Nude Woman by Waterfall (1920)

On Sunday August 2nd at 6pm we’ll be sharing the second part of our rescore project set by Live Cinema UK from who we accepted the challenge to compose alternative soundtracks to two pieces archive BFI footage, each taking two weeks. Last week we shared with you an electronic fun time dance party set to the 1940’s fitness campaign “4 and 20 Fit Girls”. Since then we’ve been working on our second film choice, ‘Nude Woman by Waterfall’ a ten minute sensuous bohemian film recorded in 1920 by filmographer, Claude Friese-Greene. 

The piece we have been working on is an ambient composition. We’re thinking: dust motes in sunshine, the smell of distant wood-smoke, Derwent valley fog, the inevitable deterioration of everything. Nothing. Everything. Being. A meditative arrangement for the mind and body after an aerobic workout. 

The film is available for free to watch on BFI Player. These rescore events are completely free to take part in however donations will be gratefully accepted and 100% will go towards supporting independent cinemas currently closed where we would in other circumstances be performing this re-score live.  

For this screening any donations will be split between our wonderful local cinema The Northern Light in Wirksworth and Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds.

Donations can be sent via Paypal to https://www.paypal.me/livecinema. Live Cinema UK are taking no money from these events and 100% of proceeds will go to the cinemas. Last week we were able to raise £250, nice one!

This project has been produced by Live Cinema UK, supported by Arts Council England and Film Hub North, part of the BFI Film Audience Network”. We send a massive thanks to Arts Council England's Emergency Response Fund, and Film Hub North for supporting us financially to do this.

See you a week on Sunday for ten minutes of zen and contemplation.

Instructions 

1. Load up ‘Nude Woman by Waterfall‘ on BFI Player (FREE) - https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-nude-woman-by-waterfall-1920-online

2. You will need two devices - phone, tablet or computer. One device to play the film from (make sure this is muted). You also need to make sure the film is paused at 0:00 (very important, otherwise there might a lag) . If your system is prone to buffering, test it out before hand.

3. The other device will play the soundtrack and be available for live chat and Q&A on Mixlr - http://mixlr.com/haikusalut/  The link  will take you to our Mixlr page. It will tell you when we are on air. If you are listening via smartphone click ‘Listen Live’. If you are listening via laptop click' ‘Press to Play’.

4. There will be one song while we wait for everyone to join, and then a short introduction. You will be counted in to press play on BFI player on your other device.

5. We’ll introduce the tracks in the chat box on Mixlr, and answer any questions.

6. Have a lovely time!

7. Donate to support Live Cinema UK independent cinema partners who are unable to open during lockdown - https://www.paypal.me/livecinema

4 and 20 Fit Girls

On Sunday July 19th at 6pm we will be premiering a new eleven minute piece of music. This piece of electronic optimism will be a rescore to a WWII government fitness campaign called ‘4 and 20 Fit Girls’. This short film is a public record of a keep fit class from 1940 which has been preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive.

We have been working on this with Live Cinema UK who have been supporting artists, and cinemas until the time comes when live performances can happen again. Over the next month, Live Cinema UK are selecting two short archive films for us to create an alternative score for, we will have two weeks to create an alternative score for that film. We have accepted the challenge and our first alternative score will be for eccentric 1940s exercise short ‘4 and 20 Fit Girls’ (1940, 11 mins) available for free on BFI Player, which will be premiered as a watch party and a live chat on Sunday 19th July at 6pm on Mixlr.

Our second short film title will be announced shortly, with the second watch party premiere scheduled for Sunday 2nd August at 6pm.

The scores and films are completely free to watch and listen to, any donations will be gratefully accepted and 100% will go towards supporting independent cinemas currently closed where we would in other circumstances be performing this re-score live.  We have selected three independent cinemas in the East Midlands and Yorkshire: Broadway (Nottingham), Derby Quad, and Showroom Cinema Sheffield who as registered charities will receive any donations viewers are able to make, which can be sent via Paypal. Live Cinema UK are taking no money from these events and 100% of proceeds will go to the cinemas.

This project has been produced by Live Cinema UK, supported by Arts Council England and Film Hub North, part of the BFI Film Audience Network”. We send a massive thanks to Arts Council England's Emergency Response Fund, and Film Hub North for supporting us financially to do this.

Now! Dig out your sweatbands, put July 19th in your calendars, and read below for how to get involved.

