Can You See was originally started in 2020, but it wasn't until 2021 that I found the impetus to really dig into it properly. It was originally started as a bit of a change of direction from most of the more electronic/synth-oriented tracks I was writing at the time, though there's certainly plenty of that in there as well.

The original message behind the song was the idea of wanting desperately to be reunited with someone you know you're never going to see again - whether literally or more in terms of who a person used to be. I hit a total stumbling block after writing about 80% of the track in 2020, and it was only after experiencing a loss of my own in 2021 that I found the necessary drive to finish it properly and give it the ending it deserved. To be honest, it was a hard process and I was feeling particularly raw at the time, but in a weird sort of way it gave me a real sense of closure in letting go & saying goodbye to a friend who I still miss dearly to this day. I still ended up re-visiting the track again in 2022 to flesh out the end of the track and to give it a little extra punch.

This is a bit of a mixture of my more poppy/rocky sensibilities that I'd been exploring with my past couple of singles combined with some of my more usual production sensibilities - so it's a nice mixture of live instrumentation, strings, acoustic drums, and deep synths/pads. I guess you could say there's an element of nu-prog (I still kind of hate that term but I guess it applies) in there as well, and although I wouldn't describe it as a heavy track tonally it deals with some pretty heavy subject matter and I thought it was nice to get some heavier instrumentation in there towards the tail end of the track.

Can You See was a real journey in terms of how it all came together in stages over an extended period of time. In the past, that sort of approach has often killed my enthusiasm for music that's either been "overcooked" or dragged out, but Can You See serves as an exception to that - to me it stands as one of my personal favourite solo tracks that I've worked on in a long time.