My Song, My Home: Adam in Ipswich
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Hello. This next episode is part of our music series, My Song, My Home, where we meet a musician who tells us about their hometown and plays a song for us. You'll learn through music, practice listening to real English speakers and hear lots of English expressions. We hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to My Song, My Home. In each episode, we visit a different town and meet a musician that lives there. Today, we're going to the east of England to meet Adam. I'm Adam Thomas and I'm a singer-songwriter. I busk all over the country, especially in my hometown of Ipswich. I'm Adam Thomas and I'm a singer-songwriter.

In today's episode, Adam will tell us more about his hometown of Ipswich and we'll hear him perform one of his songs in the centre of the town. Keep listening to learn some vocabulary from his music and find a transcript of this episode to read along on our website bbclearningenglish.com It's calm and dark, it's that time of the year

Ipswich is a town in Suffolk. It's one of the country's oldest towns and the town centre has lots of old buildings and streets. The one thing I love about Ipswich is if you look at eye level, it just seems ordinary. But if you look up, you see all these buildings that are historic and there must be so much history behind these buildings and

Adam says Ipswich seems normal at eye level, that's if you look straight in front of you. But if you look up, you can see the old and beautiful buildings. Adam grew up in a village just outside Ipswich with his brothers, and he discovered he wanted to play music by accident. We found a lot of music.

In the loft, an old acoustic guitar and we were just so interested by what this was because we didn't have nothing to do in the village and we just learned and just practiced every day and learned by ear. I dedicate most of my time after school to just learning and playing as much as I could.

Once Adam and his brothers found the old guitar, he spent all his free time practising. But it wasn't until Adam was an adult that he decided to become a musician for his job. I was working full-time as a paint sprayer in a car garage before, and I worked with my dad at the time. And sadly, he passed away unexpectedly, and that really...

Made me realise how short life is and that I need to do something with my life that I enjoy because I don't know what's around the corner. So I just gave it a go. I took a risk and I thought, I love playing live music, so I'm just going to try my best and see where it takes me.

When Adam sadly lost his father, it made him think about what he wanted to do with his life. He says he didn't know what was around the corner. He didn't know what might happen in the future. So he decided to do what he enjoyed most, playing music. Now he performs in venues around Ipswich and Busks, performs on the street in the town centre.

Ipswich is a popular place to busk because the musician Ed Sheeran began his career busking here. MUSIC PLAYS

I'm sorry, but I can't help that I'm missing chemicals. There'll be times where someone's had a bad day and they've come up to me and said, that was a very special song to me and that's, you know, made their day a bit better. That fills me with happiness. Every day I fade away again

I'm sorry but I can't help that I'm missing chemicals And we headed to one of Adam's busking spots in the centre of town to hear him perform his song Missing Chemicals. Listen and see if you can understand what the song is about. You can find the lyrics on our website bbclearningenglish.com It's cold and dark It's that time of year

When it gets hard, just hold me near. So I'll paint a smile on my face. Am I crazy? Just a head case. Why is everyone looking at me? I don't want to get out of my bed. It's like a hurricane in my head. It's alright to cry sometimes.

And I'm sorry, but I can't help that I'm missing chemicals. If you could see what I can't see, I'm missing chemicals. And every day I fade away again. I'm sorry, but I can't help that I'm missing chemicals.

The track is quite an upbeat song but the lyrics behind it are quite meaningful and quite deep. I needed to get a lot off my chest and I went through quite a tough time in my life and I had to start taking medication for anxiety and depression and stuff like that. So you can have down days. It is okay to ask for help and to talk to people.

Adam says that Missing Chemicals is an upbeat song. It sounds fast and happy, but the words in the song are more serious. Adam had to get a lot off his chest. He had a lot that was worrying him that he wanted to talk about. The song is about Adam experiencing anxiety and depression, but it's also about telling people it's okay to have down days, days when you feel sad, and that you can ask other people for help.

Let's look in more detail at some of the lyrics of the song about mental health. Remember, you can find a vocabulary list and the full lyrics on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

In the song, Adam uses the expression, paint a smile on my face. So I paint a smile on my face. If you paint a smile on your face, you pretend to be happy. You smile even though you don't want to. We have a similar expression in English, force a smile. And this is where you smile even though you don't want to. Another phrase in the song is hurricane in my head. It's like a hurricane in my head.

A hurricane is a very bad storm and this phrase is metaphorical. A hurricane in your head would mean that your mind is chaotic and unpleasant. The song is called Missing Chemicals. Adam is talking about the chemicals in your brain that affect your mood, like dopamine and serotonin.

If you don't have the right amounts of these chemicals, if you're missing them, then you can experience mental health problems. In the lyrics of the song, Adam says, Every day I fade away. Now, fade away is an expression we use to talk about something gradually disappearing. In the song, Adam says he fades away every day. He is saying he becomes less like himself as a result of mental health problems.

Listen to the rest of Adam's song and see if you can notice any other phrases about how Adam is feeling. ♪ It's late again, it's that time of the night ♪ ♪ I'm losing sleep and it's getting light ♪ ♪ So I close my eyes and try to rest ♪ ♪ Always trying to do my best ♪ ♪ What is this doing to me? ♪

God, no, you're not alone. You're just on the other side of the phone. And it's alright to cry sometimes. And I'm sorry, but I can't help that. I'm missing chemicals. If you could see what I can't see. Missing chemicals. Missing chemicals.

And every day I fade away again I'm sorry but I can't help that I'm missing chemicals And it's alright to cry sometimes I'm sorry but I can't help that I'm missing chemicals

If you could see what I can't see, missing chemicals. And every day I fade away again. I'm sorry, but I can't help that I'm missing chemicals. And I wish that I could live a life with all the chemicals.

Thanks for listening to my song, My Home. If you want to see Adam's performance, you can find a video on our website, as well as performances from all the other musicians in the series. Visit bbclearningenglish.com. If you enjoyed learning with the musicians, let us know. Email us at learning.english at bbc.co.uk. Bye for now.