FROM STRESS TO SONG IN FOUR HOURS
The conversation went something like this…
ALI: “You know, you are really good at writing about political stuff, nature, and things like that, but I want to see what happens when you write a song about something emotional”.
JOHN: “Oh alright then”. That evening, back in February, I wrote the lyrics to SHE CRIES and the following week I put together the tune.
SHE CRIES is about women whose partners take them for granted, and how sometimes it can lead to the heartache of a break up, or it can lead to mistrust or damage to the relationship in other ways. The song was originally going to be about women who have to find shelter and safety away from an abusive partner, and how the law fails them. There have been several disturbing cases of abuse in the Manchester area in the last few years, and one in particular that led to the murder of a young girl with a baby son and a whole life ahead of her.
It might just have been possible to shoe horn the original idea into The Breeding Ground Of Vile album for next year, with an emphasis on the failings of the justice system as government cuts take a tighter grip on public services. Then I thought about the different levels of abuse that mainly women have to tolerate in relationships, and that led me into different territory. So SHE CRIES is a sad song and unlike many of the others that I have written, which do tend towards protest and the constant but vitally important fight against injustice.
Yesterday, 25th August I arrived at Ali’s studio to find him stressed out over potential technology failure. I hadn’t had a great morning myself, with a whole pile of work trying to get in the way of our agreement to sit down and talk through the structure and mood of the song over a cup of either ginger tea (because he is now hooked) or Moroccan mint tea (because I’m now hooked on that instead). Four hours later we had nailed the song. It was as if the session took our heads away from the earlier stresses, and gave us a keener focus.
There are contributions to be had from Emma and Kate, and possibly others, but essentially SHE CRIES is all but complete. For me, the most difficult thing was to get the vocal melody right. I’d had one in my head for months that sounded too much like the song that follows it on the EP, so one of the tasks for the day was to try out a few vocal lines to see what worked. Ali left the room to make our respective cups of tea and came back five minutes later to hear me singing the melody we then used. Job done. And that’s how the rest of the day panned out. I will share some of those stories another time, but we did some special stuff on the day that we can never reveal. Mystery is good, and secrets are better. Ha!
The DRY THE LIFE EP will comprise seven songs and will be available later in the year.