Writing songs is a very intimate process for me and so when he announced that this crazy 15 year old boy/40 something woman/number 1 selling author was comin’ in to try her hand at songwriting, I freaked. She never turned up so Chuck and Paul Revelli started laying down this drums and 6 string bass, White Stripes-esque rock riff and the lyrics just started spilling onto the page. I couldn’t write them fast enough. There are some irreverent catholic metaphors and water and death by drowning are some of my recurring themes.
You`re still in therapy then? And did you have the drowning theme in mind when writing "Like A Pearl Necklace" by any chance?
No. More like gargling…. On "Like A Pearl Necklace," Track 6, started by me pilfering a couple of lines from my friend Phil Colley’s poem that set me off on the adventure of writing the rest of it with a friend and collaborator here in London, Toby Slater.
The pearl necklace in question is an actual pearl necklace not a metaphor for the shimmering residue that results in various leisure pursuits! It’s a ‘justify your war/behaviour within relationships song’ that Chuck made dark and eerie by playing a weird little 3 octave organ and his shadowy guitar licks.
Okay. Glad we got that cleared up.
"Leave To Remain," Track 10, I wrote on my own after mucking around with various picking and plucking single notes and chord progressions quite a way up on the fret board from where I usually play. I play guitar by ear so happy accidents are a big part of my writing technique. Lyrically, it started off as an exploration of my so called “permanent residency” status in the U.K. The actual stamp in my passport reads INDEFINITE LEAVE TO REMAIN. A pretty vague ethereal way of saying ‘you can stay for now, anyway’. It sort of morphed into a song about trying to get something across to someone. About communicating your essence… or not. About how you can more fully understand and appreciate someone or something in their absence.
Simon plays lap steel on this one and when we were mixing it I said I wanted him to pull up the volume of the lap steel track. But he said the “drifting in from the next room” vibe was perfect for the song. And so it is….
Produced by Simon Alpin and Chuck Prophet, how was Don’t Tell recorded? Was it done in one hit?
Article comments
1 - Rob
Nice post. I recently blogged about how you can extend the Open Source ethos to not only software but also politics and even food and drink! There's a tenuous link between how do Naomi Kleins no-brand, no-logo cola, chicken curry, and beer affect globalisation.