Asylums’ track-by-track guide to new album Signs Of Life

We made our previous album Genetic Cabaret with the legendary Steve Albini in Chicago, it was an unbelievable experience which we will never forget. The album was released in 2019 during the early months of the pandemic and as a result we were unable to tour that record.

The genesis of Signs Of Life came from that situation. Not sure what else we could do as a band we soon set our sights on a fourth studio album which would broaden our musical parameters and serve as a positive artistic distraction from the difficult times we were all experiencing.

In the ideation phase of the record we researched bands that had successfully imposed live hiatus on themselves and embraced the studio more fully as a consequence: R.E.M. on Out Of Time and Automatic For The People, The Beatles on Sgt Pepper… Prince on Sign ‘O’ The Times.

With the aspiration to make a different sort of album in place we then re-connected with long-time friend of the band, producer Dave Eringa, and began talking seriously about an Asylums album where we would incorporate a string quartet – which we would score ourselves – and other instrumentation we don't usually use such as mellotron and piano.

We then booked the legendary Rockfield Studios in Wales and crossed our fingers that by the time the recording dates came around the world would be in a better place and we could all be in the same room again…

“We wanted to grab attention with the opening track of the album and what became Scatterbrain felt like the best fit after all the demos were made and sequenced. The loose lyrical premise was that it would evoke the feeling of disorientation which happens when all the disparate areas of your life are suddenly thrown under one roof and start stepping on each other's toes. Musically it’s got an almost Dr. Feelgood immediacy and forward motion to it mixed with some Jesus & Mary Chain guitar stylings from Jazz [Miell, guitarist] to weird it out a bit. The screech at the beginning was actually taken from the eight-track demo and slotted in during post production because we loved it so much. This track was done in one take.”

“During lockdown I was trying to write one song a night on an acoustic guitar a good friend hand sent me via courier at the start of the pandemic – she is in the public eye and incredibly kind. The act of kindness was so appreciated by me I didn't want to let her down with no new songs so I worked very hard at them.

“Understand The Psychology was written in one sitting with only a little lyrical finessing done later. It’s about worrying about the future or worrying about the past all the time; I was working on that personally and trying to be more present in my own life. It’s also about missing people. I think Charles Bukowski said, ‘Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.’ I think this song has a lot of that spirit to it.

“The music has a classic Asylums style quality, kind of power pop… but there is also a little Stewart Copeland and Queen in the middle-eight for good measure.”

“This song only got recorded because Jazz, our guitarist, spotted it at the demo phase. At a point in the writing process I had written so many songs on my own I needed some serious help to select and develop the ones we would work on as a band. I made lots of excuses why we shouldn't work on Instant Coffee at the time, but Jazz insisted it was a classic song and that we should. When we worked it up as a band and added the string quartet and subtle synths at Rockfield I was so glad we didn't bin it – it’s now one of my all-time favourites we have done both musically and lyrically. It’s kind of Leonard Cohen meets The Cardigans.”

“One of the big inspirations for the album was the song Yes by McAlmont & Butler, it has a euphoric joy to it musically but also an intense vulnerability in the lyrical content. I think Signs Of Life came from enjoying that song a lot again – being big and bold but melancholic and melodically sophisticated.

“When we were first able to be in a room together Jazz and I would work with him on guitar and me on piano to develop this track and I’d mark the drums with my feet stomping.

“Mike [Webster, bass] and Henry [Tyler, drums] are such an intuitive great rhythm section, it’s almost like telepathy when they work on parts and as soon as we played it as a full band it sounded huge. Dave Eringa brought a really clarity to the sound on this one – especially the guitars.”

“After all the melody and song craft we just needed to throw all our toys out the pram and completely freak out on Crypto Klepto. Right back to our first single we have loved doing tracks like this that are fast and unhinged.

“In the recording there are two drum parts fighting each other and some very bizarre guitar sounds and parts. Lyrically it’s about the Web2 to Web3 paradigm shift from the perspective of multiple people with opposing opinions. I don’t think any of us thought it would be the comeback single at the time we recorded it – but that can often be the way something good comes out.”

“This is a love song at its core told in three parts which represent a gradual recovery from trauma. It’s the most delicate and sensitive thing we have ever attempted or recorded. I burst into tears when the strings were added, it was too much for me to process emotionally. After all the months of uncertainty we were all back in a world class studio with four string players making something beautiful together where the central lyrical theme was ‘it’s the future that we shape’.”

“This track is very much about struggling in a job which is too much for you, trying to find a route through the difficulties and stress and finding a path to a happier life. Musically it owes a lot to bands like The Cramps and Pixies – it has a surf punk quality. Some amazing basslines from Michael and some equally beautiful arpeggios from Jazz. I’m not sure why but we added two full-on rock’n’roll guitar solo show-off moments on the album – here and on Scatterbrain. They make me smile when I hear them every time… maybe that was the point.”

“Really early on in the writing process I made an instrumental track on my 8 track which ended up morphing into this song – at that early stage it was more of a nod to Devils Haircut by Beck with some influence taken from other acts from that era like Eels and Money Mark, who I love. I used to listen to the instrumental every few days and love it but wasn’t sure what to do with it. My nan passed away tragically around this time and as you would imagine it really affected me emotionally – I think the title emerged around that time. Separately I watched the film Ghost World, and when the film ended with that ominous final scene I walked straight out to my studio and wrote the chorus. The band brought so much to this song, Jazz gave it this twisted surf quality in the lead guitar and Michael and Henry played a fantastic understated groove to pin it down. It’s one of my personal favourites from the album.”

“This track was one of the more challenging musical arrangements on the album, I think we were going for some psychedelic vibes on this one – Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft by The Carpenters meets Silver Machine by Hawkwind, with some Comets On Fire improvisation added for good measure. Henry and I had a great time working out the harmonies and outro vocals in the studio and really enjoyed adding mellotron and other sounds. The day we recorded this song I overslept by two hours and the band had to wake me up… that never happens as for the most part I’m driving the project but I think the fatigues of the previous year had got me, I woke up and we did the take on the record as a first take. I was still wearing my pyjamas.”

“I rarely have literal meanings for songs, just collections of themes that have some interconnected compatibility. This title I wrote in the days after the birth of my son. I think it’s certainly the case that I had wanted to be a father for years but didn’t know it – it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and left me a changed man. The music is an effort to try and capture that feeling, when you find something that completes you. I love Henry’s strings on this track and the overall dynamics of the music. It was a beautiful summer night at Rockfield when we recorded it, the doors of the studio were open and music was beamed out over the countryside… I’ll never forget that feeling.”

“We have never done a song with a four-to-the-floor drum beat, a kind of dance-floor track – I’m still not sure this is that either but it does have a freshness to it for us. When writing it I was definitely thinking about Frankie Knuckles, Scary Monsters era Bowie, but also some 2000s garage rock that I grew up listening to. It was about starting again in a new career with with a new outlook and is the thematic response lyrically to If You Cant Join Them Beat Them. Henry added some fun hammond organ in the choruses, which I love.”

“I was in my first year of being a father when I wrote these songs and in the second year when I finished the lyrics. It means the world to me to be a good father and it is my number one priority.

“Seeing myself through the eyes of my son has made me evolve as a person, and The Mirror is definitely about that slow process. The strings at the end which Henry added is one of the highlights of the album for me – sprawling and ominous as they move slowly towards a gentle conclusion…”

Signs Of Life is due out on October 28 via Cool Thing Records

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