Return Of The Human On the Making Of “Don't Believe The World”
What was the creative process like for this particular song?
Dave and John: Funnily enough, that’s quite an interesting question.
It is the last song we wrote for the album, but it is actually an adaptation of the first song we wrote.
“Don’t Believe The World” actually started out with a totally different idea and was called “Everything We Are.” We then rewrote the verse, and the old bridge became the new chorus, and the old chorus became the middle section. The song finally emerged when we were clear on the feeling that we wanted to convey.
The new verse is actually about us coming together to write for the first time, wondering if our hopes for what might happen would bear any fruit. (‘Took our hopes to the water, and searched for the flow’). We were sitting in a tranquil beach cafe in Greece as we wrote the lyrics. So it’s sort of poetic that twelve songs later we were able to look back and write a new verse about the moment we wrote the first song. We’d come full circle on our own creative process.
The chorus is very much about sticking to what you believe in, even if everyone else disagrees with you. What others think doesn’t make you right, and it doesn’t make you wrong. I guess we all have our own experiences in the last five years, questioning some sort of narrative or mainstream set of thinking, and we wanted to give courage to people who find themselves disagreeing with what they see on TV, in newspapers or in social media. ‘If their words don’t rhyme, and their beat’s off time, don’t believe the world’.
So you can see why we nicknamed this song ‘Triggers Broom’.
Were there any memorable or standout moments during the recording sessions for “Don't Believe The World?”
Yes for sure... getting Rick Wakeman to play the Piano was definitely a highlight.
I’ve (Dave) played guitar with Rick on his music for many years. It was really special to get him to play piano on a composition of mine (it worked out for David Bowie and Cat Stevens, so why not for us!). We went to a place called the Old Granary in Norfolk and used a lovely Steinway Piano. Also adding some of the percussion touches with Ed Scull was very enjoyable.
The Guitar and vocal were recorded simultaneously right at the start. Most time was spent in the development of the arrangement. The final track was mixed at The music Farm in Cumbria. Taking it back home! But to have Rick Wakeman be part of that creative process with us, that was a real standout moment.
How does this song fit into your overall artistic vision and what can listeners expect from you in the future?
This song is quite different from others in structure tempo and instrumentation. The vision is clear though. At all times we’re focusing on quality emotive music and thought-provoking lyrics.
People can expect music from us that is first and foremost songs with a melodic top line, and with something that we feel is worth saying or conveying. We then gave each song the tack and instrumentation that lent itself to that song. As a result, there are a lot of varied tracks on the upcoming album but all reflective of what we both believe in, which is helping to protect humanity and human spirit, at a time of big change and in a world where the system is treated as more important than the human.
Can you tell us more about you as a band?
The band at the moment is just the two writers (Dave and John). We’ve known each other for decades and two years, on an absolute whim, we decided to just go for it - to go away and write some songs. We flew to Greece to start writing – and we realised that the musical chemistry between us is phenomenal.
We worked with some brilliant session musicians to record the album. And we are now rehearsing with other musicians.
What do you enjoy most about performing live and connecting with your audience?
Fundamentally bringing joy to people through music is a great thing. If you can make people’s lives feel better for a few moments then it's all worth it. This may be happening with recorded music but when playing live you get to witness it first-hand.
The reason we called ourselves ‘Return of the Human’ is that we believe in real music performed live where people can share the energy of that moment.
