| Ceres – Choke Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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“It’s probably about being bad at sex. Or missing someone who is gone. Or being afraid of sex. Or thinking about dying a lot. I’m not too sure. I’m no Casanova, and I do think that once we’ve slid off our mortal coils, we’re gone for good—so I guess that kind of makes sense. I don’t know. I’m face down in the gutter, but I’m pretty sure the stars are still looking at me.” -Tom Lanyon (https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/ceres-premiere-new-anti-casanova-anthem-choke) |
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| Ceres – Baby's Breath Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"An ungrateful prick, I never asked for it Now I can't stop I just suck and spit on Everyone I ever loved" "Oh man, this song. I don't know. It's heavy. By far the most personal thing I've ever written. I'm not even sure how I'm going to sing it live, both literally and figuratively. It's about my Mum, my Dad, my brother and half-sisters, my family home, my girlfriend, my ex-girlfriends, my band-mates, my friends, my friend's friends, my loves and my hates, my fears and my regrets, my growing up, my backing down, my arrogance, my ungratefulness, my sorriness, my sadness and me." "Who am I to tell you how to feel your pain? Like relief lives inside both your parents names Losing one but gaining one to blame I know you're not me, I'll learn that one day I know, I'm sorry Missing a lot of things" - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Del-Del Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Hey, I thought you'd never show up." "Go read a book by author Victor Kelleher called Del-Del. It's to blame for this song." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Loaf Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"I watched Brad watch a storm from his window seat." "Brad 'Smokes' Fulton is our tech/fill in guitar guy/confidant/friend who has played with us and toured with us many times over the years. We were flying back from some-where, on some-tour, some-time and there was a storm out to the left of the plane. It was just one of those moments; I had my head back half asleep, watching Brad watch a storm from his window seat. It must've been a long week. So this is my ode to touring, and the bastard that she is. And about death. Always about death." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Nothing On Your Shoulders Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"She weighs nothing on your shoulders, so why would you let her down?" "Now, stick with me, but the kernel of this song started when I saw a girl on a guys shoulders at a show I was at once. Pretty much as soon as she got up there, he let her down. I don't know why it stuck with me. She wasn't even that bummed out about it, and he didn't seem to be a complete dickhead. I don't think they noticed me as I creepily stared at them as I wrote lyrics in my head. Maybe I was the dickhead in this scenario. Anyway, I thought it was too much of metaphor to let slide. I think it's about staying strong for someone, trying not to let them down, when it's always so damned easy to. You can't always be such a selfish prick." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Us Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Hold your breath through cemeteries." "That lyric is such a Los Campesinos! lyric it almost makes me sick. But I guess it makes sense seeing as this was the fist song we wrote after I Don't Want To Be Anywhere But Here, and had it shelved for so long that when Tom (Bromley) heard the demo and loved it and said we had to do it, we sort of said "Nah", but then he helped write the chorus and now I basically have my favourite band writing songs for me and honestly, it feels great. Tom also said it sounded kind of like Pavement—so that helped too. Think he even named it Us as well. Far out, who's record is this?" - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Talking Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Sometimes I wish I was you back then." "The pop banger! I like it's drive and momentum. I like that it's still a little weird. I think it's about having a fight. And not wanting to talk about it. But it could be about a million other things. It's probably the cheeriest thing on the record, even if it's still a bummer. If you love that crazy, million-pedalled, supersonic, bent guitar sounding thing just after the first chorus then cool, thanks. That was my idea." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Choke Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"But I don't know, I want to choke on you." "After Tom (Bromley) had strummed the last reversed chord of the intro to this song, we all sat in silence and played it back as we looked out of the only window in the studio. There was an old awning that had weathered in the sun and it's bleached fabric of brown and gold was flapping against the glass, casting shadows into the studio; almost, somehow, moving in slow motion. Imagine that in your head when you listen to the intro. Transcendental, huh?" - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Loner Blood Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"You got blood in your veins that you swore mine was the same." "I watched with my own eyes and listened with my own ears as Eileen Sparks played the most beautiful cello over this song. Tom (Bromley; Los Campesinos! and producer) made this song sound so lush. All it was a guitar and a vocal in the beginning, and he and Eileen turned it into this swelling, breathing, heartbreaking end to Side A of the record. In my Voice Memo demos on my phone this song is called 'Cool Guitar Part 1' - more than happy that my guitar is the least coolest thing on this song now." