have you ever had a broken heart?
- Ronan Patrick O'Connor
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Most bands will tell you that their forthcoming release is their best yet. Maybe it's because it's the freshest, maybe they're trying to sell it. However, in this case we really believe this may be our best release yet - for many reasons.
How did the song come about?
Since we live all over the place now the idea of jamming and rehearsing songs as part of the writing process is out of the window (that said, 'already part of the problem' was born in the studio from a jam!) so this was a riff that kept revolving around. Guitar tuned to a strange tuning and then different versions were recorded on voice notes and shared. There was something there but it didn't go much further.
Sometimes you get a riff, a melody an idea and it just won't go away. When you sit down to write or pick up the guitar to play it just comes out. That's what kept happening here. I'd make videos of the tuning and play it for the lads.
Fast forward to Wolverhampton and recording with Gavin Monaghan and the gang at Magic Garden. We went there to originally record a live EP to follow up the first album, but soon we started writing and we loved what we were writing. We're try to book in two or three day slots and get what we could down.
It was during one of these sessions that we'd had a full day in the studio. We'd finished tracking drums and bass. Laid down a few guitar parts and went out for a couple of drinks in one of the many good old fashioned boozers around Wolverhampton (shout out to the Great Western!) we grabbed some food, a couple of bottles of wine and headed home for the night.
Some of the best times at recording are necessarily in the studio, but the getting ready, the little shop runs, the laughs in the bed and breakfast (one no star hotel!) We stayed up chatting and Ian and Kevin (being the sensible ones called it a night. Brian and myself stayed up chatting, playing different songs over the Bluetooth speaker and finishing off the wine (and then opening the next bottles). Around 4am Brian suggested getting out the latest recording of the track I kept sending. By this stage I'd put the basic guitar idea into Logic Pro, added drums, percussion and a little bit of organ, strings etc. to build up the atmospherics. As soon as we put it on, out of nowhere Brian started singing, what became the opening lines of the song: 'When you're floating, in and out of space'... then the next lines just flowed out of him. Up until the pre-chorus, my favourite line in the song: 'never found the words to say, everything is gonna be ok.' The question 'Have you ever had a broken heart?' came later and the song was formed.
We remembered to record this down on the phone from the kitchen of the apartment we rented in Wolverhampton. The next morning we were ribbed for being up late and being a pair of 'auld lashers' by Kevin. Neither of them believed we'd carried on writing what we thought was a great idea. Maybe we didn't even believe it ourselves - so we listened back. It was then that we knew we had a seed of something special.
We didn't record it that day - that privilege went to the opening track of the album. Another song with a wild story (it involves one chord and Brian falling asleep and waking up saying, 'What the *%$£!' (we'll save that for another post!) We did record it the next time we went into the studio. It involved each of us unfurling and adding different parts to the song as it was recorded. We purposefully went for a really intense kick drum to mimic being punched in the heart.
The story doesn't end there though.
Brian had the dream of having some different people remix tracks for us. Top of that list was Andy Bell. Not only did we love his music with Ride, who were a massive influence on us - from Brian getting CDs from the local library and making mixtapes with tracks on, through to Andy's solo stuff. His recent albums were a godsend during lockdown and his GLOK stuff was incredible. To say we're fans is an understatement. When we knew that our amazing art director, designer, collaborator Marc Jones knew of Andy we cheekily asked for an introduction, never thinking it would happen. However, Marc came up trumps and Andy was the nicest. He listened to a rough mix of the whole album and said he loved it, and that he'd love to do a remix of 'have you ever had a broken heart?'
To say we were chuffed doesn't do it credit. To have positive feedback from someone you grew up with, and continue to be inspired by is amazing. To have the chance to have them work on your music is next level. It didn't stop there though. The Charlatans and Ride were on tour together and we heard from Andy that he'd do the remix when he was back.
I think it was the day after the tour and he said that he started work on it. Post-tour blues, a key change, adding more bass to the track and over 8 minutes of music - we don't just have a remix, we have a full reimagining that is a journey that has turned something with an introspective tone into something transcendental, hypnotic.
At that point, just putting it out as a digital release wasn't an option. This thing deserved to be on vinyl. With the length of the track 7" wasn't an option, so here we have it, a super limited edition 10" release.
No one cares about our music as much as we do, so we decided to set up a label just to release this. CRC001 - et voila!
If you'd like one, head on over to:
or
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