Instructions

1. Load up ‘4 and 20 Fit Girls ‘on BFI Player (FREE) - https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-4-and-20-fit-girls-1940-online

2. You will need two devices - phone, tablet or computer. One device to play the film from (make sure this is muted). You also need to make sure the film is paused at 0:00 (very important, otherwise there might a lag) . If your system is prone to buffering, test it out before hand.

3. The other device will play the soundtrack and be available for live chat and Q&A on Mixlr - http://mixlr.com/haikusalut/  The link  will take you to our Mixlr page. It will tell you when we are on air. If you are listening via smartphone click ‘Listen Live’. If you are listening via laptop click' ‘Press to Play’.

4. There will be one song while we wait for everyone to join, and then a short introduction. You will be counted in to press play on BFI player on your other device.

5. We’ll introduce the tracks in the chat box on Mixlr, and answer any questions.

6. Have a lovely time!

7. Donate to support Live Cinema UK independent cinema partners who are unable to open during lockdown - https://www.paypal.me/livecinema

Spirited Away Watch Party With Haiku Salut Soundtrack

Sunday 14th June
Matinee party: 2pm - 4.05pm BST
Evening party: 6pm - 8.05pm BST
The film: https://www.netflix.com/title/60023642
The music: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1C2JCFGEJ5yQIG9UTXyR2m?si=isev4osDQ7y_qyLlUE_yCw

Hello everybody,

Sophie here. On Sunday June 14th we are hosting an online watch party of Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece “Spirited Away” with a Haiku soundtrack.

The seeds of this idea was gifted to us in a tweet sent five years ago by our friend Steven Battelle.

We’re all big fans of Studio Ghibli. I can’t put into words how these films make me feel exactly… a mixture of the magical quietness, the subtlety of the dialogue, the weirdness, yet mainly just the simple beauty of it all leaves me with a feeling I can’t quite pinpoint.

With no inroad or way of exploring the possibilities of our music and a Ghibli film at the time the idea was put away, hiding from view for a while. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago, with the time that lockdown has given us, that we realised that we might be able to try to intertwine the two in some way.

Last month we hosted a watch party of Buster Keaton’s ‘The General’ with our contemporary soundtrack, the film was streaming on BFI player, and the music streaming elsewhere. It went OK, and we realised that with the Ghibli collection on Netflix at the moment we may be able to re-score a film with our music. There wasn’t any discussion about which film we would pick. Spirited Away has long since been a favourite, so spooky and other-worldly.  

Initially there were ideas to do a new score entirely. We started to sequence our back catalogue to the film to see how this might work. Then small coincidences started appearing. Tiny synchronicities. When we began the film and our music were entirely separate entities but as we pieced more and more of it together they somehow came to be meaningfully related. It felt strange and exciting. We hope you feel the same way.

It feels brave to present our music as a pairing to something as untouchable as Ghibli and Spirited Away. But these are weird times, and if you can’t do weird things in weird times when can you do them?

The watch parties are free to all but if you would like to make a donation 50% of all donations on 14th June will go to Black Lives Matter UK, and 50% will go to Music Venue Trust.

Instructions!

1. If you are not already registered with Netflix do so here: https://www.netflix.com/

2.If you wish to watch along with a DVD or Blu-ray please be aware there are two slightly different edits of the film. The one you need is the 125 minute cut (not the 120 minute one). The credits at the beginning may also be slightly different so for best results use Netflix.

3. You will need two devices.

4. One device to play the film from, make sure this is muted, and you have subtitles on. You also need to make sure the film is paused at 0:00 (very important, otherwise there might a lag) . If your system is prone to buffering, test it out before hand. https://www.netflix.com/title/60023642

5. The other device will play the soundtrack on Spotify. Here.
or:
Tidal - https://tidal.com/browse/album/143284365
Deezer - https://www.deezer.com/us/album/151450152
Apple - https://music.apple.com/gb/album/songs-for-chihiro/1516022324

6. Make sure your settings on Spotify are: gapless playback ON, automix OFF. These are the default settings on Spotify but double check anyway.

7. You can do this when you like! If you would like to join in the watch parties, press play at exactly the same time on both devices at the viewing of your choice, 2pm or 6pm. Use hashtag #songsforchihiro

8. There will be a few seconds silence before the first track starts. Don’t panic. It’s fine.

9. For the 2pm viewing we’ll introduce the tracks on twitter, and chat a bit about the process.

10. Have a wonderful time!

Buster Keaton Live Score Watch Party

Sunday 19th April
Matinee party: 2pm - 3.25pm BST
Evening party: 7pm - 8.25pm BST
http://mixlr.com/haikusalut/
https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-the-general-1926-online

Hello everyone,

We hope you’re all well and safe.

