After spending months living and working within the same four walls, a local singer and songwriter emerged from the lockdown with a collection of songs that reflected the unusual past few months.

Entitled, aptly enough, ’Four Walls’, Jamie Blackburn released his lengthy album of 17 songs, each of them written within the lockdown period, last week.

He said that the album should read as a conversation you have with yourself as you understand the times, and that writing the songs was a cathartic and expressive process.

’I spent five months working from home and, I’ve got to admit, my mind did wander a bit,’ said Jamie.

’I write a lot of songs anyway, but the songs I started to write during this time kind of flowed from each other and they all shared a certain theme.

’So I decided to create a type of a concept album which went along with the whole lockdown time.

’It almost flows like a conversation you have with yourself about what’s going on.’

Jamie said that the songs on the album, which starts with ’Dust Down Your Wings’ goes through the thought processes he went through as the restrictions around the virus started to hit and each track, all self -written apart from the second song on the album, ’Dream Don’t Let Me Go’ which was penned with his friend Aaron Collister, expresses a different emotion drawn from being alone for extended periods.

They cover things like how he, like many others, didn’t take the virus seriously at first, but then, as the severity of the situation grew, so did people’s awareness and understanding of their role in keeping each other safe.

’The theme of the songs moves towards how people reached out to each other and pulled together and how people moved on,’ he said.

’The tone of the album does grow a bit darker as the album moves on, which reflects how the attitudes and feelings as the time progressed.

’I want this album to challenge people who listen to it. It spans as lot of genres and styles and I hope it enthrals people and then almost offends them with something different and unexpected.

’All the genres of music are ones that have helped shape and influence me along the way.’

Now this album is finished, Jamie plans to release another album created out of songs he has written over the past four years.

’Four Walls’ is available from all major music streaming services as well as a free CD, available at his gigs.