Track Guide - Tripwires

Tripwires:

This was one of the last songs we wrote for "Alchemy", even though it started life back in February 2016. That goes to show what a long process this has been - from finishing the demoing stage to mastering in September 2018. The structure for Tripwires was worked out very early on, but the song was originally made almost entirely of electronic sounds. I remember playing around with lots of synths for the end section, building it up with electronic drums and processed guitars before replacing almost everything with the strings, harp and clarinet that you can hear now.

We finished the recording sessions for Alchemy with the harp, played by Bethan Griffiths, which sets the scene for the song. We couldn't get the harp up the stairs into our studio, so we had cables running through the house into the dinning room, which we had to completely clear. The room has a hard wooden floor, so there was a beautiful, intimate sound right away. It was a brilliant experience recording such a beautiful instrument, and it was so good to finally hear the opening bars on a real harp, rather than the MIDI sounds we'd been going off for so long!

This song has some of our most open and direct lyrics to date. It's about the journey and courage of someone who spent years of their life working towards a particular goal, only to realise it wasn't to be. "I must confess my own shortcomings, hand on my heart, I'm not built for this." It's a strong message, and we chose it to open Alchemy as a real message of intent.

Listen to "Tripwires" here.