STORY
Dancing
“Dancing” is an indie folk-pop song with a hint of Bossa Nova. The skeleton of the piece was written by my late father, Dutch musician Rob de Rijcke, while he was fading away from a terminal illness. It is a love letter to my mother, who has also since passed. The song is an ode to his deep gratitude for her standing by his side through thick and thin, to the intimacy they forged through enduring vulnerability.
The experience of reimagining and posthumously co-composing this expression of my father’s love was very moving. I encountered moments of perceiving my parents’ spirits encircling the process. Their incorporeal presence reconnected me to a familiar warmth and sense of safety I hadn’t felt since they died.
While the origin of “Dancing” stemmed from anticipatory grief, the song is a beautiful declaration of love. Lyrics such as “You’re in a dream and I can see/ You’re in a dream with me” present a nostalgic retrospective of a shared, fulfilling life.
My approach when reworking the song was to sonically convey a sense of contentment. When I brought it to James Clemens-Seely (Elizabeth Shepherd, Michael Occhipinti, Jens Lindemann) and Lucas Meijers (Kraak & Smaak, Ntjam Rosie, Janne Schra), who I co-produced alongside of, we worked to create a sunny, breezy vibe. I wanted the song to feel like something you would listen to on a warm summer day.