These are transformative times for live bands, and we think it’s crucial to share the effects of the lockdown on your creativity. PKNN embraced this experience and made into a narrative. We asked Tom to guide us through it, and we hope that more of you will help us document these pivotal times.
Tom: We’re only nine months into this global pandemic. As I sit here a few days before we plan to put out these songs as an EP, I realise that we’ve created a linear document of what we’ve been through since the start of the year. Whether I like it or not, it’s definitely a ‘Lockdown record’.
It started in February when ‘Ritalin’ was born from a drunken night of collaboration, back when the conversation wasn’t dominated by pandemic talk. Lyrically it was written without any pretence and frantically typed into a phone while in front of a microphone. But as I listen back now its a snapshot of a time where we were overwhelmed by full social calendars, and I personally was living very near to the point of burnout. Ben was struggling to come to terms with an adult ADHD diagnosis, and the song is a pretty brutal look at how our sometimes questionable behaviours piled pressure upon us.
Following the first national lockdown in March, Ben and I started collaborating remotely. ‘Combustion’ was the first track written in those first few claustrophobic months where outside time was limited to a daily exercise. My relationship with my long term partner was falling to bits, which I know a lot of people were experiencing, and it’s reflected in the lyrics of this track. It’s petty, it’s a rant, but it does touch on a lot of subjects such as addiction, unemployment, restlessness, creative frustrations and my inability to communicate.
‘Intended Simply’ and ‘The Heat’ were written during the summer of relative freedom, set against the backdrop of a country in chaos and contrasted by the most important civil rights movement of my life.
I really have no idea if the record is finished, or if something with such a documentary narrative can ever be considered finished. Maybe it’s just the end of a chapter. Along with the launch of my new music blog and cassette label The North Will Rise Again, we’re really excited to share this journey as hopefully the first release of many.
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