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Spinning Wheel Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Turn sideways and disappear." "I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be a nice little acoustic number that ebbed and flowed and meandered it's way through to the end; until the band got to it. One of my all time favourite things is to bring a song to the band and have them completely flip it on it's head. This was one of those. Also, funny story (kind of): I could've sworn that I thought up all by myself the lyric "Tough luck, she's nothing but a failure", but after listening to 'How To Taste' by Violent Soho, I was, evidently, full of shit. I messaged Luke (Boerdam) straight away letting him know there's still time to change it if he felt weird about it. He was cool. He said, "Don't sweat it my man, you're a great songwriter and a cool guy and have lots of friends and we've all ripped off someone somewhere along the way." or something like that. I can't really remember, it was a while ago... Maybe I should stop saying 'funny story', before I tell that story, huh?" - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Laundry Echo Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"But in this laundry everything is echoing now." "This song is about writing 'Okay' (the first track on the record, the one I wrote ten years ago, remember?) in the laundry of the house that ''91, Your House' (you know, the metaphorical well place?) is about. Confusing, I know. Anyway, all you need to really know is that laundries have terrible acoustics. Everything echoes. This is somehow the third-out-of-fourth (I know that's terrible grammar) song, so far, about my family's child-hood home. Yikes. I'm sensing a pattern." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – '91 Your House Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"I am such a piece of shit, it's okay, come on, let's all admit it." "This one's about death. And the year 1991. And the house I grew up in and sometimes, selfishly, wish we still had. It was in the mountains, just on the fringe of Country Victoria. If the smell of cut grass teleports me anywhere, it's to 63 One Tree Hill Rd. I get tingles every time I sing the chorus. Sometimes I feel guilty that I can keep going back to that well and take from it again and again. Not sure when it'll dry up? Maybe when my conscience get's the better of me. But for now, it's seems like the deepest well on the planet." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Roll Ur Eyes Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Hey! I can smell the cut grass." "You know how when September rolls around and the weather picks up and people start cutting their lawns and the smell of the cut grass floats into your house and takes you right back to summers in your youth and you go get your guitar and sit on your bed with the window open and the cut grass smell still floating in and you get that little rush in your chest and you write a song about all of it? Me too. That's 'Roll Ur Eyes'. Little side note: you have no idea how much time was spent labouring over whether we should stylise the title 'Roll Your Eyes' or 'Roll Ur Eyes'. 'Roll Ur Eyes won', obviously, but I can't remember why." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Happy In Your Head Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"I am your twenty years bad luck." "This was one of those cliché 'The song just flowed out of me, man' type deals. But not exactly just me, flowed out of us. The band was packing up one night at practice, and as it always seems to happen, Rhys started to strum that lazy, fuzzy, descending guitar part that now sits somewhat proudly at the start of this song. Four-and-a-half minutes later we had 'Happy In Your Head'. Love when that happens. Serendipity is a beautiful thing. Was that serendipitous? I use that word a lot but are never completely certain what it actually means." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Ceres – Okay Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"You gotta let me in." "I'm not exactly sure when I wrote this song. Maybe ten years ago? I don't know. It was way before the band existed, way before I even thought I could be in a band, and definitely way before I'd ever begin to dream that I would be writing a track-by-track about our second record's first song for Rolling Stone. Life's weird huh? It also inspired another song on this record, but we'll get to that later. Anyway, I like it. I guess I like it enough to make it the first thing you hear on Drag It Down On You. Hope you like this short, interrupted, sad ditty to introduce us again, for the first time, too." - Tom Lanyon (http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/first-listen-ceres-drag-it-down-on-you/4669) |