We are hosting an online watch party of Buster Keaton’s 1926 masterpiece ‘The General’ with our contemporary live score this Sunday. There will be a matinée and evening party, like the good old days. The film is currently available in the UK on BFI player, and they are also offering a two week free trial for anyone not already signed up. Unfortunately the BFI player is only available in the UK. Sorry to our elsewhere friends.

This version of the film is a slightly different edit to the version we wrote the live score to. We have spent a few days this week editing the soundtrack so that it is synchronised with this edit of the film. For maximum synchronisation we recommend using the stream on Mixlr instead of listening on vinyl, CD or streaming services.

The watch party is free to all but if you would like to make a donation we would very much appreciate it.

Instructions!

1. Register with BFI Player here: https://player.bfi.org.uk/

2. You will need two devices.

3. One device to play the film from, make sure this is muted. You also need to make sure the film is paused at 0:00 (very important, otherwise there might a lag) https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-the-general-1926-online

4. The other device will play the soundtrack. Here is the link: http://mixlr.com/haikusalut/

5. The link above will take you to our Mixlr page. It will tell you when we are on air. If you are listening via smartphone click ‘Listen Live’. If you are listening via laptop click' ‘Press to Play’.

6. There will be one song while we wait for everyone to join, and then a short introduction. You will be counted in to press play on BFI player on your other device.

7. We’ll introduce the tracks in the chat box on Mixlr, and maybe talk about the writing process a bit too.

8. Have a lovely time!

Virtual Tape Loop Session

Sunday 5th April
Facebook Live
4pm GMT+1

As two of us are in lockdown together we bring to you a facebook live Haiku Salut Tape Loop Session. In anticipation of a full lockdown we grabbed many instruments and machines from our studio and brought them home. The cassette tapes we’re using in the session have been purposefully damaged with magnets, you listen through an atmosphere of dust, voices you can barely hear at the end of a bad connection. The recording is multi-tracked which means we are able to mix the delicate gestures of the tapes. This will be an ambient affair. For the optimum experience we recommend not listening via your phone speaker. If you’re not wearing headphones you’re doing it wrong.

There will be two new pieces of music and one from our last non-soundtrack album. All tracks include sounds taken from our one form of daily exercise, the hills. If you listen hard enough you can hear some sparrows and a coal tit.

We have spent the last week experimenting with ways to present this to you, this includes writing remotely with Louise. The piano in track one is hers. You might be aware that Gemma and I have a very small baby, keeping her happy whilst writing and figuring out how to perform this has been at once a challenge and a delight. We did want to do this *live* live but we didn’t want to cut short the session because of our crying baby and her non-existent schedule. So, full disclosure, the video will be pre-recorded but rest assured we are attempting to do this in one take whilst the baby sleeps. This does mean that we can present to you something that sounds aspirationally exquisite. We will also be available to answer questions in the online chat box thingy. We can tell you about gear and our houseplants. Whatever you want to know.

If you are not on facebook and would like to watch the session get in touch and we’ll sort something out.

This gig is free to everyone. Like many in the arts we’ve had stuff cancelled and postponed. If you have suddenly found yourself with a surplus from your inability to visit the pub we have a donation link here: https://www.paypal.me/haikusalut

Thanks for reading and much love to you and yours, wherever you are. This will pass.

Sophie

How to sync 'The General' soundtrack to the film

Last winter, when we wrote and recorded the soundtrack to ‘The General’, we decided to release the complete and unedited version. We thought that people might like to sync the film and soundtrack at home. The plan was to release the full thing and write a piece to be included on the CD and record artwork on how to sync the film and music together. Then… DISASTER. The version of the film we had written to was no longer available to buy.

As it turns out the live score was written for the 4k remastered version of the film released by Cohen Media which is a slightly different length to the original film. This is due to the restoration process which involves adding new frames to make the action smoother. (sorry people who actually know about these things, this is my bastardised explanation). The film is beautiful and crystal clear but the music will only match up if you own this version.

