Zack Hemsey - 'I'll Find A Way'

Track 13 off the album Empty Room, featuring Heather Bolan.

Music composed, orchestrated, and mixed by Zack Hemsey.
Audio mastered by Lou Hemsey @ Lou Hemsey Music and Film.
Artwork & Design by Omead Afshari.

[GoodGuyFerri]

I'm crying as I'm writing this comment, but I believe I have to share what I'm feeling right now and what this song did and is doing for me.
I moved to a different country with my wife in search for a better life for us both. I left family, friends and everything I had behind. Now a few months later she says this is not for her and has left me and gone back to our home country. I find myself all alone in a new country trying to make ends meet. I have nothing here but my will to persevere.
And even now when everything around me is pitch black, I still find light and strength while listening to Hemsey's songs, specially this one.
I even got myself a "The Way" tattoo to remind myself that even though I do not know the way, I do know that I must keep on going and rise above all the sorrow, pain and fear.
I don't care if this ever reaches Zack or anyone. All I care is that I'm truly grateful for all the amazing music he has ever made and how it changed my life. It saved me.
Thank you.

"How long can I survive this for
How long can I abate this for
How long can I remain this strong
Well how long can I just sing this song"

[n.m.dimmick]

I was listening to a lot of Zack Hemsey tracks while trying to draw, and realized I had not drawn a line on the page by the time this song was over. It was so powerful that I just held my pencil and listened. Really made me think everyone in the world should slow down and listen once and a while.

[dylanthemysterious]

"This is not the only way to make me whole and I will never turn my heart to stone."

These words hit me. This is what I needed to hear after my breakup.

[hajimesaito]

Verse 1: 
I heard they found a way to no set place 
That they’re way ahead and winning but there’s no real race 
And they’re feeding on the thrill of a chase 
When they’ll never find a way to keep the pace 
I heard they found a way to build our dreams 
Can they engineer a world in which we hear no screams 
And I heard that they can make vaccines 
But our sick routine isn’t keen to relieve 
I heard they found a way to see through walls 
Do they have the sight to see my scars 
And can they find a way to view who we are 
Or does such vision just exist in the far 
And can incisions ever fix all the vying that persists 
Can a needle cure the evil through the arm 
I’m told they have the means to travel to the stars 
But can’t journey to the start of the savage in our hearts 
So if I’m ravaged and afraid 
Damaged and apart, tired of charades 
How can I clear the smoke that billows 
Wade through to cope and chisel out a life that’s worthy and of praise 


Chorus: 
My whole life’s passing me by 
As I sit and wonder why 
I’ll find a way 


Verse 2: 
They say tomorrow brings a brighter day 
But do they know about the sorrow that’s beyond the fray 
Do they see all of the madness that man obeys 
And can they understand that sadness won’t go away 
But it’s okay cuz the truth is I’m feeling whole 
Feeling like the emptiness inside has found a home 
And I’m hopeful that my destiny is one of heights 
One in which the apathy in me no longer strikes 
And I wonder how this ending has come to pass 
When just yesterday was carefree and full of laughs 
But if there’s certainty in anything it’s what we have 
Is but impermanent cuz no thing will always last 
Yet still I can’t help but question fate 
Can’t shake the feeling that I hold the key to great escape 
And I feel in me a yearning that still endures 
A spirit wandering and eager now to find a cure 
Believe me this is pure essence 
Pure intention 
It goes beyond mere conversation and confession 
It’s much too vague to formulate into expression 
But perhaps there’s something greater that we’ve all been set in 
And this is not to say I know the way 
This is not to say attachment’s been put away 
This is not to say my love for you’s been held at bay 
And I don’t possess or know a simple route to change 
But it is to say I hold you close 
And it is to say the love in me is more than most 
And it is to say your absence has left it’s mark 
But I tell myself this plays within a bigger part 
Now you are not the only way to make me whole 
Know that I won’t ever turn my heart to stone 
You are not the only way to make me whole 
And I won’t ever turn my heart to stone 

And I’ll find a way 


Verse 3: 
I’m not without a spirit that can hold up to the torture 
Not without a will to stop the cycle that marauders 
Not without a mind to free the hate within my border 
And to cleanse the vessel into which my consciousness is ordered 
I’m not afraid of monsters that intimidate and taunt ya 
Not afraid to challenge all the violence and slaughter 
The leviathans that haunt are hardly deadly out of water 
I’ll find a way to offer the elixir of disorder 
So many trails have crossed the rivers forged from all our tears 
So many paths have left us all alone during these years 
So many that we’ve lost but I can feel their presence near 
I can see a road ahead that leads beyond the known frontier 
So lift yourself up slowly and rest your eyes upon me 
And let the sad and lonely float away and disappear 
And leave the guilt and shame and all the anger and the fear 
Lets trade it for the will to find a way to persevere 


Chorus 


Verse 4: 
How long can I surrender for 
How deep can my descending bore 
How long can I neglect me for 
How long is this confinement for 
How long can I arrest me for 
How long can I detain me for 
How long before I stray off course 
How long before all hope is lost 