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| Richard Walters – Adeline Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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" In April of this year we welcomed our daughter Adeline to the world. I wrote this little song a few days later, whilst she was napping downstairs. If you're a parent, I'm sure you have felt that almost unstoppable and instinctive urge to protect and support your child...it certainly took me by surprise; I knew I'd love her but I had no understanding of how incredibly strong, unconditional and immediate that feeling would be. The song was produced by Aidan O'Brien (Producer/Composer) and recorded remotely - me in deepest, darkest Surrey and him in London. I recorded the vocals upstairs at home, I didn't want to wake Addy, so they were delivered very very quietly and then double-tracked." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Where Were You? Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"The track came from an email conversation with a close friend in Chicago. He and I were actually collaborating on some tracks at the time with a view to starting a new project. To kickstart the next wave of songwriting, I asked him to send me a list of title ideas to inspire some lyrics...one of them was 'Where Were You?' He explained that his estranged father, who he hadn't seen or spoke to in many years, was dying and it was all he could think to ask him...it really struck a chord. The song features cello by the wonderful Duotone and was produced by Aidan O'Brien (Producer/Composer). We recorded most of this in a cottage in Wales last December, with additional parts being added at home earlier this year." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Get Heavy Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"I wrote this song one morning when I was recording some Liu Bei tracks at Middle Farm Studios in Devon. I don't have an acoustic piano at home right now, so whenever I find myself in the vicinity of one I jump in front of it straight away and write what I can. It's a song about those boozey nights with old friends when you just keep opening bottles of something and the conversation turns deep, heavy and personal...in a good way. It's incredible the issues that two drunk people can cover in one night. The line "We're drinking like we're running dry, we're smoking like it's the 90's" pretty much sums it up. Full lyrics below, because I really like these words. Produced by Aidan O'Brien (Producer/Composer) and recorded in Wales and Farnham. I love love love the muted trumpet part at the end. " -Richard Walters |
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| The Sinking Teeth – The Bottom Of The Lake Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"The McMillan Straits is the passage of water that separates Raymond Island from Paynesville (the town on the mainland). Everyone that lives on the Island has to cross it daily on the Ferry because there are no places of work or schools on the island. It’s only about 250 meters wide at its thinest point so people often swim across. Unfortunately there were multiple times during my childhood where older guys who lived on the island would get drunk at the Paynesville pub and miss the last Ferry (which was just before midnight). They would then attempt to swim across the straits and drown. Everyone would show up to the Ferry terminal the next morning to go to work or school & there would be police divers there looking for the body of the deceased. The song is written from the perspective of one of these men and is pretty literal. I’d like to apologise to anyone that reads this that was affected by that in any way. It’s just a bad memory for me that became a song but I know it was a horrific life changing moment for the families and friends of those people." -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Bad Blood Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Bad Blood is about how gossip spreads in a small town. I went to high school at Bairnsdale Secondary College which is about half an hour drive from Raymond Island. Normally if something goes down at a high school everyone at the school knows about it but sometimes it felt like if something went down at this school the entire town would know about it." -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Heavy Rage Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"This song is about that moment when you’re lying in bed beside your partner post fight and all the air in the room has been consumed by words. You’re looking out the window and you’re begging for daylight because you know everything is a bit better in the morning." -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Like Glue Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Sometimes relationships are good & sometimes they suck. This song is about feeling like you’re stuck in something that’s pretty turbulent and you’re tearing each other to bits even though you care for each other. It ends up consuming heaps of your life and you can be just lying there in bed trying to sleep but you can’t get all the angst and stuff out of your head (I can’t sleep or count sheep coz you lead them down your tongue into your mouth)." -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Cope Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Cope is about the difficulties of having serious feelings about a person who lives really far away and thats all I’m going to say about that one." -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Pavement Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Pavement is about moving to the city and finding a place for yourself within the maelstrom of personality types, cultures & belief systems. It’s about tapping into subcultures and falling in love with the diversity of the place. We all became friends by going to shows and watching each others old bands play. Pavement was written as a sort of high five to the Melbourne music