Ash from Before Seventeen by Nicholas Wells

I wrote “Ash” in September of 2004. A little less than a month into my junior year of high school, I developed psychosomatic seizures, in response to the full blown level of depression and emotional turmoil that I was experiencing; a later diagnosed conversion disorder. I had to be taken out of school for a few months, had to be studied, and had to undergo extensive treatment to be able to make my way back to the world. In that time, I made a lot of decisions and changes to my life which very definitively changed its trajectory for good. I was sixteen years old. I wrote “Ash” exactly sixteen days before the day I had to leave school early because I had started inexplicably trembling forcefully for the first time, and could not stop.

When I went to record my vocals on this song in this past year, I broke down immediately in front of the microphone on the first couple of words. I was actually really surprised by how fresh and raw this wound still was, and I realized how important it was that I was coming back to treat it. The vocal take I ended up choosing for this one was one of the first few, when that genuine emotional avalanche was still in progress.
This one has a lot of gravity for me.

Nicholas Wells discovered his passion for music early, beginning his songwriting journey at the tender age of eight. His vocal and piano-driven compositions have since served as a diary of his personal and artistic evolution, marked by memorable melodies and profound storytelling.

NicholasWellsMusic.com