Blog
Background to our Songs: Depth Perception
Written by Jimmy
Depth Perception by AbubillaMusic
This is all because Jimmy and Ed were locked out of the studio.Lyrically, this started because everyone was in the pool at the 2010 Summer Spanish Jam and Lou was talking about a band called Depth Perception. Or something like that. I can’t find a band called Depth Perception on line, so maybe she was talking about something else. Who knows. Someone said depth perception. And they were in the pool.
Like the phrase and felt like the lack of Depth Perception was a good excuse for failed relationships – she never understands how superficial and shallow he is. That sort of thing. From there, it led to the idea of a lady in a bar, picking up yet another guy, telling of her failed relationships and her lack of Depth Perception. The sad thing would be if at the end of all these tales she decided this guy was right. And she’d try again but we would all know she’d fail again. Like the line: ‘Johnny smoked his dope, loved his soaps and gave up hope of every finding his place; he was barely present when we met and disappeared without a trace.’ Wrote it quickly in the sunshine.
Had a rough tune and then found Ed. He was walking around the villa with an acoustic guitar desperate to get into the studio but Andy was working with Gus on Whisper. So we sat down on the front step of the villa, in the sun, and just worked and worked the song for an hour. We tried a few more chilled things before Ed got that this was a rock song, and then ‘the riff’ was the first thing that came out. The riff is all Ed (Ed is all riff) and it makes the song. As he often says, he has not idea where the rest came from, it just kind of happened (except for the middle 8, which were chords he’d been trying to work into a song for several years…). We were then let into the studio – the band helped write the rest and Andy ended up on drums. Ed’s the lead guitar on most of the solo’s including the great riff ending the middle 8. Lou and Jimmy had a nice little discussion about whether she should end the song saying she should ‘win at this game’. Lou thought that it was too redemptive. Jimmy felt that it was even more pathetic. After all, she thinks this guy would work out. In a very very very rare occurrence, Jimmy won.
Lou did a great vocal but she was the first to suggest she didn’t have the right voice for this lady. Jimmy was at a neighbourhood party where there was a live local band, led by Lara. He thought Lara’s vocals would be perfect for this song and we invited her to the London studio to ‘cover it.’ We think she really nailed it – with a lovely, but worn vocal, that makes you like this bar girl, even though you’re pretty certain things aren’t going to work out.
So if there is a heavy metal band called Depth Perception, let us know. They are more than welcome to cover this song.
Jimmy