MADE IN DENMARK is an intimate testament to the power of music to heal and turn the page.
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- NEW ALBUMOUT NOW
- THOMAS BARSOEDENMARK MADE IN
- Page 3Twenty years after releasing my debut album—and following more than a decade away from writing and recording music for myself—I’m returning with MADE IN DENMARK. The album emerged from one of the most difficult periods of my life. In the aftermath of a painful divorce and trial, I found myself at rock bottom and turned back to the one thing that had saved me many years before: music. What began as therapy soon became an intensely personal collection of songs exploring childhood trauma, mental health, fatherhood, forgiveness, love, identity and the difficult journey toward accepting—and finding—myself again.
- 6TH STEP TO SERENITYThis is the first song on the album — and the song that started it all. I wrote 6th Step To Serenity after receiving the worst news of my life, on the back of what had already been the hardest two years of my life.
- LYRICSJust when I thought that I had reached rock bottom I unlock another level of low
- HOW DO YOU WATER A HEARTThis song exists because my mom called me. She was back home in Copenhagen, and I had sent her some of the songs I’d already finished for the album.
- LYRICSHere I am at the piano Trying to write a happy song
- Page 8FAITH “You’ll find love when you least expect it.”
- LYRICSI saw a life I’d built for decades Fall to pieces one room at a time
- I'VE LIVEDThis song is a big fat line in the sand. It’s who I am and where I am today.
- LYRICSI spent half my life chasing down horizons With a suitcase and a restless heart
- LEARN TO LOVE AGAINIs me thanking my heart for withstanding all the many difficult and painful things I’ve put it thru and somehow still remained open for love. ‘You’ve been broken you’ve been bruised but no matter how much pain I put you thru. You always find a way to learn to love again’
- LYRICSTear my confidence to pieces Mistake my kindness for weakness
- THE IN BETWEENThis was probably the song I had the most fun making on the entire album. I’d just been riding my motorcycle back from work, listening to a bunch of old Prince records and some Bruno Mars/ Silk Sonic, so I was very much in THAT kind of funky/soulful mood…
- LYRICSI wake up with the weight of the world Sitting on my chest
- JEG ELSKER DIGThis song holds a very special place in my heart. I wrote it on a day when I was missing my motherland Denmark so much it actually hurt. I missed my family. My closest friends. The laid-back culture, the values, the humor, the intimacy, the bicycles, hey, even the pouring rainI! I missed my favorite city in the world, Copenhagen, and that unique mix of innovative and historic beauty that I’ve never found anywhere else.
- LYRICSWest coast life, it’s all too clean Nothing here remembers me
- THEN THERE IS YOUNow we’re entering the part of the album where some serious tears were shed and my heartstrings were stretched to their absolute limits. This song was written to, for and about my sons, Noah and Jude.
- LYRICSThere’s the sun there’s the moon, then there is you There’s the lies and my truth, then there is you
- I FORGIVE MYSELFThis is by far the hardest song on the album for me to write about. What I’m sharing here is something that, until now, I’ve only told a handful of people.
- LYRICSIf I’m gonna tell you my story I’m gonna have to unbury a body from a childhood
- DEAR YOUNG METo close the album, I wanted to write a song from 47-year-old me to my younger self. I absolutely loved writing Dear Young Me, and it felt right that it should come immediately after I Forgive Myself.
- LYRICSAnd music Man, we really did it
- Page 24PLAY ON SPOTIFY
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THEN THERE IS YOU
Now we’re entering the part of the album where some serious tears were shed and my heartstrings were stretched to their absolute limits.
This song was written to, for and about my sons, Noah and Jude.
My entire world. My heart and soul. And my reasons for literally everything.
When I started getting serious about making this album, I knew that of course I wanted — and needed — to write a song about them.
But I didn’t know what that song would be until perhaps the hardest day of my life.
That day, my mind went to a very dark place. A place I never, ever want to go again.
And yet, throughout the hardest periods of my life, whenever I’ve struggled mentally, whenever I’ve felt like I couldn’t take any more, and whenever a part of me has wanted to give up…
- Then there is you.
- My boys.
- My two rocks. My two anchors.
And as long as I have them in my life, I will always find a reason to keep fighting.
Every time I hear the opening of the chorus, it still gives me a little jolt through my heart:
“I hope you’ll never know how close I came to giving up but then I nearly did
I found the strength in your love…”
If you listen closely to the recording, you can literally hear the tears in my voice.
I remember doing that vocal take and being completely choked up because I felt every single word so deeply.
Technically, there were “better” takes.
Cleaner takes.
But none of them were more honest.
So I knew that was the one I had to use.
Life has most certainly thrown me some serious curveballs. And like all of us, I know there will be more trials, more obstacles and more difficult days ahead.
But no matter what happens, the final lines of this song will forever hold true:
“There’ll always be two reasons why I won’t ever stop fighting…
and that’s you, Noah and Jude.”
I’ve done a lot of things wrong in my life.
But I have most certainly done two things very RIGHT. 💙💙
This one is for my boys.