Pull Me Through

Album: Back To The Water Below (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Pull Me Through" conveys the powerful message that strength can be found in seeking support from others. The song rejects the idea that we must persevere alone and instead encourages us to reach out for help when we need it. Mike Kerr's words delve into themes of guilt and self-reproach, exemplified by the lyric, "On a bed made of 'What have you done?'"
  • In a departure from Royal Blood's signature style, the lyrics and melody take the lead while the riffs step aside. The track begins with a melancholic piano melody, gradually building toward a resounding climax. This shift in style, however, seamlessly integrates into the band's arsenal, as if it were a vital missing piece.
  • Mike Kerr and his drummer bandmate Ben Thatcher took full control of the song's creation, serving as both writers and producers. They allowed the song itself to dictate its trajectory, following its natural course without constraint.

    "It was conceived really by being sad at the piano and kind of writing in a very, I guess, in a more traditional way," Kerr told BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders. "So, we kind of felt like, that was the skeleton of the song really. And it was a different approach for us, because it felt like our parts and our playing was kind of supporting the song, and letting the song kind of be the thing that holds it together. I would say like previous songs we usually do is kind of the muscle is what's keeping, doing the heavy lifting, so to speak. So I think on this one, just so it was a fresh approach."
  • The video portrays a man engulfed by perpetual negativity. Symbolically, water becomes the embodiment of his overwhelming despair as he drowns in its depths. The director Polocho took the narrative from the first two lines of the chorus:

    Sinking to the bottom, lost but not forgotten
    Down to go again hard, swinging like a punchbag


    Filmmaker and photographer Polocho also shot the clip for Fontaine D.C.'s "The Couple Across The Way."
  • Mrs. Mills was a 1960s London pianist who was a regular at Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded their music. The Beatles would often use her piano to experiment with new sounds and ideas.

    Mrs. Mills' 1905 Steinway Vertegrand upright piano had a distinctive out-of-tune honky-tonk sound. The Beatles were drawn to this sound, and they used it on several of their songs, including "Penny Lane" and "Lady Madonna."

    Mike Kerr's style of piano playing comes from when he learned Beatles songs as a kid. "The Beatles always used a piano at Abbey Road Studios called Mrs. Mills, which, at the end of the hammers, has pins put into it to give it a metallic, almost-harpsichord sound," he told Apple Music. "The Beatles were always doing this kind of regal thing that I really love. It's classical and almost comically so. It was almost like that piano is constantly wearing a cape."

    Kerr and Thatcher tried different pianos and different piano sounds on "Pull Me Through" that didn't gel until he went back to his Mrs. Mills/Beatles style. "So that piano sound became the glue that held this record together," he said. "It brought me back to being a kid and playing the piano."

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