Before the release of their album Islands Apart, the Irish band Funeral Suits announced it would be their last. As a parting gift, bass player Mik McKeogh supplied us with this track by track.
1) "Kicks"This track had to be the first track on the record. We wanted something with a slow intro that built so we could warm the water.
2) "Chariot"
I love the chorus in this track. It reminds me of recording on sunny days in Berlin. It just reminds me of summer.
3) "The Way Back"
4) "Slow Motion"
This is one of the first songs we started writing after [2012 album] Lily of the Valley. We rented a house on the west coast of Ireland. We'd go and swim together in the freezing cold sea. It was a really nice time. Right after Lily it felt so so good hearing all this different music in that house.
5) "Crowded Out"
It was really fun working on this track. It seemed more like sculpting than writing.
6) "Breathlessly Waiting"
I always loved that line in Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales: "The distant speaking of voices I sometimes hear a moment before I sleep." This is a track about being awake but feeling the detachment and disorientation as if you were in a dream.
7) "Temple"
"Temple" went through so many different mutations. In the studio it almost became this disco track. It was definitely one of the tracks we were loving towards towards the end of the process of writing.
8) "Tree Of Life"
9) "Free Fields (Oh Flower)"
I guess for me this track is about your best friend. That person who has your back so completely that trust is so complete.
10) "Tangle"
When we got the drum and bass sound in the chorus going in the studio we were all really excited and vibing off it. A lot of the tracks were motivated by trying to see the simple things in life and not being blinded by shiny commercialism.
11) "The Pounding Of Hearts (Cyhmbt)"
It started as a real "post rock" track and morphed into what we finished with. We always had it in mind to be the last track on the record.
November 25, 2016
More Song Writing