We only found this out when we were writing instructions for the artwork on how to sync up the music with the film. Everything was drifting out and the music continued to play for ten minutes after the film had finished. Some further investigation revealed that the version of the film we wrote the music for is only available as part of a Bluray boxset. Further investigation revealed that this boxset was now unavailable. In fact, there was one second-hand copy going on Ebay for £100 which was promptly snaffled up.

The great news is… these films are now available to buy again! The only place I can see them for sale, sadly, is Amaz*n. Now, we all know they don’t pay their taxes, treat their employees badly, and are watching you whilst you sleep so if you can find these anywhere else please buy them there. Otherwise here is the link to purchase.

To sync up the music to the film:

The first beat begins as soon as you see the old cinema tape on the 'Cohen Media Group' credit. As soon as you see that credit immediately hit play. See below a really terrible video of when to strike. Sorry for the quality. I did a quick video on my phone in portrait like an amateur.

I hope that answers a few questions.

There are two opportunities to see the soundtrack performed live. 2nd April in Bristol and 3rd April in Salisbury. Details and tickets here: http://www.haikusalut.com/liveshows

Link to buy our soundtrack to ‘The General’ on LP or CD here:

Thanks for being great.

Sophie

The Flood / Reunited

Hello from the Harz mountains! We are currently on our way to Berlin for a show tomorrow. It’s 8.30am, hot as hell and I’m sat at a desk in a hotel overlooking a building site. In all the preparation getting rehearsed and packed and organised we didn’t get a chance to write something about ‘The Flood’. And now ‘Reunited’ is here too. Maybe you’d be interested in hearing a little bit about them both. Gemma will tell you a bit about ‘The Flood’ and I’ll follow up with some words about ‘Reunited’. The album hits the shops and is released online this Friday. There’ll be no more singles taken from the album but if anyone would like to know about any of the other tracks or pieces we’ve not covered or any other aspect of the record we’d be happy to write some more posts, let us know.

The Flood

This scene gave a lot visually to write to and was one of my favourites to compose. Coming directly after “The Crash” we wanted something fuller and more uptempo. The noise opening the piece is a harp melody which has been reversed, I’ve used reverse harp on another song we worked on for the Ada project and fell in love with the sound, its bloomin’ lovely!

In an unusual Haiku move we chose to keep the beat quite stark to mimic the gunfire, without too much effort the flashes of light in the film and beat create an illusion that we’ve spent hours to sync up every gun shot. Thats always a bonus.

The piece breaks down whilst we start losing some of Busters army and things start to look bleak. Buster accidentally fires a cannon upwards, here I used an effect on the Space Echo pedal which takes the an echo sound and oscillates it at increasing speed and oscillations increasing in pitch. Its a bit cartoonish. In a great way. The final section begins with these oscillations slowing in speed and pitch back to their normal sound which syncopates with the cannon hitting the dam and releasing the flood.

Interesting fact: we read that Buster Keaton got negative press during the filming describing him (and the budget) as ‘out of control’ and mentions he was building real bridges and constructing dams to alter the depth of the river.

We chose to use versions of three pieces to bookend the soundtrack, a stripped down version of this piece is used at the beginning of the film.

Reunited

Very often we have patterns or melodies or phrases saved for when they make sense within the context of another piece of music. We started this project with only one written piece stored away waiting to make sense, the rest was written from scratch. It was lucky that this piece of music found its natural place within the film pretty much immediately and only needed some minor rearranging to work well with the scene. The song is ‘Reunited’ and it begins slowly and with trepidation. The drone you can hear is a recording of Gemma’s voice transposed to an extremely low octave, and the noise of the rain is a recording of me in the shower. Too much information maybe but it was more convenient than waiting for a day of heavy rain. We were going to chop up the sound of the falling water to make a rhythm but it ended up working as continuous piece soundtracking the rain falling on the night.

The Crash

‘The Crash’ was released last week. It’s a bit of a change of pace from the previous tracks. It soundtracks the climatic scene where the train pursing Johnnie is ordered to cross a bridge which is on fire and plummets into the river from a height. We were all excited about scoring for that part. It’s not special effects and it’s not fancy camera angles. It’s an actual steam train crashing into an actual river. It was the most expensive shot of the silent era costing $42,000 dollars (this 1926 remember) and it was done in one take.

