Country music and psychedelics make for strange bedfellows, but Prince Edward Island’s Lawrence Maxwell managed to work them both into his latest single, “We Were the Water” as he seeks out a greater oneness with the universe.
Maxwell describes the song as a “psychedelic journey of love — but not like the free love movement of the sixties.” It’s a practical approach; seemingly that by journeying within yourself you can find a greater understanding of the world without. This is Maxwell’s wisdom of a romantical nature: you aren’t truly ready to love someone until you can love yourself.
Recorded at The Hill Sound Studio with producer Adam Gallant, filmed by Kyle Simpson (Confound Films), edited by Millefiore Clarkes (One Thousand Flowers Productions), and directed by Aidan Searle and Brandon Hood, the video puts an otherworldly spin on Prince Edward Island’s North Shore. Featuring Maxwell and Mallory Parsons, we visually lean into the song’s LSD references for an experience that feels strangely like a music festival except for the total absence of a music festival.
Maxwell gets deeply metaphorical on his journey to enlightenment. As he seeks out wisdom from a higher power he discovers that his outward search for love is a naïve approach. At best, the character is left wandering, or otherwise quagmired in frustration.
Maxwell explains that the song was inspired by an occasion he found himself in some very literal water, and the feeling he had of being immersed in a river with his girlfriend of the time.
“Time slipped away. It felt like we’d become the water in that moment. That was the higher power in that moment. But it didn’t last, and neither did the relationship,” says Maxwell. “A river isn’t still, it moves. As do people. Water is calm and beautiful but water can be rough and drown you. But I still love it.
“‘For a moment there, we were the water’…. It implies that we find these little moments of bliss when we least expect them. And they are easy to forget. But they are always there for us. Also, implying a connection to another person in a union and the universe as one. That’s the hippie, psychedelic shit I guess.”
When it comes to blurring the lines of psychedelics and country songs, Lawrence Maxwell suggests Sturgill Simpson’s “Turtles All the Way Down” as one of the few comparisons that come to mind.
“I don’t think mine is psychedelic in its groove, so much as it uses references to psychedelics and planets in its asking for guidance from a higher power, veering away from religion,” says Maxwell.
The genre itself takes a backseat in this particular mode of transportation. If self-discovery is the journey, then you are inherently the vessel, and the message of “We Were the Water” plays a larger part in defining this song than a Stetson hat ever could. But religion and cognizance inherently go hand-in-hand, creating a bizarre Venn diagram with drug use.
“I don’t go to church but I’m a spiritual cherry-picker,” laughs Maxwell. “I was turned off long before. But it kind of reinforced a spiritual faith. In the song I say ‘where my thoughts just pass and I don’t ask where they’ve been.’ It was kind of an acceptance into some personal work I had to tend to without the ‘why me?’, ‘poor me’ approach.
“Surrender to the process.”
Lawrence Maxwell’s upcoming album, Almost Natural, is set for release in June, 2020.