TRACK BY TRACK EXCLUSIVE: Meadowlark – Nocturnes EP
Meadowlark
Track By Track Exclusive
Words: Elena Katrina
We’re thrilled to have our first ever track by track talk through on Popped and even happier that it’s with the wonderful Meadowlark. Below the lovely Kate and Dan talk about each of their tracks from their current Nocturnes EP, which is released today 10th March 2017. The EP is an alternative look at some of the bands pre-existing work and a stunning cover of About You Now, which takes it to entirely different places to it’s original girl group pop rendition.
The duo have just finished their opening slot on and extensive UK tour with the equally wonderful Amber Run, where they gained even more fans across the country. Keep your eyes peeled for more live shows as they are really a band not to miss out on.
LIVE
10 MAY // London – The Waiting Room
14 MAY // Manchester – The Castle
Find Meadowlark on Facebook
Headlights
“Headlights was probably the most drastically changed song on the EP, the original is upbeat and drenched in electro-pop goodness but the rework delved much deeper into the song itself, bringing the darker side of the lyrics to life.”
Satellite
“Approaching Satellite felt less like a rework and more like a revert. The version that appears on Nocturnes is a lot closer to how it was originally written, slow, simple and sentimental. Our producer (Martin Ruffin) definitely picked up on that, he was keen for us to test ourselves and not complacently settle for an easy rework, he encouraged us to think about each section. This song actually features one of my favourite musical moments, for the final chorus we all went into the live room and swapped instruments, Kate was on the acoustic, Martin was on the piano and I ended up on an old Casio sampling keyboard that was sampling a lo-fi drone of my voice. We played the chorus over and over again, each time adding and subtracting spontaneous inclusions until, in unison, we felt like we had our favourite take.”
Eyes Wide
“This is one of our favourite songs, it took us a while to write, we tried various choruses and melodies but it’s something we are so proud of. We’ve always loved how adaptable Eyes Wide is, you can play in multiple ways with all sorts of instruments and the song always rings through. A few years ago I filmed Kate doing a really intimate version of the song on a beautiful grand piano, it’s actually on our YouTube channel if anyone is curious. We love this version and wanted to use it as a base to build our rework off of. Adding subtle ambient elements and then bursting in with a huge string section at the end was an awesome way to push the song to its limits.”
About You Now
“When we write as Meadowlark we start raw and simple, often both of us sat at a piano stumbling through chords and melodies until we find something we love and want to carry on with. Once you have a strong song you can do almost anything with it, the sky’s the limit from a production sense. About You Now always felt like one of those songs to us, the lyrics, chords and melodies are beautiful, deep and emotive. The version most people have heard is a sparkly upbeat pop masterpiece but we wanted to take it back to what it might have sounded like at its inception. We both sat in the studio and played it together, improvising and not being too careful or precious, we wanted it to sound honest and real.”
