The sunny bank holiday vibes of the past few days make me wish I was at the seaside (or… anywhere, right now) and that thought provides a tangible link to a memory relating to today’s post… Rewind a few years, and I was at The Great Escape with team Tigmus. Late one night, we took a chance on a band that none of us had listened to (as is the charm of such a festival) at The Haunt (which a quick Google search tells me has since closed, moved and rebranded?!) That band was Girl Ray, a North London based trio whose first album was the delectably named Earl Grey. I enjoyed their set and have kept a vague eye on their work since, and I’m reaaaaaaally digging this new track which found its way into my inbox this week.
Over to Poppy for some words on the track… “we worked on this song with Al Doyle and Joe Goddard from Hot Chip in their studio off Brick Lane in London. We had one day left with them, so thought we’d unearth an old demo of a slightly house-leaning song I’d been working on a few months before. It had a really loose structure but the feel of the chords was good so we decided to try fleshing it out.
It was a really long day filled with a lot of playing around with the mountains of synths that fill their studio. Sections became longer… steel drums were added (along with some wonky backing vocals) and eventually it started taking shape. With all the awfulness of 2020 in our heads – it was important to us that it sounded optimistic and hopeful; a song for future summers where people can dance and enjoy music together one again.”
Of the video, which features the full 8-minute long version of the track, Sophie and Iris explain: “We teamed up with our good friend and amazing director Alex Cantouris for another intricate and somewhat ambiguous love spectacle. Though this time we thought that 8 minutes of us acting would probably be unwatchable, so decided to get some professionals involved to deal with the main plot. What started off as a story about a woman having fun at a party, somehow soon turned into a romantic take on Midsommar, without the death and magic mushrooms. A queer Midsommar Night’s Dream if you will. We had the best time making it, and discovered a new found love for the Kent countryside (even though one of the shoot days was literally the windiest day of the year.”