Behind the Record: Lockdown EP (2020)



2020.. a swear word now, isn’t it? Like many of us, I found myself locked among four walls, not really allowed to go out and amazed how many hours there are in a day! Although I have been producing and releasing singles for over 10 years by then, often years would pass between releases, and even those would only be published on MySpace (good old days!), YouTube or Soundcloud so it was about time to turn it up a notch!


The context: I already had a number of ideas accumulating in my voice memos over the previous couple of years or so; these were mainly a few chord progressions on the guitar or a hummed melody, but I also had around 3 or 4 demos created in GarageBand on my phone while I was out and about or just had too much time on my hands. Although I didn't have a solid concept as to what message I wanted the songs to convey, I wanted the EP to be a take on the roots of my influences, from the vibe of 50's-60's rock and beat music to folk.

 

Artwork: the front cover image is actually my pillow and duvet in my studio in Wembley resembling a person's head and face as they lie tucked in bed. It is not arranged, it's genuinely how it looked after I got out of bed one morning, but I think it perfectly captures the mood many of us were in on those mornings during lockdown. The back cover features a vinyl player in my friend, Gellert's flat in the Docklands where he was staying at the time - I think he has just recently moved in then, hence the lack of furniture - priorities, right? I have also created cover images for each song, however these are only published on Soundcloud. For Step out into the Light, the cover image features a wall being painted in one of the rooms of the hotel I used to work in, for Tainted Goodbye the cover image features a candle that's been left on for clearly quite some time in my studio in Wembley, and for Days like this, it is the record collection of Gellert. The cover image for Room 605 features my ex's cat sitting on my guitar case - I think the look on the crook's face says it all, while the cover for Eyes like the Deepest Sea is a slightly enhanced image of lake Como in Italy - if memory serves well, it's actually closer to green in reality but it wouldn't then match the title, would it?

 

The songs: "Step out into the light" is the only song on the EP I wrote from scratch. The beginning of the song features sounds of me leaving my studio in Wembley and walking down the stairs which will take on a new meaning when you reach to the end of the EP, so keep listening and reading! The fundamental idea was to produce a solid bassline-driven song that is complemented by psychedelic reverse guitar sounds travelling from left to right and a repetitive pattern on the drum and acoustic guitar. As for the lyrics, again, it captures the essence of that lockdown feeling, that longing for freedom, being able to do what you want and to become one with everything that fills you with joy and pleasure.

 

"Tainted Goodbye" is one of my first attempts at blues and it is based on a few voice memos I recorded around 2017. It is about longing for someone who for some reason doesn't want to give in to the overpouring love, despite them having a relatively long history together (this part may not be 100% factually accurate). Want to know the end? Well, I'll tell you another time for sure!

 

"Days like this" is one of the songs that I originally had as a demo made in GarageBand - the melody was in fact inspired by one of those songs that you have on travel channels in hotels - and so it happened that I had plenty of time to kill in a hotel room after having my flight cancelled one day in France. The chord structure however goes back a bit further; although I only recorded the lead chord progression not long before started working on the EP, it is very much inspired by the 60's beat and rock songs my mum used to play on the guitar when I was a child, particularly one which features the same strumming style. The song itself is about looking back at good old memories; in this case these would be mostly summer memories from when I was around 16-17.

 

Turn it up! Turn it up! Well, yes, "Room 605" was intended to 'rock a billy', I even tried to recreate the sound of the slapped strings on the double bass on a Precision bass by recording via line and a condenser mic simultaneously! I originally wrote the second part of the lyrics in 2014, while the first part I wrote on a train to Canterbury in 2016. They were originally intended for two separate songs, but I think they certainly fit well together! And what it is about? Well, I'll let you figure that out yourself. Let me just say I even had to change one word to make it just a bit more appropriate. :)

 

The last song, "Eyes like the Deepest Sea" has since been dubbed "Viking song" and "pirate punk", and in all fairness, the voice memos I have developed this song from were indeed closer to punk rock than folk, that it eventually turned out to be. Well, the reason for that lies in the lyrics; yes, there indeed was an Ailsa, whose ancestors would have likely been singing and dancing along to this type of music, and yes, she did indeed wear a red dress, except she said (or texted, rather) that she was NOT looking for something serious! Well, love is blindness as they say.. And as I hinted at the first song, as we arrive at the end of our journey, which started when I have left my studio whistling, here we are now, listening to the soothing sound of the sea - in this case the Baltic Sea, from the shores of Jurmala.

 

Lockdown EP - Release date: 8th May 2020. 5 songs, 15 min 41 sec.

▶️Listen here









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