scene." -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Raymond Island Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"I grew up on a small island called Raymond Island in rural Victoria. It’s about 3km wide & 7km long and when I was living there between the ages of 3 & 18 there were about 350 residents. It’s connected to the mainland by a chain ferry. It’s a super small town & everyone knows everything about everyone else. My dad was hugely active in a lot of community groups and spent a lot his life fighting to keep the island the special place that it was while developers and people who cared less about the environment would come and try and build hotels on wetlands & a bridge to the mainland etc. He passed away when I was 13 in our living room from a brain tumour with my mum, my sister, my grandmother & myself beside him. Now that I live in Melbourne and my family and friends have moved away too (the streets are empty now // every home feels like a grave) I find returning to the island pretty raw. There’s a million memories and if you walk to the end of the boardwalk to the left of the ferry theres a stone with a plaque for my dad." -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Saigon Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"The song is about my mum escaping after the Vietnam War to live in Australia, and the irony of her wanting to move back home. She left her family and friends to build a new life here, but due to her difficulties integrating here, she rarely made any friends. Recently, she was diagnosed with depression – it was the main reason she had difficulty socialising and keeping friends. There was only so much my brother, dad and I could do whilst working full-time. It was a constant fight between her being alone at home during the day, or working tiring low-pay jobs to keep her busy. In the end, it was easier for her to move back with her family in Vietnam where the cost of living was less. So, it’s about the time she left and how much I missed her." -Julian http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Salt & Stitches Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"“Salt & Stitches” came from a conversation I had with Mitch from The Love Junkies, when we were on tour with them a couple of years ago. We were talking about how writing serious music is like cutting yourself open and exposing your insides to people who either rub salt in the wounds, or stitch you back up again. It can be super difficult to expose everything in your head to a world full of critics. I find that everything my friends say about what they like and don’t like works its way into whatever I’m creating – whether it’s music, or photography, or whatever I’m making. I’m the kind of person who is super influenced by other people, and sometimes I find it hard to push beyond ruts that I’ve created in my own head due to other people’s opinions (“Is there a place for us / Somewhere beyond this rut?”). I really don’t want to be controlled by that, so this song is more a reminder to ourselves that “It’s okay to grow beyond the mold.”" -Nick http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/exclusive-stream-track-by-track-the-sinking-teeth-songs-from-the-bottom-of-the-lake/ |
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| The Sinking Teeth – Good Grief Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"The concept for the lyrics to this song came from the idea that a person grows immensely during a time of grieving. The loss of a significant person or relationship in your life can completely change your perspective, and you can start to look at a lot of the things that you once considered to be paramount as trivial and meaningless. This can be depressing, liberating, or all of the above, depending on which way you look at it. Everyone in our band (now, and when the song was written) has experienced some form of major loss that has shaped who they are today, and I wanted to create a lyric that bound us together and acted as a theme song for the decisions that we have made over the courses of our lives, that have led to us being in a band together and travelling all over the place, throwing everything we’ve got at this project." -Nick |
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| Richard Walters – What Did You Expect? Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"This was the last track to be written. In January of this year I supported jamie lawson on his UK tour alongside Lauren Aquilina...these were the first live dates for me after a 2 and a bit year break from touring. Lauren was ridiculously, effortlessly good every night. She & I were scheduled to do some writing together over the summer...we weren't quite sure what we were aiming for on the day, whether it was a song for Lauren, me or another artist completely. But our aim was simply to write the best song we could. The track came quickly and felt better suited to my voice...I became pretty attached to it. I was due to do final overdubs and mixes for the album a few days later, and we ended up recording a piano and vocal for 'What Did You Expect?' one afternoon between other take. The files were sent over to Aidan O'Brien (Producer/Composer) who began building the track up. Lyrically, I can't confess to having any motive behind the lines and nor can I offer any immediate emotional connection. They just felt like the right words on the day. The vocal parts were recorded by Rob Stevenson of A Silent Film at his studio in Oxfordshire and the track was produced by Aidan. It's possibly my favourite on the new album, partly because it was such a late addition." