#In this moment blood chords crack

This was the final song to be finished on the record, and to be fair, it nearly didn’t make it. Ryan, Conor and Joe were all so supportive and encouraging during this period so it’s appearance is owed to them. Writing for the band is something I’ve always wanted to do, yet constantly dissuaded myself from.

Similarly, I sampled some drum recording that Conor did from the “Be Careful” sessions and reworked the takes into a 16-bar phrase, inspired by Boards of Canada and DJ Shadow. I defined the parameters and then glued my favourite parts together into a cohesive piece that I subsequently learnt and recorded on the piano back at The Nave. The piano parts were created using generative processing in the van, inspired by Brian Eno experiments with the delay line method in his Ambient series. This is another one of those tracks that was written on the road during the Mogwai tour. You want it to happen so much that sometimes you don’t realise that it’s impossible. Trying and trying to make something work and it still failing. Stripping back the effects and trying to make it as real as possible. We have always been huge fans of NEU! and Can, and I think that kind of got touched on with the first record, but we wanted to try and make something as pure as organic as it seemed they did. It is a nod to our admiration of Krautrock. We Fall Apart is probably one of the last tracks that was written for the album. I guess it’s just about realising what you have and remembering that when you can’t see it. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by 3 of my brothers within this band (one literally by blood) and have always been able to be myself with them. I’d become depressed and very social anxious, I really felt like I had changed and didn’t know who I was.

It stems from my recent mental health awareness. The more we played it, the more we realised it was becoming something special, and an integral part of our set. Most people who have seen us tour will recognise this track as ‘Picky New’, essentially based on its guitar picking introduction and that it was a new song at the time. Trying to be a better person is hard when you don’t know you’re doing something wrong. I’ve been guilty of indulging too much and I definitely noticed myself becoming somebody I don’t like. It’s about taking care of yourself and realising when you need to change. Inspired by Portishead, and the bassline owes itself to Radiohead’s Nude, this track just came so naturally. I had set up a little studio in the back of my garden and would often take myself there on evenings with numerous bottles of wine. (I said I’d never write the P word again, but for honesty's sake).

I don’t think we’d ever regard ourselves as a political band, but it’s hard not to escape the constant depression that has been imposed on this country this year, and how I feel we’re all just trying to cope but are seemingly forever moving backwards.īe Careful was written during the pandemic. While driving through such a beautiful place, but still being plagued by the constant feed of negative news coming through from back home. The theme of the track is one of despair. I started with the percussion and went from there.

#In this moment blood chords crack

We were driving through the Swiss Alps (hence the title) and I was inspired by a mix by Thom Yorke for CRACK Magazine. Alps was written whilst on tour with Mogwai.