I’ve been promising this for a while, so I hope it’s worth the wait. At its simplest, our Optimists EP is about being optimistic in the face of great adversity. Each of the songs on the EP reflects this feeling in a different way. We’ve actually written individual songs about this in the past, such as Positive Mental Attitude and Stay Positive, but this is the first time we’ve written a whole EP based on this theme. We hope you enjoy them, and also reading this post on what they’re about.
Anyone who’s familiar with our songs will know that most of them are an attempt to describe the world around us. Bearing in mind that I wrote these songs in 2010 – and they were pretty relevant then – it is now uncanny how relevant they are to the world of April 2011. I think you’ll see what I mean:
1. Gasoline. Given that the chorus refrain is ‘Can you remember why all we wanted was gasoline?’, it’s pretty obvious what this song’s about. There’s an overdubbed drum machine in the mix, which we thought gave it a wonderful clattering disco feel. Written at the time of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it got me wondering how we’d all ended up in this mess in the first place. Then I remembered the (true) story of how an Australian gold prospector, Knox D’Arcy, had become the world’s first Big Oil man, and I wondered how he’d feel about the world’s dependency on oil now. There’s even a town in Wales named after him: Llandarcy. As I write, the news in the background is telling me that Gadaffi’s troops have recaptured the country’s all-important oil towns, and this simply brings back home to me how important all this is.
2. Poor Me/Poor You. The lyrics to this song are pretty sarcastic – showering homecoming soldiers with sunshine and medals for their heroism, when at home we really have no idea what’s going on thousands of miles away. Some of you will have noticed that the second line ‘Put out more flags’ is the title of a wartime novel of the same name by Evelyn Waugh. Nothing like the jaunty Brideshead Revisited at all, Put Out More Flags is a wry take on patriotism and jingoism. And I think we need more of that. We overdubbed some extra-big clanky cymbals in the chorus to this song, and I reckon it sounds marvellous. It’s probably my favourite song to play live at the moment.
Incidentally, the title of our debut album, From The Horizon To The Map, was also taken from a novel set in wartime Britain, in that case Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat Of The Day, in which it was remarked that after the fall of France, ‘war had moved from the horizon to the map’. I think it’s a very evocative phrase.
3. How The West Was Won. This song couldn’t be more relevant now. As I write this the BBC News is telling me me about NATO bombs raining down on Colonel Gadaffi’s loyalist forces in Libya, and for the first time in a while the West is one again. Originally entitled How The West Was One, the band overruled me because they said that title was too pretentious. Still, we are a democratic organisation, so I stand with their decision. It doesn’t matter anyway, as the meaning’s still fully intact. I’ve been noticing the kind of Cold War propaganda which has made a comeback since 9/11, now that again there are Bad Guys Over There Somewhere. If you want a video to this song as you listen to it, just put the news on and mute the sound. I promise it’ll work. Before you ask, I still haven’t got round to watching the 1962 cowboy movie of the same name. Speaking of movies …
4. Extremadura. I think everyone will agree that this is the weirdest song on the EP. Some love it and some hate it but very few people have no opinion at all. Opinions in the band are split too. The last time I heard, someone wanted to make a video of it, so I reckon that particular director falls into the former category. The title Extremadura is a rural region of Spain. As you’ll probably have guessed, this song is directly inspired by the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom The Bell Tolls, written about anti-fascist troops in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. The speech at the end is from the closing scene of the 1943 American movie. The story opens with an American, Robert Jordan (‘Roberto’), leaving behind his wounded Russian comrade (Kashkin) in Extremadura as they flee Franco’s forces. The story ends with a wounded Jordan being left behind in a similar fashion, ready to fire at the pursuing troops until the last bullet. It’s a wonderful story of self-sacrifice in pursuit of bigger goals, and I figured I’d write a song about it. For those who’ve been keeping a close eye on our releases in the past, you may notice that How Right You Are from our debut album From The Horizon To The Map has a strong Spanish theme too. As I’ve been saying to many people over the last few weeks, the parallels between that Spanish war and the current Libyan conflict are uncanny. Let’s just hope no one starts to give Gadaffi more guns.
So, in short, the Optimists EP is about strength in the face of adversity, courage instead of fear, and hope for the future.
New songs are coming thick and fast, so it shouldn’t be too long before you hear the next batch. I’ve written one about a river, one about being a 1930s test pilot, and an instrumental acoustic one which currently promises to be our loudest song so far. And what influences that song will depend on what’s happening at the time. After all, all music is a product of its surroundings in the end, isn’t it?
Thanks for reading.
-Michael
