness
Free the People
Keeping the Flame
You Got Heart
Drink the River
Outro

Ltd Edn DVD
1. available light -
 album insight
2. fans on film
3. dave's track by track
4. behind the scenes of the 'welcome home' video
5. welcome home video with optional director's commentary
6. haere mai dave

Welcome Home
Welcome Home was inspired by an anti-racism march in Christchurch. At the same time the march was going on with New Zealanders from all over the world saying "Here we are, we belong here" the police were guarding the National Front. It really touched my heart that people could be so vocal and strident about having community in New Zealand.  

Let That River Go
When I started writing 'Let that River go' I was in a hotel in Santa Monica of all places when the Iraqi war broke out. I was watching the war develop with a sense of outrage and that's where the line 'there's that sound again, it's the sound of nothing but pain' This is a kind of anti-war song. It's laying down your darkness as in laying down your malice towards your fellow man.

Pour the Wine
It was a sad melancholy piano ballad. And in working with Neil Finn it began turning into quite an upbeat pop song. I'm glad it arrived in that place. It's a song about discovering that you can turn missed opportunities into something positive and it speaks about maybe getting a little dirtied by your life, and feeling a little less than complete. The only way to overcome that is to get involved and find expression for anything you think you lack. And that's an essential part of soul and gospel music.

Roll Away
Roll Away is about rolling back anything that may be getting in the way with you. In my case pleading with God that obstacles be removed so that I can get on without them. It comes from a yearning that's been around a while. This song brings me back to the hymns & solemn harmonies - simple harmony singing that the Latin masses had back when I was a small boy.  

Outrageous Design
Lyrically it speaks for itself in that I perceive the world in a lot more detail on a larger spiritual level, and look at everything as beautifully crafted and artistically made and designed. Whether it be a koru or the light on a Nikau or a Manuka and the way it's been carved by the wind to look like green rocks with rivers flowing down it. I see these things as great works of art.

Accustomed to the Light
It's a little saga - a journey across town - a journey of the heart. If you perceive where you're going and what you're doing to be what your eyes are telling you hen you're already lost. There's another way of perceiving the world where the light of it and the positive heart of it, and the beautiful creative flow of it. It can be seen even in the darkest of times.

And You will Lose Everything
I looked back on myself as a younger man and recognised being in the midst of youthful exuberance and ill-advised drug taking. There's quite a P problem in New Zealand and that set the tone of the song. I saw myself as a strung-out young guy trying to get by singing in a rock'n'roll band. Living life quite desperately and being quite nervous and anxious most of the time. I could see that happening in New Zealand where the P problem was getting a little out of hand so the song came from quite a miserable place.

It's the Truth
It's one of those 'Gollum' songs where you're fighting yourself and trying to figure out who's going to win. It's an internal battle of what the truth is, exasperation at your own experience.

Forgiveness
Having learned something on the nature of forgiveness over the years it's the best thing to do. Forgive yourself, everyone you love, everyone you don't love. It's the best way o unburden yourself of stuff you don't need. I've always been a big fan of gospel music and I heard this song write from the beginning with somebody else singing on it. Neil Finn and I had the two part harmony come really naturally and it seemed traditional in a sense of it coming from a gospel place in its roots.

Free the People
My way of saying "What's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding". It has a lot to do with the song 'forgiveness'. It's about forgiveness. It's your civic duty to free the people. 'The truth will set you free' as they say.

Keeping the Flame
The first spark for writing this song was a little piano riff. It started out with just two elements piano and a vocal line. That turned into the song, I sang it for days on end and just loved every minute of it. I was in a space in the studio where the piano was really reverbey.

You Got Heart
It's a song of longing, begging to be sung by a bunch of people. Every which way I tried the song I couldn't get away from singing it in falsetto. It seemed to be the most vulnerable place I could sing from - a good, delicate thing to do. 'You got heart' - it's open and vulnerable and sung straight from the heart.

Drink the River
When I write 'Pour the Wine' it started out as this, a very delicate place. I had to reprise it. I was able to pool all the elements 'Pour the Wine' has as an upbeat thing into this little melancholy place. It's an empathy song and it perfectly bookends the emotion of  'Pour the Wine'.