Ever wondered what your favourite artists think is the best song they’ve written? How about the meaning behind it? Well don’t fret because we at AltCorner have got you covered! Here Matt Finucane takes us behind the scenes on his favourite song!
What is your favourite song you’ve written?
I have to love whatever I’m currently working on or I’d never find the nerve to commit. There’s one on the forthcoming EP called “Always A Shadow” that pretty much nails the intended effect, which after an extra-difficult writing process makes me fonder of the end result. It took three different versions, tried out live – there was something in this jumble of lame chords and blank looks that was worth chasing, but just out of reach… Then the third draft landed hard. But in a few months’ time, there should be a new favourite, I hope.
What inspired the song?
As an insomniac, I spend way too much time consuming obsolete pop culture on the internet. Something about the murky, cheap, theatrical look of creepy old TV programmes I saw started to bleed through into my head. It just bugged me until it had to be channelled into a song and shaken off. Apart from that, it’s satisfying to unsettle the audience a bit – there’s too much sensitive whimsy, and perky stage school chumminess, about in music at the moment: people don’t need to be reassured and pandered to all the time.
Why is the song so special to you?
It’s always fun to play live and feel a freezing fog of dread billow out into the room. The starkness and stillness of it feels good – and despite its bleakness the tune’s kind of pretty, a neat balance I’m happy to have achieved. (If I did… Not really up to me to decide, is it?) The recording was fun too, I could almost see the cobwebs and darkness… It was great to break out the phaser and give it some of that watery, charity shop vinyl type gloom – like making a doorway for the ghost of 1973. On a serious note, it’s creating a heavy atmosphere of disturbance with really simple elements. That’s the ideal.