“Once That Was You is about longing for something or someone who touched your heart deeply. I wrote this song with Jay Semko at the start of the very start of the pandemic, while everything was shutting down by the minute. It felt like the end of the world, that’s how we were both feeling – that line actually opens the song. It’s definitely a ballad, probably the first real ballad I’ve ever written. Jay writes from a place of deep emotion, and that approach was at the heart of our writing session…” – Adrian Sutherland
"Sometimes songs are there waiting to be brought into our world. Adrian is such a natural writer and, despite the strange circumstances we were creating under, the words and music just organically flowed. It was an amazing cosmic connection, and I remember feeling a real sense of serenity as we finished writing the song…" – Jay Semko
“When I first heard Once That Was You, it struck me as the sound of heartbreak and humility – grace under pain…. And like another conduit of emotion – the great Roy Orbison – Adrian’s voice cried out for strings and atmosphere to deliver the message…” – Colin Linden
PRODUCER: Colin Linden
SONGWRITERS: Adrian Sutherland, Jay Semko
PUBLISHERS: Midnight Shine Music, Jay Semko
Lyrics
It’s the end of the world
That’s how it feels right now
Watching it all unfold
Like you and me how it all came down
I feel you more than ever
When I hold her in the night
Once that was you
Now I don’t even know
Where you are
No matter how I try
I can’t forget
That once that was you
I’ve been on my own
Far too long now to mend
I can’t stand this town
Everywhere I go a dead end
I need someone who loves me
To hold me in the night
Once that was you
Now I don’t even know
Where you are
No matter how I try
I can’t forget
That once that was you
I see you in her eyes
I feel so wrong it burns
It tears me up inside
With a love so deep it hurts
Once that was you
Now I don’t even know
Where you are
No matter how I try
I can’t forget
That once that was you
Oh I can’t forget
That once that was you