Dauphin

So I have three free things to point you towards today. Not as a Christmas present, mind (Christmas begins on the 24th AND NOT A DAY EARLIER). It’s just a regular present. That photo above expresses how I feel when I see people celebrating Christmas in November.

Firstly; a Christmas song by The Stormy Seas has been released as a free download. It’s embedded below, though you might have to go their Bandcamp page to actually download it (Ed – no you don’t, look at the bit that says ‘download’).

Secondly, is Kowalskiy’s 18th free EP; Kowalskiy releases a free, five-track EP on his bandcamp website every month. No prizes if you can guess how long it’s been going on.

Thirdly, is Frightened Rabbit’s new EP. They wrote explanations behind each song on their blog, which I’ve included below. To download the EP you need to sign up to their mailing list or buy the 10” from Avalanche like I did.

Funnily enough, this was pretty much all written on a bus. The X95 to be precise. I was on my way back to our cottage in the Borders, the place we were using to write and record at the time. I think the initial nugget came from the fact that it was an extremely windy day.

It’s the first song I’ve formed entirely in my head, as I didn’t have an instrument to hand and would never start strumming one out on a bus, so to speak. So I wrote the lyrics out on my phone and when I got to the cottage I picked up a guitar and it was just sort of… there.

Fuck This Place

This is going to sound like total bullshit, but please don’t exhale a ‘pfft’ and stop reading when I say, this song started off as a dream. I honestly dreamt that i did a duet with a mystery female vocal on it and the ‘I don’t know these buildings’ line was definitely in that dream.

So when it came to the writing, I had two parts in my head all along. I have been a big Camera Obscura fan for a long time and when Tracyanne said she’d be up for this, I was incredibly chuffed and her vocal is just beautiful. It’s fairly obvious what it’s about, though I don’t think it’s necessarily a love story.

Sometimes you just need looking after, and everyone can feel like a lost wee boy/girl from time to time, especially when you spend your life on tour.

The Work

This was another one written on a bus, this time the number 62 to Peebles. Again, it was a duet from the start. I have been thinking a lot about ageing and death, especially on our new songs. So two distinct characters emerged fairly quickly.

There’s me being the belligerent young upstart asking ‘what’s the point in getting old?’, then there’s Archie as the counterpoint, convincing me that it ain’t all bad.

It was such an honour to work with Archie. He’s a real Scottish legend, and my mum and dad couldn’t believe I was singing with one of their heroes. When I listen to this one, I think of the great day I spent at his house, mulling over the tune and listening to all his hilarious stories. A real privilege.

They seem to write a lot of songs on buses. I don’t have to go on buses anymore but I used to do quite a bit of reading. The lead singer also goes a bit red in the face when he sings – as evidenced here, in an acoustic set recorded by Paste (they play some of the tracks off the EP).