BREATHE

Описание: BREATHE

Written and produced by Michael Stewart

A Songwriting Reflection Inspired by Michael Hutchence

Music has always had the power to capture the most ordinary human act and transform it into something profound. In Breathe, I wanted to not only pay respect to Michael and his emotive and introspective performance style but examines presence, emotional awareness, and the fragile intensity of being alive.

At its core, Breathe is a meditation on the simplest and most essential human function — breathing — used metaphorically as a pathway to emotional release, healing, and reflection.

The influence of Michael Hutchence can be felt through the song’s sensual rhythm, spoken-like lyrical delivery, and emotional ambiguity. Hutchence was known for creating songs that blurred the line between observation and confession, often leaving space for interpretation rather than providing direct answers. The music is sensual raw brooding hypnotic with a pulse. This influence is particularly evident in the song’s opening reflective questioning:
“What are you doing
What are you thinking
A night time watching
A free time of thinking”

The lyric immediately places the listener in a moment of stillness and introspection. Like much of Hutchence’s work, the questions are not intended to be answered directly but instead encourage personal reflection and emotional engagement.

The repeated chorus:
“Breathe
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe”
acts as both a lyrical anchor and emotional grounding device. Repetition is used deliberately as a songwriting technique to mimic the physical rhythm of breathing itself. The cyclical structure reflects the repetitive nature of thought, anxiety, and healing, reinforcing the idea that emotional clarity often comes through returning to simple human awareness.

The lyric extends this metaphor further:
“Past a heartbeat
And then then you can receive healing”

Here, breathing is portrayed as a bridge between vulnerability and recovery. The moment “past a heartbeat” suggests the fleeting nature of time and emotional realisation, highlighting how healing often exists within small, easily overlooked moments.

The song introduces layered symbolic language through lines such as:
“A slide ruler that measures feeling”
This striking metaphor blends scientific precision with emotional uncertainty. A slide rule traditionally represents calculation and order, yet here it is used to measure feelings — something inherently immeasurable. This contrast reflects the human desire to rationalise emotions that often defy logic.

Similarly, the phrase:
“A crime without a climb he is
He is a man that breathes”
suggests existential reflection. The lyric subtly questions guilt, survival, and identity, ultimately returning to the fundamental equaliser: every person breathes, every person exists within vulnerability.

The non-verbal vocalisations:
“Arh arh arh arh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah arh”
serve as an important stylistic technique. Inspired by Hutchence’s expressive vocal layering, these sounds create emotional texture beyond language. They function as instinctive emotional releases, allowing listeners to connect with feeling rather than narrative.

This technique aligns with contemporary songwriting approaches that prioritise atmosphere and sensation over strict storytelling.

A particularly compelling thematic element appears in the line:
“Breathe out and appreciate the insane”
Here, the song acknowledges the chaos of life while encouraging acceptance rather than resistance. The lyric suggests that sanity and insanity, calm and chaos, are interconnected experiences within human consciousness.
The recurring references to time and perception:
“Slide slide away feeling the rhythm of the night
Time flies slows inside outta sight”
demonstrate how emotional experiences distort time, reinforcing the song’s exploration of awareness and presence.

LYRIC:

What are you doing
What are you thinking
A night time watching
A free time of thinking

A slide ruler that measures feeling
A moment lost in sailing
Past a heartbeat
And then then you can receive healing

Breathe
Breathe in
Breath out
Breathe

Arh arh arh arh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah arh
A crime without a climb he is
He is a man that breathes

Breathe
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe out and appreciate the insane
Breathe
Arh arh arh arh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah arh

What was he doing doing (doing)
She was a future wrapped in a word
She was seeing feelings arh arh oh
Arhooowh
Arhooowh

Slide slide away feeling the rhythm of the night
Time flies slows inside outta sight
Alive breathe in in out

Breathe
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe out and appreciate the insane
Breathe
Arh arh arh arh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah arh

Breathe