The first sounds of the track ring through in an almost otherworldly manner. In those first couple of seconds, you are not sure what experience awaits you. It is a build-up to a heavier beat, a long intro of a melody-heavy high-pitched R&B song, or a lyrical ballad telling the tale of moments past? The soft sound of an acoustic guitar suddenly grants a resolution. Soon, the words follow.

Antonio Cordua’s melodic vocals don’t waste time. From the first words of his new single ‘Older’, he gifts his listener a world of his own making. The line ‘When I was young, I remember’ runs deep. It takes you to a past and solidifies the single as a bittersweet memory you listen to over and over when you want to feel… really feel.

As the song progresses, you can feel the influences that the artist Antonio holds in high regard reverberate through. They act like a companion, giving you a sense of familiarity that often comes with inspiration.

“For this single and any of my music, I would say Ben Howard and Bon Iver have been influences since I started making music, and I hope to someday work with both of them,” Antonio shares.

The guitar chords keep playing, providing a symbolic comfort in between the intimate rhymes. As the chords repeat, shaping the core melody of the song, the listener is lulled into a calm. As the words change and new emotions rise to the surface, hitting you with a wave of memories, the chords will always be there to fall back on, to provide a familiar anchor in a sea of new lyrics.

The next line of the song seems personal, as if it were taken from a diary, from a sweet and carefree past, and placed before you, now transformed into a universal sign of a peaceful memory.

“In the first verse,’ Singing Mr Moon Man, saying he’ll scare your nightmares away,’ Mr Moon Man was a character in a song my grandmother and I came up with when I was very young, made me feel safe as a kid.”

The track keeps playing, and as you reach the chorus, the melody picks up. A beat meets the acoustic guitar, continuing the road hand in hand. You can’t help but move to the rhythm. Your feet stomp the floor, and your head nods in a subconscious approval of the union.

The line, “Everything in me started feeling smaller than it did before,” penetrates your heart, making you stand still for a second. Your body continues to move to the sound of the music as your mind repeats the words over and over. You think back to your past, to when everything around you felt so large. And the people in your life, those you looked up to, felt the largest of all. You think how much smaller the world seems now, how different it all is.

“The older I get, the more that I see I’m more like you and you’re more like me,” follows. It grips you. Everything is smaller, but the people in your life, they just turn true to size, true to your own size. You find them in yourself and begin to see them as people, not larger-than-life creatures. There is a sadness to this lyric, a loss of a figure that stood so tall, and yet a joy in understanding them more now that you are older, connecting with them deeper.

“Honestly the emotions I want anyone who is kind enough to listen to my music and the single is whatever the song evokes in them, I can only speak on what I feel when I listen to it and that’s a sense of gratitude for my grandmother which the song is about as well as a sort of grief for the invincible superhero we think our parents are when we are younger,” the artist comments.

The melody speeds up, and new instruments each take their turn at the wheel.

“But I’m not asking you to go, but I’m not telling you no either.” As you reach the second verse, your heart blends with the thoughts and feelings of the artist. Moments from his life are now becoming yours.

“And some days the wind blowing through the trees makes you seem you are here with me,” gently pushes you to think of the light and the end of the tunnel of loss. Whether it’s the loss of a person, a version of that person, your relationship with them or even the loss of your past self. As time goes by there are moments, small moments when a spring wind, a morning sun or a distant melody reminds you of how it used to be, transports you to emotions you thought were lost, and you are sat there, still, feeling exactly how you used to feel, shocked in the revelation that, even for a brief moment, you could still feel like you used to. The lyrics change, and that moment is gone. Just like in life, you only get a moment.

A chorus follows, and you welcome it like an old friend.

“The walls that you build do not make you weak,” repeats, and you begin to understand it, listen to it like wise advice. This chorus is important. It repeats, carrying the messages you needed to hear over and over.

The guitar plays you out, followed by those same ethereal sounds that welcomed you in the first place. You hear them now, knowing what they are, what they brought to you. It’s safety and familiarity, it’s also discovery, and a sadness that is not unwanted; on the contrary, it is often needed to understand.

It’s a song that makes you want to appreciate it; it’s bittersweet, yet with tears in your eyes and a smile on your face, it pushes you to enjoy life, to make the most of it, of your connections to the people in it. It makes you stay up late, have long conversations with those who you love the most and appreciate the fleeting sensation of familiar connections, all while Older is playing in the background. It is a lesson learned, a soundtrack at the end of the film, when the hero has completed the quest, but only begun the journey. It honours the past and inspires the future.

Listen to Older and more of Antonio’s music on Spotify – Antonio Cordua

Follow the artist’s journey on Instagram – @antoniocordua, TikTok – @antonio_cordua, YouTube – @antoniocordua