David Gray

And there's always tension.

There's tiredness.

And then there's high times when it all clicks and you have just the most extraordinary night.

It's when self dissolves and you're just left with a wonderful feeling that you were a part of on the stage and everyone in the room was a part of.

And it elevates everything.

It makes it all worthwhile.

Yeah, interesting process because, of course, this was lockdown.

And I sent the track to Clune.

I was very excited about it, but we couldn't get the rhythm side working.

And he lives in America and he went round to his neighbour's house to record the drums, who had a recording studio in inverted commas.

That's just...

and obviously he might have had a recording studio but he certainly didn't know how to sync to the track that we sent him so we got this kind of chaotic recording back but Clune really nailed it with the part and once Clune's drums were on there we had this kind of thing that felt finished and all that remained

remained was for the strings and the little trumpet parts the muted trumpet to be put on which was all part of a massive string session we did at air studios which was super super exciting it gives it this lavish quality when you hit those emotional courses i mean i love that track when i'm making a record there's the odd song will land and i'll think this is it this is the key track from which everything else must now relate the album this is the sort of key to the album is here

Of course, critical, yeah.

Listening, checking that it's good, that it sounds real.

The thing about recorded music is when you listen back to it, it's a sort of small version of what you've got in your head.

You can only capture a sort of two-dimensional impression, if you like, of what it was.

So when you go live, you hear the whole thing sort of widescreen, for real, live.

the beating heart of the music is right there in front of you.

The bass is hitting you in the chest.