We initially pictured something that would build into a big dramatic crescendo and the first mix of The Crash a much bigger version of the final piece. We used looping melodies, sweeping shoegazey guitar swells and a crunchy electronic beat all building up to *that bit* but nice as it was it just didn’t feel right. It would have been very easy to overstate the action in the film but I wanted to focus more on the uneasiness of some tit deciding to exert his power and order his troops into an avoidable accident (which he seemingly doesn’t give a shit about). I felt a bit stuck with it for a while but started to think about ‘Shadows’, a track Sophie wrote for ‘There Is No Elsewhere’. In ‘Shadows’ the gaps in-between the phrases are as much a part of the piece as the music itself, it makes the whole piece really tense but gentle (playing it live puts knots in my stomach, it makes me feel so stressed!) I decided to try stripping it back to just the main the guitar bit placing more emphasis on the gaps which I hope adds some suspense to the whole scene and makes you all feel as nervous as ‘Shadows’ makes me feel.  

From then the arrangement of the piece came very naturally and was lead by the sequence in the film. Overall I think its actually quite hopeful and optimistic sounding. It’s the only piece on the whole album that doesn’t have any electronics on it which makes it feel more exposed and vulnerable and each section ends with an increasing repetition of sliding chords which seem solemn and unsure of themselves.The overall sound of the guitar is my usual setup of some gentle delay and cavernous reverb. To add some warmth I used a sweeping drone though-out made by a freeze pedal.

You can listen to ‘The Crash’ now here. You can also buy the full soundtrack on CD and double LP using the link below. Thank you!

Firewood

The next track under inspection is ‘Firewood’ It's an electronica getaway song. It sounds like the sun creeping through a crack in curtains or the anticipation of meeting someone you love or the realisation of a great idea. It's the sound of an underdog lifting a trophy. It sounds like drawing a line under something or catching a knowing glance from a stranger or running as fast as you can just for the sake of it.

This track started out as something else entirely. We only had a two month window to write, rehearse and perform this sound track so we needed to be a little bit more militant in our writing approach. We started by watching the film and dividing it up into sections according to scenes and emotions, and then we loosely allocated parts to each other. Once we had played around with ideas separately we’d bring back recordings, and whoever hadn’t worked on a track already would elaborate on that idea.

Writing together in this way has often led us to places we might not otherwise have gone. Even if one of us has brought a full song to rehearsal there is always room for collaboration after that, a song needs to be interpreted, realised and performed before it has any sort of public outing. All three of us are shaped differently according to our feelings and experiences at the time of writing, or even simply by what music we’re enjoying at that time. One person’s response to another’s idea can often shift a piece into a different direction altogether.

I was the last person to work on ‘Firewood’ which was a lovely, twinkly and dreamy piece that flowed into strings and joy. It really was lush as it was but seeing as this was the track soundtracking a train getaway I felt there could be more of a journey about it. To suggest movement I experimented with a few beats with a high top end, I couldn’t decide which I liked best so tried introducing them one at a time using a filter which sounds like you’re emerging from the bottom of the sea. And then all the rest came out very quickly. The kick, the bass, the dancing.

You can listen to ‘Firewood’ now (link at the bottom of this blog). You can also buy the full soundtrack on CD and double LP using the link below. The album is officially out on August 2nd but we’re sending preorders out early as a thank you for being great. We really appreciate your support!

Traction

‘Traction’ was released on Friday. It’s more upbeat than the previous outings, lots of bloops, stutters and synths. It’s also the only track on the album with accordion on it. When we were writing the soundtrack we were aware that we would need to think about how we would perform it alongside the film. In our ordinary set there’s lots of swapping instruments and moving around the stage which would be too distracting. We decided we’d need to condense everything down and compose the music on a set up of controllers and guitar. The accordion doesn’t come with us for these performances, we take the melodica instead - a weak substitute really. We were worried about missing cues and being generally panicked whilst wrestling an accordion so we had to made a compromise.

In a lot of ways restricting ourselves to piano, synth, electronics and guitar helped with the writing process. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to have everything at your disposal. You can become paralysed by the endless possibilities. Having boundaries and working within their limitations pushed us to create in different ways and make points by different means. It’s like haiku poetry, when you only have 17 syllables to make a point you find creative ways in which to say it. It’s surprising how succinct you can be.

In terms of its relationship to the film ’Traction’ was arranged around the iconic scene where Buster Keaton blinks.

We wanted to make a point of those special two seconds and figured that maybe the best way to do that within a soundtrack of 80 minutes solid music was with silence. This happens pretty early on in the track and we hoped that it would create an air of expectancy. It can be as important to know when not to fill a void, something it took us a long time to realise.

