Paint The Walls was written after the one year anniversary of a day I’ll never forget. The Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney. I was at work about 5 metres away when it started.

I’ve written other lyrics in the months following that day but they were more emotional and I wanted to write something now that a bit more time has passed. Something less about what I felt and more about what happened after.

The amount of people that stopped by afterwards, not to pay their respects, but to take a selfie in front of the building was disgusting. One family tried to get in and see the inside. It was still a crime scene and these parents wanted to take their young children in to see where 2 innocent lives were lost.

And don’t get me started about the media. You should have seen the amount of cameras there were the day of the grand reopening.

I still get angry when I think about the days following 15/12/14. But not everyone was so disrespectful. There were so many flowers that they had to keep finding new places where people could put them.

I used to think about that day everyday. Working so close didn’t really help. I can’t imagine what it’s like for those working in Lindt that day that still work there. But lately I’ve found that I’m thinking about it less and less.

I don’t want to forget about it. I don’t want to forget the lives that were lost and the lives that were changed forever. I feel that if I stop thinking about that day then those lives will be forgotten, like they didn’t mean anything. Like their tragic deaths didn’t mean anything. That would make the events of those 17 hours even more tragic.

I don’t want to forget. I will not forget.

Love
Roxanne