Not Like You was one of the first complete finished songs written that we knew was going to go on the second album. It had a great drum beat and a wicked pick up line in the second chorus "oh there's a little house in the countryside with my name on it. And a happy summery feel to start the album off with.
It's a funny thing being in a band, you spend so much time travelling to play a gig, which to us is the best part of being in a band. But when you get home and all your mates are like do you fancy going out to a club tonight....you think "er no! Actually I couldn't think of anything worse" to the point where I actually stopped going to gigs to watch other bands for a while because I couldn't find any bands worth going to see (please correct me!!!). When you come back from a 3 week European tour eating good cheese and drinking nice wine everyday and your a stone heavier and thinking "fuck how did that happen' your supposed to loose weight on tour" NB this doesn't apply for every country ;) Going out 'clubbing' isn't the most appealing idea.
Either way I lost faith in good live music. Radio and mags seemed to be pushing the same busy buzz bands down your throat, of which none of then did anything to me. The big Grunge Revival! What a load of bollocks, it's nearly as bad as Simon Cowell stuffing Ollie Murs into a Leona Lewis outfit and doing the cha cha.
We had the whole grunge comparison 4 years ago. If people had of wanted grunge back it would have happened then..but it didn't. Thankfully this gave us 4 years to put out our first album, write a better one and prove that we are just a band with songs, not a grunge revival pin up poster.
No offence. Also don't get me wrong, grunge fucking rules.
So, back to the point. We have been doing 100+ gigs a year for the last 4 years and going clubbing (and I mean Indie clubs, I never did the dance/trance thing. I never found a club as good as Metro on Oxford St and that got shut down) so I found myself feeling a bit like an old lady and looking for my house in the country side. I couldn't relate to going out and getting wasted and dancing on the outskirts of a fight...although I was happy to get up onstage and perform to these people.
I was confused, and frustrated with what was on offer.
The chorus of the song lyrically was written first as this was where the frustration lay.
Trying to adjust myself to what was normal for me and what was normal for others, without people thinking I thought I was better than that, I couldn't possibly go out with them because I was in a band. this was not the case. It sounds weird but it's hard finding a happy medium working such unsociable hours.
Locking ourselves away and recording felt like the right thing to do. Especially through all the snow. We saw no one except Juju and Ben from Candy Says and their very cute little one who popped in twice to hear how it was sounding for a month.
It was great to see them and hear how their new music venture was going. We talked about new bands out and who was picking up their ears. Juju mentioned Pins. A girl band out there with a clear image and sound and I have to say they were about the only band we both agreed on.
During the recording of 'Humble Sky' we had down time at the end of each day with producer and engineer and now good friend Ian Davenport and we listened to songs that made us tick.
We went back in time and skipped out the 80's and 90's and only ventured into early 70's....well with the exception of Talk Talk. This album was built on Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, QOTSA and Heineken.
None of the other songs on this record challenge last feelings of youth. Maybe I grew out of it as this record wrapped to an end. We do feel much more like a more mature and older band. Wiser? Who knows. But we have a clearer cut of where we are going and what we want to sound like. Who knows where album 3 will take us...but it feels like we are riding a wave, and we're excited as to where it will take us and we'll soak up everything that it throws our way.
And I'm glad that we can share it with some of you guys out there who have been there since day dot. And still read these blogs. And welcome on board new people finding our music not because they have been told too.
VERSE
Play dead to make it look like a safe place to be
Pipe down, it's not as if you haven't been found
You float along in a emerald cloak, waiting in the clutches
Fantasise in the mixed up mind of real or vivid blindness
I'm not like you, the things that you do
The things that you say, the way you go about it
Living like this, it's all just for laughs, all just for jokes
But when you gunna grow up?
Oh there's a little house in the country side with my name on it
I'm not like you, the things that you do
Play dead it's much the same as running away
Out for the count for the night till the sun makes light of day
Like a child of 24 with so much more to give
Fantasise in the mixed up mind of real or vivid blindness
It's just another way, to make it look like your not scared.
And all those little words that linger on and twist inside your mind it's all the same.