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Winterlight Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"'Winterlight' is just one of those songs that happened very very quickly. Aidan and I were working on a short song idea for a scene in a film (a couple fall in love during a game of darts...yeah, I know), and this melody grew from that initial strum around. Working to a brief and having a visual cue can be one of the best ways to get ideas flowing, or it can be incredibly restrictive on creativity. In this instance, it helped and allowed us to focus the sound, shape and theme of the song and build our own song house (yeah I just invented that phrase, you're welcome) on those foundations. Aidan lives in a top floor flat in West London, and that's where we wrote and recorded this song. There are some pretty exceptional views from his place, and as we started writing at about 3pm on a November afternoon, the light started to change to that weird greenish, glow you seem to get in big cities during the autumn and winter. And that's where the lyric came from - with the awesome light. Although the words are inspired by a fictional couple in a film, playing darts and for some reason realising at that moment that they're meant to be together, it doesn't take away from the personal weight I've put into the song - I can relate to it and attach it to my own life. I suppose I have to, otherwise it wouldn't sound right or true. In terms of production, we wanted to keep the track as stripped down as possible, but still have something in there to catch the ear. I love springy and slappy reverbs on vocals, and would happily have it on every song - there's something oddly Christmassy about that sound, I'm sure it just reminds me of 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)'...but it's here on this almost Christmas song, along with some one man choir and sparkling guitar." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – A.M Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"'A.M' is a song about the dawn primarily. I always wake up before Annie, usually because our gigantic cat has come to crush me, but mainly because I'm a very light sleeper and get disturbed by the smallest thing; the cars on our street, birds singing, little morning light, the neighbours in the flat upstairs - it doesn't take much.I'm also a pretty anxious person and my brain seems to dedicate itself, in these first few moments of the day when I'm (mentally but not physically) alone, to causing me huge concern - bills I need to pay, work I need to finish, places I need to be. But the song is truly about my wife, Annie - her remarkable ability to completely calm me in any situation, I genuinely fear nothing in her company and I know that we support each other in this way. The lyric is about that very short period of time, like an airlock between sleep and the day, when I'm without her in some way. Production wise, the song was inspired by the two Jon's - Hopkins and Brion. Aidan and I have a shared love for the pair, and we took some elements from both their work; the tinny, lo-fi-ness of the strings and voice, the slightly worn sounding piano, and the space-like swelling and sloping of the song. It even features a genuine field recording! The sound at the start of the track was recorded from the back seat of a NYC yellow taxi cab stuck in rush-hour traffic, I put my phone on the parcel shelf and collected the sound of rain falling on the back window." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – July Bones Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"'July Bones' was inspired by a book called 'Drop City' by T.C Boyle. It follows a hippy commune as they move their site, rather ambitiously, from Northern California to deepest, darkest Alaska. One element of this story (and in fact lots of T.C Boyle books) is the culture clash, with particular focus on a trapper named Sess Harder (GOOD NAME). His inability to find a female companion to stay with him in almost total isolation through the harsh winter, and his loss of one particular lover as the summer ends (she hitches a ride on his rivals plane as the cabin fever and chill sets in) directly inspired the lyric 'I burnt all your things', which is just what he does when she deserts him. It really struck me - what a way to evict someone from your mind and heart, so utterly final and ridiculously cruel. We started writing the track with a constant but delicate drone loop and turning off most of the lights in the studio - for me, it's the audio equivalent of lying under a starry sky or sitting in front of the big tank at an aquarium, it just takes your head somewhere else entirely and helps your hands and voice to move. We built the song with guitar, piano and suitcase drums, adding some Bon Iver inspired harmonies as we went along. Solid but simple bass playing (total groove) from Aidan O'Brien." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Time Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"'Time', grew from a piano piece Aidan has been working on. I was late to arrive at our writing session, as so lyrically it's all about my inability to keep good time. I've been told (by other fashionably late types), that a constant lateness in life is a sign of optimism...I always think I can make it, but never quite do. Who knows, I think it's more likely a self-fulfilling thing. I think late therefore I am? Production wise - this is pure Aidan O'Brien piano lushness. Such a pleasure to sing over the top of these pieces." