This one initially began as a slow tempo ambient style track, with my chord progression and sombre vibe. I sent the idea and backing track to Tawiah, along with the quotes database in case that could inspire some lyrics, and she chose a poem submitted to the database by May Kaspar. May’s submission was one of the few non-anonymous quotes, and as such, we were able to bring May on board as an official lyricist on the release.
I wanted to convey the idea of the barrage of conflicting influences that we live amongst. From society, religion, peers, parents, media, government, advertising etc etc. We live amongst a sea of information that seeks to control our thoughts and behaviour, as captured by the simple statement of the quote. In order to represent this idea musically I layered Tawiah’s spoken word sections of May’s lyrics, overlapping them in different positions to create that feeling of an overload of influences. This effect is further enhanced in the Dolby Atmos spatial mix by Richard Burki.
The biggest surprise in the writing process was when I started working with Tawiah’s vocal harmonies. There was some classic rave vibes in there which totally changed the piece of music. It led me to abandoning the slow idea, and layering over some jungle style percussion. I kept the melodic elements and vocals at the old tempo, with the drums at 3/2 speed in relation, which made for an interesting feel.