Originally, the lyrics were pitched to Guy Chambers, who created Angels for Robbie Williams.
A backing singer for Robbie Williams' tracks created by Guy Chambers, replied.
Guy's on tour with Robbie Williams. I love the lyrics.
Why don't you produce it?
Well, here it is.
This short verse serves as an artistic manifesto for a writer who navigates the boundary between the physical world and the supernatural.
The phrase "mystical landscapes of happiness and dread" highlights a refusal to write flat, one-dimensional worlds.
It shows a commitment to exploring the full spectrum of human emotion—combining light and dark, comfort and terror.
With a defiance of Categorisation.
"Don't tarnish me with labels" acts as a strong rejection of rigid literary genres.
The author resists being neatly boxed into standard categories like "horror," "fantasy," or "gothic.
But as a Spiritual Conduit.
Writing for those who cannot speak, "because I whisper for the dead," elevates the work from mere entertainment to an act of spiritual or historical remembrance.
It implies the writer acts as a medium or a voice for forgotten souls and untold histories.
It has a tone and style flowing with rhythmic cadence.
For the lines carry a distinct, poetic rhythm that mirrors a chant or an incantation, matching the mystical subject matter.
Reflecting a strange, gothic, and ethereal theme.
The vocabulary balances heavy, sombre concepts ("dread," "dead," "tarnish") with expansive, imaginative phrasing ("strange new realms," "mystical landscapes").
The defiant Voice is intensely personal, proud, and protective of artistic freedom.
For as writers of strange new realms.
We will always have those who judge, as they wallow knee-deep.
In their own dark sludge.
Shall we begin?
(A lone voice whispers)
As I guide you through mystical landscapes of happiness and dread.
Don't tarnish me with labels because I whisper for the dead.
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
Are you still here?
Curious about my new project for 2027?
Let us begin.
(A lone voice whispers)
Blessed be.
Velumbound.
One day, these transmissions will be filmed with others.
Why?
Well, here is Black
Velum Productions
Manifesto.
We do not create entertainment.
We create transmissions.
Black Velum Productions exists for those who have wandered through grief, longing, memory, mystery, and transformation.
And discovered that the darkness was never empty.
It was speaking.
Our work explores the unseen territories between life and death, dreams and waking, faith and doubt, love and loss.
We call this place The Great In-Between.
Every production is an invitation to cross its threshold.
We reject the idea that theatre, music, and film must merely tell stories.
Instead, we build immersive experiences that feel like forgotten memories, whispered confessions, strange dreams, and sacred rituals.
The audience, you.
Is not simply watching.
They are participating in an emotional journey.
Our recurring themes will include:
Mortality without despair.
Love that survives absence.
Memory as a living landscape.
Mythology reborn for the modern age.
The occult as symbolism rather than spectacle.
Redemption found through confronting one's own shadows.
Beauty hidden within melancholy.
Hope discovered beyond the veil.
For Black Velum refuses to separate poetry from cinema, music from theatre, or philosophy from storytelling.
We dissolve those boundaries until every production becomes its own living mythology.
Our worlds are populated by witnesses, forgotten souls, wanderers, guardians, and voices that speak from impossible places.
They do not demand belief.
They ask only that you listen.
We are not interested in shock for its own sake.
We seek resonance.
We want audiences to leave carrying questions instead of answers, silence instead of noise, and wonder instead of certainty.
Conventional production companies often chase trends.
We pursue timelessness.
Where others build franchises, we build folklore.
Where others seek applause, we seek remembrance.
If our audience leaves feeling as though they have returned from somewhere they cannot fully explain.
Somewhere strangely familiar.
Then we have succeeded.
As they leave.
Blessed be. Velumbound.
Black Velum Productions.
Beyond the Veil, We Transmit.
For there can be no darkness without light.
No matter what you believe.
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
Did your first moment of total bewitchery feel like a sudden shadow falling across the heart?
Where love takes root in the dark and stays forever?
Did your first sweet taste feel like a shadow?
Hiding behind the crimson tree, unseen and quiet?
And do you still remember its climb?
An invisible ghost moving slowly to then reside deep inside to be part of your soul?
Because you were changed, to be a vampire forever?
A life turned over in one single night.
By a new thirst and haunting?
Cursed to carry that first dark mystery all the way into your old age.
No matter how many new or old necks you taste?
(A lone voice whispers)
Blessed be.
Velumbound.
Do you have consecrated dreams?
Let's begin.
Can you remember your first moment of total bewitchery?
When Love climbed like an invisible ghost, right into the very deep depths of you?
From dark shadows hidden behind Aphrodite's crimson tree.
Because your life changed forever that night with its first delivery.
To be haunted into old age with your first taste of its dark mysteries?
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
"November Memories" by John Duffy is a poignant exploration of nostalgia, using fiery imagery to depict the painful yet comforting process of reliving memories to feel close to a lost loved one.
The poem, which features a rhythmic, song-like structure, highlights a paradoxical longing for the past, where the speaker embraces the suffering of memory to feel the presence of the departed once more
(A lone voice whispers)
Blessed be
Velumbound
Like a fire
Burning deep inside
Running wild
Like a child
On Bonfire Night
I no longer fight
But go real close
To embrace
My old ghosts
Burning
On Memory Lane
Causing me pain
But I love it
Love it
Love it
For you live again
Again
I love how it feels
Even though
It's unreal
I can feel it
Calling me home
Into the flames
I've always known
Like a fire
Burning deep inside
Running wild
Like a child
On Bonfire Night
I no longer fight
I hold the flame
I speak your name
You live again
Again
But go real close
To embrace
My old ghosts
Burning
On Memory Lane
Causing me pain
But I love it
Love it
Love it
For you live again
Again
I love how it feels
Even though
It's unreal
And causes me
So much pain
Though it's unreal
I still believe
Every burning memory
Brings you back
To me
Like a fire
Burning deep inside
Running wild
Like a child
On Bonfire Night
I no longer fight
I hold the flame
I speak your name
You live again
Again
Like a fire
Burning deep inside
Love it
Love it
Though it hurts
You live
Again
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
The Wedding Vows is a poetic and lyrical composition centered on the themes of eternal love, spiritual connection, and the nature of commitment.
Throughout the song, the lyrics challenge traditional symbols of marriage—like a simple gold ring—in favor of a deeper, soul-level unification.
Press play.
