Song Information - Will You Still Be There?

In early 1998 I experienced a three month period of psychosis, which culminated in me being admitted to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed as schizophrenic. At the time it felt at bit like a death sentence.(When I later found out that twenty per cent of schizophrenics only ever have one episode, I decided to try to minimise my chances of a relapse.)

During that three month period my behaviour became increasingly erratic. It was as though I was running a different browser to everybody else, so the same external stimuli were interpreted to fit my own internal reality. In particular there were two nightmare journeys, one to Victoria to Andrew Pattison's Long Weekend, and one to the National Folk festival in Canberra.

In November of the same year I headed back down to Victoria to Andrew Pattison's Troubadour Weekend. This song was written just before setting off on that journey. The 'you' in the song is partly referring to my partner Ruth, who has stuck with me throughout this whole period, and without whose help I would most probably be in a much less fortunate condition. It is also partly referring to me.

Song Information - Will You Still Be There?

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