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Cousins In Seattle Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Vampire Weekend are a band I totally and purposefully ignored until their last record, which completely blew me away. It was the first time in a LONG time that I listened to an album obsessively, everyday , everywhere. If you haven't heard it, check it out...amazing production and lyrics. That album directly inspired the feel of this one, the title of which came from a friends Facebook post about her cousins...in Seattle. I suppose it's partly about wanderlust...I get itchy feet but rarely act on. This one was so much fun to record...the drum track is one of favourite things we've done throughout the year." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Breakup Song Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"It's another track from the vaults that has, until now, existed in a very demo-y form. I wrote this track in early 2013, right in the middle of the 'Regret Less' tour. I was approached by a music supervisor for a film called 'Rudderless' that was being directed by awesomely-faced American actor William H Macy and asked if I would be interested in submitting 5 songs. The film, if you haven't seen it, is all about music - it's out there now, so I won't ruin the story for you, but basically I was invited to write songs to be performed in the film. I was given 5 very broad themes and titles - 'Breakup Song', 'Hot Girl Song' etc - and spent 2 days writing and demoing ideas. I got some hilarious messages directly from the Macy and general nods of approval from the music supervisor and producer, but in the end they took the music away from a singer/songwriter vibe and went somewhere a bit more Americana. For me it came at exactly the right point - I'd been struggling to get anything new written during tour trips, and was just in need of a project and some direction...in fact 'The Letter' from my last solo EP 'Two Birds' was another song that started life as a 'Rudderless' demo. So, thank you William H Macy. Production wise, we've kept this one small and simple. Again, due to schedules clashing, Aidan and I have been in different places a lot this month, so we've totally Postal Serviced this one - thank you email!" -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Bergen Swimmer Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"This song was actually something I started writing for my band project Liu Bei, but it just felt too...happy?! Either way, it felt like a good song for Aidan and I to start pulling apart and working on again. One of the best things about touring is getting to see new places, even if it's just for a few hours. I've played gigs in Bergen, Norway twice and fallen in love with the city both times. It's quite possibly the most beautiful city in the world. Although it rained constantly both times I was there, I was assured by my local friends that it is a summer paradise of sea swimming and sunbathing. Hence the lyric 'Will you swim with me to the rocks' - I just liked that simple, little idea of a being by the water and adventuring out. In terms of production, I was listening to the last Vampire Weekend record A LOT when I wrote this, so there's plenty of plinking guitar lines and synth choir to be found here." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Build Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"The song started life as a really beautiful and circular guitar part Aidan wrote - to my ears it's got a William Orbit circa Ray of Light feel, but also reminds me of Geotic lines. Around this we built some big blocks of piano and went from there. On occasion, there is no lyrical planning or plot. Singing happens, you listen back and there is a song that makes sense at that point and time. This is the case with 'Build' - I sang the words as they came into my brain and it ended up making sense to me. In an odd way, when this happens, it can be weirdly satisfying and feel kind of pure in a 'stream of consciousness' way. Yes, I am Jack Kerouac. Production wise - we have gone for YOUR HEART STRINGS. And I hope we have succeeded in plucking them some. I've been really loving the Keaton Henson 'Romantic Works' piano album recently, so there's some of that spareness in there and also, as previously mentioned, a little William Orbit lurking in the shimmer." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – The Morning Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Lyrically, this is another one with no strong ties to personal experience or events, but more a broad stroke about devotion and the sturdy strength of a team of two. I recently found a large stack of notebooks from about 6 years ago buried in box. I use notebooks less and less these days, and tend to collect lyric ideas on my phone or in draft emails, but previously I would just write pages and pages of title ideas and little snippets...rather than fully formed lyrics these books often contain very brief ideas that lead to something else. Like kindling I suppose, I can scan through and find something to build a fire from. In these notebooks, amongst shopping lists and scribbled in appointments, phone numbers and addresses, I found one line I'd written several times - "my absence when I sleep". Who knows what I was thinking, but I reread it as something about the inevitability of sleeping and waking, the space in between (something I looked at lyrically for 'A.M' too!). So, this song became kind of about that. Whatever happens you will always see your significant other when you wake up. And you'll deal with whatever life throws at you together ("Do you feel the flames, They’re licking at the house and at the gate") day to day. There's something in there about fate playing a role in our life's too, I'm not entirely sure if I believe that but I do like the concept of an inevitable force steering us all. Production wise, Aidan and I wanted to make something big and dramatic, almost Bon-Iver esque at moments, something that keeps on building. Mr O'Brien scored a beautiful string part too, which is suitably stirring and lifting." