Foto-© Anika Zachow

Vor einigen Jahren waren die drei Iren Neil Foot, Ben Connolly und Kelvin Barr urplötzlich in aller Munde, da ihre Single Never in einem Werbespot genau den richtigen Ton traf – doch die Freunde seit Schultagen sind so viel mehr als dieser eine Hit! Und nachdem sie zuletzt Berlin gezogen sind, wirkt sich der eklektische Großstadt-Einfluss auch direkt auf das neue Songgut von All The Luck In The World aus. So könnte man sich zumindest das neue Sound-Gerüst der ersten Single Only Avenues, die klingt als wäre alt-J Radioheads How to Disappear Completely eingefallen, aus dem am heute erscheinenden neuen Album How The Ash Felt erklären. Only Avenues ist ein Beispiel für die komplexen Kompositionen, die uns auf dem neuen Album erwarten, und eine Meditation voll von so kryptischer wie persönlicher Poesie, die von einem Buchladen in einem Ort namens Waverly über einen leeren Zug bis zu einer Hochbahn führt, nur um am Ende einzusehen: „We’re only avenues halfway down the high line.“ Für uns hat die Band ein Track by Track zum Album geschrieben!

1. Five Feathers

Touching on various nostalgic memories from childhood, this song is centred around grief in the wake of losing a parent. It reflects on the kindness and unrelenting love of parenthood, and the innocence of being a kid, but also holds darker, more sinister undertones – “with a fight on our hands” hints at the unknown hardships that lay ahead.

2. Waves Poem

This song is about the feeling of smallness/insignificance within the power of nature – more specifically, the ocean. Structured in 4 simple verses, it was basically a completed poem, with some slight adaptation, put to music. The song charts the life cycle/journey of a single wave, how it can be both powerful and delicate, and, either way, inevitable – “waves arrive, and settle on the coast that they were destined for”. We tried to reflect the cyclical nature of waves in both the lyrics and the music. Each verse begins and ends with the same line, while the whole piece follows that same format musically.

3. Only Avenues

The lyrics were all written on a trip to New York City. It sprang from feeling a subway train shake the room in the basement of a bookshop. Again, it’s basically about feeling very small/insignificant – this time within the daunting surroundings of a large city – but then finding a sort of solace in the company you keep and the human experience – that all the giant buildings are pointless without the people to fill them – “for an empty train is nothing but hollow and headed nowhere”.

4. Patterns

This song is about lying awake at night, watching the patterns that form and fold around the room from the light coming through the cracks in the curtains. The track began as a combination of samples and voice notes, looping and warping to create a journey that we tried to reflect with lyrics based around sleep cycles, recurring memories, even breathing – “folding patterns in between a recurring memory” + “I thought I could forget / I can’t sleep but for your breathing”.

5. Talons

Written both in, and about, the village of Kilmuckridge, Co. Wexford, Ireland. It’s a place my Mother spent many summers and it’s about feeling a connection to her there, enjoying the knowledge that she was kicking around that place in her youth – “charmed and lifted by a memory I’m not in”. How returning to this familiar place, unaccompanied now, can be a healing experience – “soak in the sea air, it’s the only antidote” + “it’s still warm enough to swim”.

6. holding my arms in

Instrumental intro to Rue de l’Enfer

7. Rue de l’Enfer

Named after a real street in the town of Les Sables-d’Olonne, France. You literally have to turn sideways to get out at the bottom of the street – hence “we got caught at the end of Rue de l’Enfer”. It stems from early memories with family, holidaying on the west coast of France.The song itself is an attempt to both capture these memories, and acknowledge the fact that the fleeting details of them will inevitably evaporate with time.

8. Hollowing

This song is a jab at greed and the pursuit of excessive wealth – “echoes of affluence / accomplishments so criminal / we don’t mention it” – reflected in one relationship, and how maybe that misalignment of values has left the narrator feeling. Perhaps that the other person has grown cold – “you’re hollowing out your heart now”. It also touches on the idea of balance in relationships, and how one might give away part of themselves to keep the other happy – “there is a thief in you”.

9. Equinox

The intent of this song was to mark a moment of genuine connection with someone. It is an attempt to chart a relationship, from the initial, intense spark – “you’re a firecracker in a stack of kindling”, to the love and eventual difficulties that follow. While it describes a spiral of sorts, a wandering “off course”, it is also simply an appreciation for someone, flaws and all.

10. Sparky

Another one that touches on themes of insignificance/powerlessness in the natural world. The lyrics describe an episode of anxiety in the midst of an intense storm outside – “soaked through and spiralling against my will”. Sparky is the name of the dog that is “raising hell down the hall” in classic dog-in-storm fashion. As the song progresses, this anxiety is overcome, now feeling “quietly spirited”, realising the awe and beauty of the frightening storm – “wide eyed and waiting for lightning”.

11. i’ve been trying

This song is an attempt to capture the feeling of being caught in two minds. In this case, it focuses specifically on one person’s experience of uncertainty/indecision within their relationships – perhaps knowingly setting themselves up for disaster – “i’ve been trying to break my own heart / been fixing to fall apart”