Love Between Two Rivers

Intro

Mm

Mm-hmm

Yeah yeah yeah

Verse 1

Met her at the market in Mostar old town

She was buying figs and I was hanging around

Her name was Lejla and I'm called Ivan

Two different worlds but the same sun shining down

Neretva river it don't care who you pray to

Old bridge don't ask where your family came from

But the neighbors they got opinions that sting like a nettle

Telling us we're wrong before we've barely begun

Pre-Chorus

Oh the coffee's sweet but the talk gets bitter

Little town walls got a long long memory

Chorus

We're a love between two rivers

Bending like the willow in the wind

They say we're on opposite sides of forever

But the heart don't read the maps my friend

Love between two rivers

Flowing to the same Adriatic sea

Verse 2

Her uncle plays saz on Friday evenings

My brother's got a rock band practice in the shed

Sunday morning her folks light up the candles

Saturday night we're dancing till the paint comes off the ceiling

I learned her mother's prayer soft and steady

She learned my grandma's songs word for word

But the market women they click their tongues like castanets

Saying mixed like this it never works out in the world

Pre-Chorus

Oh the burek's hot but the looks get colder

Stone walls whisper things they can't unsay

Chorus

We're a love between two rivers

Bending like the willow in the wind

They say we're on opposite sides of forever

But the heart don't read the maps my friend

Love between two rivers

Flowing to the same Adriatic sea

Bridge

I remember my granddad he told me once

War leaves scars that children have to carry

But love's the only bridge that never got bombed

So I hold her hand and we don't tarry

They'll call us fools they'll call us traitors

Both sides will claim we lost our way

But I'd rather be a stranger to every single village

Than a stranger to the girl who makes me stay

Pre-Chorus

Oh the honey's gold but the words get sharper

Old walls remember what the young forget

Chorus

We're a love between two rivers

Bending like the willow in the wind

They say we're on opposite sides of forever

But the heart don't read the maps my friend

Love between two rivers

Flowing to the same Adriatic sea

Verse 3

Some nights we talk about leaving this valley

Packing up the laughter and the pain

But every time I think about the mountains that we came from

I know I'd carry both of them again

Her name means night and mine means grace

You put them together that's a whole new song

And if the whole wide world decides we don't belong

We'll sing it anyway till they sing along

Pre-Chorus

Oh the rakija's warm but the frost is creeping

Every step we take they're measuring the line

Chorus

We're a love between two rivers

Bending like the willow in the wind

They say we're on opposite sides of forever

But the heart don't read the maps my friend

Love between two rivers

Flowing to the same Adriatic sea

Chorus

We're a love between two rivers

Bending like the willow in the wind

They say we're on opposite sides of forever

But the heart don't read the maps my friend

Love between two rivers

Guitar Solo

Talkbox Solo

Bridge 2

Stojim na kisi (Waiting in the rain)

Vidim tvoje lice (Seeing your face)

Digitalne sjene (Digital shadows)

Stare ulice (Old streets)

Moja Lejla (My Lejla)

Sve je synth (Everything is synth)

Sve je san (Everything is a dream)

Jedan grad (One city)

Jedan dan (One day)

Verse 4

I see the cable cars going up the mountain peak

Glitching through the static where the colors start to leak

Electronic sevdah in a circuit board heart

Can't keep the logic and the longing apart

Your brothers they watch from the corner store glow

Their eyes like two pixels they never let go

I got the vocoder hum in my chest when I speak

To bridge the gap between the strong and the weak

Chorus

We're a love between two rivers (Rivers)

Bending like the willow in the wind (Wind)

They say we're on opposite sides of forever

But the heart don't read the maps my friend

Love between two rivers

Flowing to the same Adriatic sea

Guitar Solo

Talkbox Bridge

A-a-adriatic (Wave)

Ljubav (Love)

Digitalni kamen (Digital stone)

Balkan flow

Talk to me Lejla

Don't let them pull the plug

Keep the signal clean

Verse 5

Maybe we’re just echoes in a VHS tape

Looking for a hallway or a secret escape

Between the minarets and the towers of steel

There's something that the algorithms can't ever feel

The weight of the granite the scent of the pine

The ghost in the machine saying yours and mine

One side is chrome and the other is clay

We’re building the middle ground every single day

Outro

(Same Adriatic sea)

Bitcrushed and beautiful

(Same Adriatic sea)

Radio Sarajevo calling from the past

(Same Adriatic sea)

Don't cut the connection

(Same Adriatic sea)

Love between two rivers

(Bending like the willow)

(In the wind)

Vapor clouds over the hills

Lejla

Ivan

One

Post-Chorus

(Sve je san)

(Everything is a dream)

Low resolution sun

High definition soul

(Ljubav)

Bridge 3

I walk the Baščaršija where the wires are frayed

Past the neon shutters where the debts are paid

Is it nineteen ninety or two thousand seventy-nine

I’m looking for a glitch that’ll make you mine

You got the gold coin hanging on a nylon string

I got the electric saz ready to sing

One hand on the future one hand on the bone

The most crowded city feeling all alone

Verse 6

We hit the highway in an old Yugo car

Tied together like a shooting digital star

Running past the checkpoints made of blue light glare

Trying to breathe in that mountain ridge air

Your auntie’s lace pattern on a circuit board map

Falling through the cracks of a generation gap

They talk about blood they talk about pride

I just talk about how you’re by my side

Pre-Chorus

Oh the sugar’s sweet but the signal’s weak

Old town whispers that we shouldn't speak

Chorus

We're a love between two rivers (Two rivers)

Bending like the willow in the wind (Wind)

They say we're on opposite sides of forever

But the heart don't read the maps my friend

Love between two rivers

Flowing to the same Adriatic sea

Instrumental Solo - Overdriven Saz and Talkbox Duel

Verse 7

I remember the smell of the charcoal and rain

Before we started coding all of the pain

You tell me that tradition is a weight we can't shed

I tell you it's a wire through a silver needle thread

If we stay in the valley we might turn to salt

Waiting for the neighbors to find a new fault

But if we climb the transmitter we can reach the sky

Broadcast the reason we're never gonna say goodbye

Bridge 4

Zagrli me (Hold me)

Preko svih granica (Across all borders)

Sistem se ruši (The system is crashing)

Ali srce ne staje (But the heart doesn't stop)

Tvoje oči kao plasma (Your eyes like plasma)

Moj glas kao dim (My voice like smoke)

Između istoka i zapada (Between east and west)

Mi smo treći put (We are the third way)

Extended Guitar Solo

Solo peaks with feedback and synth sweeps

Talkbox Breakdown

Balkan connection

Uploading my love

Mostar to Sarajevo

Can you hear the signal

Can you hear the river

It’s not binary

It’s not black and white

It’s every color of the sunset

Outro

(Same Adriatic sea)

Searching for the frequency

(Same Adriatic sea)

Modem soul humming low

(Same Adriatic sea)

We are the update they never saw coming

(Same Adriatic sea)

Across the old bridge made of light

Lejla don't disconnect

Stay on the line

Forever in the buffer

One city one pulse

(Bending like the willow)

(In the wind)

(Same sea)

(Same sea)

Analog hearts in a digital land

Hold tight

Hold tight

(Sea)

(Sea)

(End of transmission)

End