ALBUM NOTES
Big Northern Monkey talks us through the tracks on his new album I Don't Sing and I Don't Dance - what inspired them, how they were created and how the album came together.
THE ALBUM
This album is a culmination of tracks written over the past few years. I wanted to bring them together rather than having them just sitting in random places, and I’ve edited, mixed and ordered the tracks so they flow naturally together as a journey rather than just being eight tracks banded together. The album features club anthems, soundtracks and chilled, melancholy tracks, with a common bonding theme of electronic music.
1. Not the Only Girl
This is the newest track on the album. I wanted to write a real Ibiza-style club style anthem that people could listen to whilst on holiday and then when they heard it back at home it would remind them of the clubs they visited and the fantastic time they had. I started with the intro bass hook and had the idea for the stabbing chords, but knew it needed that real hands-in-the-air epic section, and once the chords and rolling arpeggio came together I knew I had what the track needed. The vocals are samples which I thought fitted the track perfectly as they have that real not-a-care-in-the-world feeling that you get when you’re clubbing (I imagine - see track 5.)
2. Feeding My Obsession
I’ve had a few friends over the years – primarily when we were younger – who got a little obsessed with girls and used to analyse everything they did; “she put a kiss on this text but not on this one, what does it mean?” etc. I thought about it and how the girls were literally feeding their obsession via texts and emails and took it to the extreme with this song. The context of the lyrics could have led me to make this into more of a soft pop song or even a ballad, but I’ve always liked the idea of mixing different styles or emotions within music, for example high energy dance tracks with melancholy chords. I had the idea that it would be interesting to make it more of an eighties track, as there is the technical reference of electronic communication (texts and emails) in the song, which are backed up by the electronic backing and vocals. For those who are musically-minded this track also features two 3/4 bars in the last chorus.
3. Waiting for the Revolution
For this track I had the idea of trying to build an entire piece of music around one recurring piano note. The note that starts at 38 seconds in on the second and fourth beats repeats throughout almost the entire track (apart from the middle section and the second chorus). I started with this note, built the other piano notes and chords around it and just started building. I always thought the finished track sounded like the soundtrack to one of those Scandinavian crime dramas that were all the rage a couple of years ago, although I’ve also been told it’d make a good James Bond theme.
​
4. Oh
I think I was feeling quite sombre when I wrote this track. I came up with the piano chords and then again thought about mixing these melancholy chords with a more upbeat, funky backing. The middle section was originally more driven and in-your-face but I decided it worked better to keep the whole track more relaxed, and what developed has been described as an Ibiza chill-out track.
5. I Don’t Sing and I Don’t Dance
I’ve always found it annoying when you go for a night out and someone either tries to get you up to sing karaoke or dance. I’m quite happy with anyone else doing it, I’ve just never seen the need to try and force other people to do something they don’t want to. I thought I’d take this and – ironically – put it into a track that features me singing and that you could easily dance to.
6. The Rising
This was originally written as an alarm clock! I got sick of getting woken up by really harsh sounds instead of being gradually prised out of my slumber, so I wrote this short track that gradually built up. It’s been developed quite a lot since its first incarnation (and I’ve also removed the screaming cockerel at the end of the track!) but it always seemed to work well as a really short track that left you wanting more. It also works really well on the album sitting between the energy of I Don’t Sing and I Don’t Dance and before the darkness of City Solo.
7. City Solo
This is one of those tracks that started off as something completely different. Originally it was based around the synthesizer melody that comes in at 1 minute 35 seconds, with this melody being played on piano. It wasn’t working though and I started playing the piano notes that now start in the introduction and form the entire basis for the track. It sounded quite dark, even when mixed with a dance beat, and with the sound effects it sounded almost film-like, so when I came to the middle section I really wanted to put some film-esque style brass and strings in there. The singing is backing vocals taken from an early recording I did in the late nineties.
8. The Cock and Elephant
When I first moved to London in 2008 I moved into a shared house of seven people in Bermondsey, including three South Africans and an Australian. The South Africans built a bar in the back yard and called it The Cock and Elephant. I thought it’d be fun to write a track for its grand opening night featuring South African and Australian vocals/instrumentation, and this track is what developed. It hasn’t changed too much since its original incarnation and still features the original vocals, although some of the lyrics will only be relevant to the original seven people who lived in the house.