How long can one survive among the horror 
Live among the demons that all seethe in darkened corners 
Cling to all the grief released in tidal waves upon ya 
Proclaim it isn’t fair, content to bear forever mourner 
This moment is in order 
Now let the waters pass 
Let the smoldered ash remain beside the olden past 
Leave it on behalf of those who crave to hear you laugh 
And walk among the living as you find a way to last 

How long can I survive this for 
How long can I abate this for 
How long can I remain this strong 
Well how long can I just sing this song 


I’ll find a way

[old_kitsune]

A deceleration that "I will hurt, I will be miserable, I will fail. But I will continue on, through the hurt, through the misery, through the failure". Pure acceptance and will dancing together.
When facing demons and darkness, you have to find a way, to carry on, to push through. You have to choose to live, choose life, choose love.

[ansh]

I cry for this guy, why he is not sitting next to zimmer, I pray for u zack hemsey....!! u deserve all the sucess

[Dandaman]

Surely I'm not the only one who hears aspects of the Interstellar soundtrack in this? I love both :)

[shaohanyu]

In a bad place rn.
Both parents were hospitalized, evicted 3 times, now living in a distant city where nothing is familiar and I miss my fucking family.
Zack Hemsey's been my favorite musician for a long time and it seems to be the only thing that's keeping the fire going.

[Gamer_Grille]

Thanks for this song. It is possibly the one song that has always managed to give me strength to keep fighting when I am battered and broken. Thank you.

[paulyanacep]

Who the hell would dislike such great music?

[ducoh]

this song gives me the strength to never give up on battling ptsd. No song will ever be able to touch me more than this one. It's a lyrical masterpiece, state of the art.

[dupremarianne]

Thank you for proving me that rap can be melodic and powerful. I usually don't listen to rap, not that I think it's bad but I don't usually like it. This song... Almost brought me tears, definitly brought me chills. And 99% of the songs I love don't do it. Such a beautiful music. Twentieth century music isn't that bad after all

[CombatMedicOps]

Gotta say, this song touches so deep. The lyrics are just amazing and well put together. This is what music was created to be, something to touch your soul and relieve anything with the power of ones voice to touch the very foundation of you and fingers to make a symphony that relieves even the most abyssal places in your soul.

[matthewgolden]

This song sums up human existence, its so good, I love it

[katies]

most rap songs are usually about money and girls, so it's so refreshing to hear a beautiful rap song like this

[hammer]

This resonates on a personal level but not because I've lost someone else but because I've lost myself. I find myself trapped in a malaise, lacking the will to do what needs to be done while chasing the ghosts of reasons why this has happened, subconsciously making the decision to keep running away rather than crossing the line in the sand and going into no man's land, trapped inside the cave until it eventually collapses. My girlfriend is an absolute angel for putting up with me but I know time is running out. Maybe some alone time is good and learning to let go of people but it will still be damn painful and I don't know if it would make things better or worse.

[nikradical]

So many ZH songs I relate to. From Waiting Between Worlds to So Silent. At War With Me to Empty Room. But this song. This song will play at my funeral. It embodies my perception of life, to speak of the melancholic and dreary and in the same breath feel hope. I'm not depressed, I find comfort in sadness, as it's one of the few honest emotions I ever saw from my family. My mom suffered from schizophrenia, and it was only her pain of losing me to foster care that I felt she understood in her situation. She battled it for months, going in an out of the hospital. She wrote me letters I never read until I was an adult, and she apologized in every one of them. She went back to school to get her GED; something she had wanted for 20 years. She found a way.


But I was only 14, and I was selfish. I turned my back on her, and in turn, she took her own life.


It is because of her that I will find a way, and I won't ever turn my heart to stone.


On a lighter note, @Zack Hemsey, I wrote a book while listening to your music. It's been 4 years since I started, and I must say, it would be a far more boring story without the places your lyrics and compositions take me. They give me hope, pulled me through the hardest years of my life (so far :P), and in all honesty, are straight-up bangers. Everyone who rides in my car has the privilege to listen to your music, and my roomates and neighbors get exposed to your songs, too.


My deepest gratitude,
Hannah

[old_kitsune]

In the light of his newest album, I've been listing to all of Zacks music. This was his first major release back in 2010.
When you look at all of them in a timeline, you can see a journey start to develop. From suffering (empty room) to finding a way out (the way) to teaching others what you have learned and experienced (Ronin and possibly Nomad)
However this song is the most important to me. Here is where he declares that he is not giving up. He is rising to meet the pain and hurt. He may not know how, but he will find a way.

[bossofbosses]

A few of his songs left me in a trance and i aint realize it. Powerful beats and words. This happens very rarely. It makes you think and realize things. When the song goes off you realize it was just the music.

[Soso]

This is the kind of song that makes you realize that we really tend to "label" certain types of music styles, and that it just restrain us from making absolutely wonderful musical discoveries. Now when someone asks me what type of music I listen to, I tend to say "everything". I don't want to limit myself. Really like all the elements in this song.