This month’s Paper Plane was written and recorded in HMP Barlinnie during a recent three-day songwriting session themed Patchwork. Developed through conversation, writing and shared process, the song was created and performed by a young man in prison, in collaboration with musicians Scott Brice and Susan Bear. The theme felt fitting, creating space to piece together different parts of a person’s life into something held and expressed in a song. The lyrics stay close to the realities they come from - cycles of drinking, the weight of “another cup of sadness,” and the sense of having to start again each day. At the centre of the song is the tension between knowing you’re more than your actions, while still feeling the pull of them - “I’m not the bad guy, but the bad guy resides in me.” There are also moments that look beyond that, holding onto the idea of getting back to the hills, to something steadier and different. “My song tells a real-life story about how I once felt in my life and how the 'drink and the madness' made me resort to silly mistakes. Also, how alcohol led to depression and the madness being drugs. The song has a message to others of how I struggled and that I thought I would never change and thought it was impossible. But now I’ve managed to change for the better.”