so much fun! reminds me slightly of the magnetic fieldsā approach to songwriting in a weird way
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The first single from Winter Boyfriend from the upcoming album set a, frankly, very different note. 'anx/bodies' is an outlier for us, musically and lyrically, but when putting the final touches to the album it was one of the songs that people seemed instinctively to engage with if they weren't broadly invested in our main thing, essentially indie/indie-punk made by a would-be emo band. At the very least it provoked a reaction.
It's a song inspired by a very specific series of events but is not specifically autobiographical. Outside of the world of this song i am much less forward about sex. I enjoy being 'too much' with friends but i really don't want it going anywhere my family might hear it. Repression is fun! I often wonder if that's similar to what actors feel when doing nudity or whatever. It's a case of, "I don't want to know you've seen me experience that?" Anyway, honesty can help in art, but also maybe so too does a little internal repression.
It was written about a memory of going to a university disco, arriving at the club where everyone was looking hot and cool, and i suddenly becoming very aware of my inability to be calm. It is essentially about over-stimulation and amorousness and the confusion of that smashing like a wrecking ball through any semblance of chill i might have had.
The verse bass riff is really old, easily over 10 years old. I wrote it for a different project, a Death From Above 1979 rip-off thing, and my pal Martin played bass, while i sang and drummed. The song was unremarkable but the riff was cool. There was no way i wasn't keeping it. Also, it explains why it's the only song that uses a fuzz bass tone. Yet.
I have no idea when i came up with the guitar riff but it's one of my favourite parts i've written. It's rythmic and a little bit dissonant, but i think the G# implies an E Major chord, making it A minor natural (sorry music theory experts, probably butchering this).
I was also unsure if i could allow myself to write the chorus which used power chords. It always feels too basic. But it worked in the context of the song. I finished it years ago aside from a few lyrical tweaks and the introduction sound (chord played, tremolo arm depressed as it fades out, recorded and reversed). Also when mixing the song my references were very different and included a lot of 00s and 10s music, including bands that have been grandfathered into the whole 'indie-sleaze' thing, and it made me realise the second verse needed, nay demanded!, a cowbell and some percussion (the other percussion is drumming on glass bottles fyi).
I feel like 'anx/bodies', and the song that follows it, 'on our way home', are two sides of the same coin. One uptight, repressed yet explosive, and the other unrelenting, desperate and flailing. You could almost imagine the latter being later in the same night, getting existential when worse-for-wear. More on that one later.
Jun 19, 2024
From āDots and Loopsā which is an all timer for me.
A song about trompe lāoeil artwork (ātrick the eyeā) that maybe isnāt about that at all - at face value, it seems more likely to be about seeking simultaneously to deceive while being open and honest about the fact you are deceivingā¦ an āitās complicatedā relationship song?
If you dig Stereolab, try to dig up some McCarthy tunes, Tim Ganeās first band (featured on the old C86 cassette which is also worth tracking down although you can hear it in full on the YouTubes). The left wing politics are similar and on tracks like these you hear them breaking away from the Smiths-jangle sound of the moment toward what they would become: https://open.spotify.com/track/5M4UHn0I5O9xvgIaiEhzFY?si=dHKv5WcHTES1gdVAvCdxSw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A5PptRExr0j579qu7OrCxqt
Mar 9, 2025
another incredible song is so much beauty in the dirt !!!!!!
anyone else find meaning in the chaos to isaac brockās ramblings?? š¤”š¤ šāāļø
Apr 21, 2025
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the collaging in charlie and lola is so seriously beautiful to me. drop ur childrenās book recs please i want to look at nice pictures!
Apr 9, 2025
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or an unwieldy plant. or a newspaper/magazine w a cool cover. all make u feel a bit whimsical!
Sep 5, 2024
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maybe itās a seasonal thing, but for four nights in a row i have desperately craved n then demolished a bartlett pear at 10pm. never thought of myself as a pear person but ig iām a changed woman. bartlett is the only kind iām familiar w so if anyone has other pear recs iām open!
Jan 24, 2025