The Story Behind The Song: Your Time Is Coming Soon

Imagine that it’s 2AM you’re in bed, eyes closed, somewhere between waking and dreaming. It’s that place where the cares of the day have started to fade and your mind goes into autopilot. Suddenly you hear a voice in your head, a voice that feels like it’s in the room with you. Oh, and that voice sounds an awful lot like Johnny Cash.

That’s how the chorus and first few lines of Your Time Is Coming Soon came to me.

Just let the creepiness of that sink in. The low, brooding rumble of Johnny Cash slowly singing “I swear this house is haunted, feel it rising up in my bones… oh your time is coming soon”. I got shivers as I quickly grabbed my phone and recorded a voice memo. I can count the number of times that has happened to me, wherea song just arrives and I’m doing all I can to write it down before it slips away. 

The thing I love most about this song is that it’s meaning is totally up for interpretation. When I first wrote it, it was dark and haunting, now, when I sing it, it seems more hopeful. Sure, there are mistakes and pain, but a time is coming when that won’t matter.

I think every artist has that one creation that sets the trajectory for the rest of their lives. That “this is what I’ve been trying to do this whole time” moment. Whether it’s a painting, a poem, a book, a film, it’s a moment of clarity that connects heart and mind at once. Your Time Is Coming Soon is that song for me. As a songwriter, you spend the first few years just learning how to write songs, and you’re generally happy when you finish it. Whether or not it’s the kind of song that you actually like is fairly irrelevant. Later down the road you learn how to write the kind of music that you like, that you’re drawn to. I caught glimpses of that in previous songs (I think it’s there in Pony Ride, Lie to Me, and Morning Fades), but never felt truly at home musically until Your Time Is Coming Soon. It’s still my favorite song to play live, and I’ve already been singing it for year.