Amsterdam – Just Keep Vibin'

Lawrence having an existential crisis? Surely not…

Like Forgot My Mind and Intrusive Thoughts, Amsterdam was written during a bit of a transitional period in my life. The difference is that, while those songs are about confronting those thoughts head-on, Amsterdam is about doing the exact opposite: avoiding them for a while.

The song tells a very literal story of a weekend trip to Amsterdam with a friend. It begins as we leave a fancy bar after spending far too long rating interesting beers and ales from small Dutch breweries. Like a lot of European cities, Amsterdam’s streets can look strangely similar once it gets dark. We found ourselves wandering through them, and somehow the maze of canals and narrow streets reflected exactly how we were feeling about our own lives. We were both asking the same question: What do I actually do with my life?

Despite that, this isn’t a heavy song.

I think that’s pretty obvious from the first listen. It’s about escapism, but the fun kind. It’s about putting life’s bigger questions on hold for a weekend, finding happiness in the present, and squeezing every last drop out of those moments before real life catches up with you again. The problems are still there when you get home, but for a little while they can wait.

The melody and lyrics were written on the Eurostar journey home—somewhere between Belgium and France, as far as I can remember. The instrumental came together a few months later, but the song itself then sat unfinished for a few years before I finally recorded and produced it.

Most of the production happened in one-hour bursts on the Coastliner bus between York and Leeds over the course of a couple of months. If anyone ever tells you that you need a fancy studio environment to make music, just know that a surprising amount of this song was made while trying not to miss my stop.

In a way, Amsterdam is an accidental product of public transport.

Sonically, it’s a fairly typical Lawrence J-P track: layers of cello, punchy drums, a handful of synths, jazzy piano, plenty of vocal harmonies, and a few ad-libs thrown in for good measure. The whole thing was recorded in my bedroom and produced, mixed, and mastered by me in Ableton Live using a Rode NT1-A microphone—for anyone who’s interested in that sort of thing.

I think Amsterdam is a reminder that it’s okay not to have everything figured out. We spend so much time feeling like we should always be working towards the next goal that it’s easy to forget the value of simply enjoying where you are, even if it’s only for a weekend.

The trip didn’t magically solve anything. I still got on the train home with the same questions I’d left with. But it did give me a song, a few great memories, and a reminder that sometimes the best thing you can do is stop overthinking for a little while.

Hopefully, when you listen to Amsterdam, it reminds you of your own weekends away, spontaneous trips, or those moments where life felt a little lighter—even if only for a couple of days.