The arrangement of the track came together very quickly, the contours of the film narrated where the stutters should emphasise the tension and when the synths soar with optimism. We experimented a lot with glides on the bleeps too. I think we’ll use that technique in the future. I very much enjoyed writing this one.

We’ll be releasing a song a week until the album comes out in a month. That’ll still leave 16 unheard tracks on the record. The next one is called ‘Firewood’ which is out on Friday, it got a play on BBC Radio 6 last night. Thanks Gideon Coe!

Obstructions

Obstructions was released on Friday, it’s the third piece of music taken from the album. This was the very last piece we wrote for the score when we were beginning to feel like there was nothing left to give. We had been writing pretty intensely for weeks and there was just one gap left in the timeline. I remember watching and rewatching that section of the film and thinking that nothing was ever going to come. Creating stuff is a weird process. The common feeling is that you should try not to force it out, give your brain space and inspiration will come, and ideas will fall like massive raindrops after a drought. That is something that happens, and you should be thankful when it does. Because when you’re working to a deadline you don’t have that luxury, and it can feel like you’re pushing your brain against a cheese-grater. The more anxious we were the less we liked the noises we were creating. And then seemingly out of nowhere Gemma found a synth arpeggio from the very pit of her soul and we were off again wondering what all the trouble was about. And then Obstructions was here. It’s warm and pensive, and totally at odds with the trouble it caused. A salve for the brain wounds that created it.

Loves / Going Back

We’re releasing an album soon. It is sort of our fourth album, in some ways it feels very much like a haiku album (in melody and tiny noises and texture) yet in others it feels very different. More brooding and contemplative and darker in places. The record is a soundtrack album to Buster Keaton’s 1926 film ‘The General’ which we were commissioned to write and perform by Nottingham Contemporary for the BFI Comedy Genius Season. We started writing early November 2018 and the first performance of it was early January 2019 in Belfast, we wrote and rehearsed this album in two months, and listening to it again now I’m not quite sure how we managed it.

It’s the first album we’ve recorded, mixed and produced entirely ourselves in the studio we rent at the edge of the Peak District. There are windows on all sides but one of the studio and in the summer the sun floods in and bounces off the white walls . Through the windows I have seen a thousand honey bees swarm, and bats swoop over the allotments. Dreamy. Except we didn’t write ‘The General’ in summer, we wrote it in winter, and in winter frost forms on the inside of the windows and in the very marrow of your bones.

The album is eighty minutes long and comprised of 23 songs/musical pieces and is officially released on 2nd August. We’ll be releasing a series of singles in the run up to the album release, and I thought it might be nice to share a little bit of how these songs came into existence.

A couple of weeks back we released a double A side: ‘Loves’ / ‘Going Back’. Here we go…

'Loves' is probably the most sentimental piece we wrote for the score, it soundtracks the part of the film where Johnny’s love for Annabelle is established. We wanted to write something wistful and dreamy. To achieve that Gemma put the electric guitar through a pedal which sounds like a warm and happy memory returning from a distant past. The guitar and piano interplay mimicking the tentative body language of Johnny and Annabelle until the news of the war breaks and the melodies drop away. At the very end the guitar sounds reminiscent of an old warped vinyl, sounding cautious and uncertain.

'Going Back' was one of the last pieces we wrote for the score. That section of the film is full of trains moving at speed and then reversing down the tracks. The film gave us so much to work with and it kind of just flowed out. It begins with a very austere arpeggio which bends and melts into a reverse guitar part which is one of my favourite bits on the record. I love the way that reversing audio can bring out hidden emotions and harmonies, and Gemma’s guitar part creates a feeling of nostalgia which feels sad and peaceful at the same time. The ending has a general feeling of triumph and momentum as the train speeds away. The marching snare at the finish was created by mistake - I had written another melody part and was dragging the clip from one instrument track to another, I accidentally dropped it onto a drum track and it created this really proud and hopeful marching snare pattern. The best things happen by accident.

If you’ve read this far thank you 🙏and thank you for your continued support, it really does mean a lot to us. One of the best ways to support artists is by buying merch, sharing links, and adding us to your playlists. It’s also nice to hear from people who are enjoying our music, it’s a good way to know we didn’t freeze our arses off in vain. Any questions, hit me up.

Our next single taken from the album is coming on Friday. More on that next week. Bye for now. Sophie x