09 Where do you come from

The story

This song is the opener for a reason. It’s a
question I’ve heard countless times over the years – sometimes asked with innocent curiosity, other times with suspicion disguised as interest. “Where are you from?” can seem like a simple question.
But then comes the follow-up: “No, but where are you really from?” That’s when it stops being a question and becomes a statement.

It’s a way of saying: you’re not from here.

In Britain as a teenager, I was navigating a society that didn’t always know what to make of me, or of the many others who had come from former colonies in search of education, opportunity, or simply a future. I was fluent in English, familiar with English literature, from a community that traced itself back to the East India Company – and yet, somehow, always seen as just outside it.

This song is both a response and a celebration.
It laughs at the absurdity of the question while
also taking it seriously enough to answer it – on
my own terms. It’s about reclaiming identity, not
as something fixed and narrow, but as something mixed, fluid, and joyful.

The title deliberately echoes those awkward moments when someone can’t quite place you. We’ve all heard it – those of us whose faces or
names don’t line up with certain expectations. But I wanted to answer not with defensiveness, but with defiance – and warmth.

This is where I channel Pete Seeger with his folk idiom, his playful rhymes and accessible choruses. There’s humour in the verses, but also something sincere: a call to recognise the richness of heritage, the absurdity of borders, and the unity that lies beneath the surface.

Folk music in Britain has always told stories of ordinary people who go about their daily lives unrecognised for their contributions to society. But I felt it was time the voices of the postcolonial generations were given a place in that lineage. When one of the ladies-in-waiting at Buckingham Palace asked a visiting born and bred black Londoner where she was really from, was that racist or just insensitivity to the changes in our society? People who’ve been here for decades – raising families, paying taxes, shaping culture. This song offers an answer, and in doing so, reframes the question.

Lyrics

57 different flavours, in my family tree, Every branch a winner, they’re all part of me… A bold colonial boy, with roots deep and wide, I sing this melody my joy I cannot hide. But where do you come from, are you east or west? Are you really one of us, would you pass the Tebbit test? Where do you take holidays? Where did you get that tan? Where do you come from, where do you really, really, really come from? A drop of the old blarney, a dash of finest Scotch. And more than just a pinch, from somewhere dark and hot. From Blighty’s rolling hills to Indies sunny shores, I’m quite a tipsy brew of many ancient lores. But where do you come from, do you lean North or South? When we’re skittled out, do you jump, scream and shout? You don’t look a lot like us? What is your native tongue? Where do you come from, where do you really, really, really come from? Oh Shakespeare my dear bard, if you could only see, The Venetian merchant’s plea, rings so true in me. In a world where nations force us to define. I choose harmony, a blend that’s truly mine.

So where do you come from? Just sounds like a broken drum. One race the human race, that’s where we come from. That’s where we all come from, that’s where we’re all come from. One race the human race, that’s where we’re, really from. That’s where we all come from, that’s where we’re all come from. One race the human race, that’s where we’re, really from.