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Zero Visibility Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Finding out the meaning behind a song lyric can often times throw the listener - for me, I always think I know what a song is saying only to find out I was way off course. This is the great thing about releasing music like this, bit by bit, I can take the time to tell the story and allow you to find additional meaning from what you already know. It's always been my favourite part of playing live, talking about where the song came from, what triggered it in the first place. This one has a pretty good tale behind it (...well I think so), which I know wouldn't be immediately obvious from scanning the lyric sheet. In late 2012 I released an album called 'Regret Less' and then spent the next 6 months touring, on my own for the most part, pretty relentlessly. In April 2013 I arrived in the US for a month of gigs and promotion. As with all tours, some shows are better than others, and my New York gig was one of the others. I was booked to play a small club in Brooklyn on a night that turned out to be the rainiest of the year - the result being a smaller crowd than expected, bad sound (nothing to do with the rain), and me getting frustrated. I ended up getting pretty drunk with a friend after I played, and felt an odd mixture of glow and grump as I left the venue just before midnight. I was staying in a hotel on the Lower East Side and, in my slightly boozed state, decided to walk home in the drizzle. Now, the Brooklyn Bridge is LONG so there was plenty of time for deep thought and soul searching on the walk. The view of Manhattan from the bridge is something pretty rare and wonderful, and I kept on spying the Empire State Building winking at me as I trudged along. I'd been told on a previous visit to NYC that the observation deck of the Empire State Building is open til 2am, so by the time I got back to my hotel I'd decided to do the most touristy thing you can do when half cut in the Big Apple at 1am. I bought a ticket online, jumped in a cab and got there only to be told that a) there was 'zero visibility' from the top tonight (too cloudy and wet) and b) my $50 ticket was non-refundable. Refusing to be beaten by American weather I went up anyway, sharing an elevator with some other drunk English idiots obviously feeling the same level of elemental invincibility. It turns out zero visibility has no wiggle room; it was a thick, noisy wall of cloud, full of hints at life below - the sound of traffic, shouting, laughing - but apparently endless. I stood up there for 30 minutes chatting to an attendant ("It's a shame you didn't bring your girl up here, you could have made it on top of the Empire State Building...I wouldn't have told anyone"), and listening to the city hum and buzz. At around 1:45am the cloud cleared slightly and I could just see the tops of neighbouring buildings and the still busy street below. I cant quite explain it, but in that really brief moment I felt totally elated. My view was so limited but even a snatch of it's massiveness was enough. It was the best big nothing I've ever seen. Production wise, we were definitely inspired by 'Plans' era Death Cab For Cutie." -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – Resolutions Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Here is a miserable song about resolutions to cheer up...maybe? It's insane how December just slowly shuts down businesses of all sorts, and the songwriting factory that is Aidan and I were no exception. It has been difficult to find time to finish this one, but here it is and we're very pleased. Like everyone else I make new years resolutions, rarely written but carefully thought up. They almost always include something about booze, something about fitness and never anything about world peace or the environment. So this is a song about the notion of resolving to change, why do we do it? I've mentioned a few things in the song I do genuinely intend to change next year - my reliance on my phone is something I really want to combat, and I do hope to see more of my wonderful friends. But honestly, I should want that all the time. Production wise, I've been listening to a lot of Geotic recently and there's some of his fuzzy, hissy guitar style in there. We've also referenced Guy Sigsworth, a friend and hero to both Aidan and I. It's a lazy day song, and I'm certain most of you will be having one of those today. I hope this year brings us all everything we want, but let's not beat ourselves up too much on the resolution front!" -Richard Walters |
