Kickstarts

Album: Won't Go Quietly (2010)
Charted: 3
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Songfacts®:

  • This electropop love song is the third single from Example's (aka Elliot Gleave) second album, Won't Go Quietly. The tune acts as the follow-up to the title track, which was the British rapper's debut Top 10 hit and features production by drum'n'bass guru Sub Focus.
  • Gleve penned the track whilst on tour when he was missing his girlfriend. He told the story of the song: "I heard the beat and I was on tour at the time. Sub Focus, the drum'n'bass producer, sent it to me and I was on tour supporting Lily Allen. When you're on tour non-stop for three weeks you kind of get a bit lonely and miss your loved ones. You miss your bed because you're staying in hotels every night and driving everyday. It came from quite an emotional place and out of that emotion I just started thinking about life without my girlfriend which is where the lyrics 'think of life without you' comes from. The song suggests going through a bad stage with your girlfriend or boyfriend. I wasn't so much going through a bad stage with my girlfriend it was more just a case of feeling a bit lonely on tour. I wrote the whole song in about two hours on the way back from Glasgow to London. That's where that song stems from. Some people have read into it and thought it's about love fizzling out and what makes you stay with a person. Other people have interpreted it as drugs kicking in at a festival so it's open to interpretation."
  • Gleave explained his performing name to The Daily Mail: "My initials are EG. When I rapped in the playground, one guy gave me the nickname Example."
  • This was declared the best British pop single of the last twelve months in September 2010 by the panel of Pop Justice's Twenty Quid Music Prize.

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