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| Richard Walters – U Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"I wrote this song after a long slog of touring. I'll be completely honest and say that touring at my level is fairly grim in many ways, lots of cheap hotel rooms or late night drives back home if I'm close enough. I love playing the gigs but I wish there was less of the service station stops and Travelodge beds. I was asked by a promoter one night on that tour if being away from home so often was having a negative effect on my relationship. It got me thinking about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. Why would I spend so much time away from the person I should do anything for? It was one of those brief moments of doubt that was soon discussed away when home. I guess it applies to so many situations and scenarios that can keep you far from the person you most want to be with. The track was co-written with Dry the River vocalist Peter Liddle, produced by Aidan O'Brien (Producer/Composer) and features strings by AlexCornishMusic. Video by the amazing Villager. " - Richard Walters https://www.facebook.com/Richardwaltersmusic/posts/10155489379649863 |
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| Silversun Pickups – Latchkey Kids Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Latchkey Keys is one of my favourites. This one is just about... things are a little too safe nowadays, a little too protective, everyone is just safegarding themselves out of existence. It's like an imaginary idea of all these latchkey kids that are no longer around, coming back and claiming all the cities that we're once theirs." Brian Aubert https://soundcloud.com/silversunpickups/brian-meaning-behind-latchkey-kids?in=silversunpickups/sets/better-nature-commentary |
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| Silversun Pickups – Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Cicadian Rhythm is actually a song i wrote the music for but Nikki wrote the lyrics to. It's really an homage to a friend of her's that passed away recently. First time Nikki wrote most of the lyrics. We knew we were going to do this duet together, and i really knew she really had something going on that needed to come out and I am happy this is a vessel for it and it came out great, i'm really happy with it. It's one of those little nuggets of a song that we didnt expet too much of when it was this little thing that we really enjoyed, and it ended up taking on a new life. It's exciting when that happens, as a band member you are so involved in it, you cant see it for what it is and that's one of those times where it was beyond you and you can look at it like other people look at it and it was really lovely." Brian Aubert https://soundcloud.com/silversunpickups/brian-meaning-behind-circadian-rhythm?in=silversunpickups/sets/better-nature-commentary |
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| Silversun Pickups – Pins & Needles Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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The song Pins and Needles is a song about falling in love with a person who is just a beautiful open wound. And what you are trying to do is somehow put pillows on all the walls to protect them from bumping into things and you just love them so much and yet they are so pure and so... vunerable. Its like you're a little puppy and youre following around this other puppy and you're trying to clear the roads... i dunno... It's a love song. https://soundcloud.com/silversunpickups/brian-meaning-behind-pins-and-needles?in=silversunpickups/sets/better-nature-commentary |
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| Silversun Pickups – Cradle (Better Nature) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"The song Cradle is the first one we wrote for Better Nature. And i guess that we didnt have a title for the record yet, its indicitive of what ended up being the record... If you're thinking the album has some kind of theme, being tethered to the whole thing, then Cradle is the most direct point of it... Trying to go through all the insane right turns of life and trying to do it with a sort of grace and dignity" Brian Aubert https://soundcloud.com/silversunpickups/brian-meaning-behind-cradle?in=silversunpickups/sets/better-nature-commentary |
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| Silversun Pickups – Nightlight Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"It's a very devilish song, its sort of about facination with the fact that there are people in existence that all they really want is something that should easily be thought of as equality… and the only thing you need to be to attain that is a human and breathing. And I think it's very facinating that people ask for so little, and other people think that its so crazy and they have to slowly move with it when the real idea of it is... this is insane. Everybody should literally have the world. So this song is a little bit of play up on the fact people tend to demonize these things. So i had this idea of giving in to what they think we are, we're coming for you, and if you think that, then we will." Brian Aubert https://soundcloud.com/silversunpickups/brian-meaning-behind-nightlight |
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| Arcane – Promise [Part 1] Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2015/07/09/prognotes-arcanes-knownlearned-part-ii/ | |
| Arcane – Keeping Stone: Water Awake Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2015/07/09/prognotes-arcanes-knownlearned-part-ii/ | |
| Arcane – Eyes for the Change Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2015/07/09/prognotes-arcanes-knownlearned-part-ii/ | |
| Arcane – Nightingale's Weave Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2015/07/09/prognotes-arcanes-knownlearned-part-ii/ | |
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