Line of Fire - Behind the Song

 
 

The Writing Process

This song was written when I was living in Winchester, in the last year of my degree studying Creative Writing. I was living with my then-girlfriend in a small four bedroom house near the centre of the city.

It took me a couple of weeks to finish. I can remember writing the three chord progression and walking around the tiny kitchen, singing the chorus melody.

I was writing a lot in those days, and the song reflects the feelings and anxieties that I had at the time.

We were in a period of our lives where things were about to change a great deal. I had grand plans of moving to London to pursue music and my partner was planning to move away to do a masters degree, so the song talks about that.

Talk

To me

You lonely sea

About your future plans

That press you like a stone

And the closeness that we shared.

I strive

To find

The light

Sometimes

Yea, but if you’ll hold my hand

I’ll make it through the night.

The chorus expands on this theme. I talk about the feeling of being under fire from the world, the future, the large expanse of possibility and the knowledge of our own inexperience and inadequacy.

In the line

Of fire

You and I will both get hit

Till we stand

Bring in a new day

The second half is about my own struggles with depression and ennui.

All my life

I’ve retired

Sit alone and watch TV

Now I’m sick

Now I’m loosing faith.

In the second verse I talk about a fictional future, where I’ve given up the only chance of love I could have and I’m nearing death. Other songwriters I’ve known have told me that their songs can prophesise the future, I heartily hope this is not the case for me!

Falling feet

I’m breaking beat

And now my chest rattles

Everytime I breathe

I spent my loan

Being alone

And now my time has come

I wish I’d been with you.

To finish the song I repeat the last two lines of the chorus, mainly because it had a nice ring to it, but also because it’s always good to drill home a truly depressing message.

Production

Line of Fire was the first song I recorded in my little studio, The Clock House, and as such was something of an experiment.

Over the pandemic, I found myself with a little money in the bank and a lot of time on my hands. I was living at my parents house in Hertfordshire, and they had an unused space above the garage which had been used for storage. I cleaned it out and took the desk from my room into this new space.

With the money I had saved I bought some better equipment, some professional microphones (an AKG 414 and SM7B for those in the know). As well as some cheap instruments from people who were decluttering.

I was wrestling with the challenge of creating professional recordings without a huge price tag, and I thought this might offer a solution.

I wanted to go for a classic rock n’ roll sound for this track, but with a modern mix and master. References for the sound included The Arctic Monkeys’ album AM, Queens of the Stone Age’s …Like Clockwork and the soundtrack for the film Only Lovers Left Alive, the guitar sound of which has been hugely influential on me.

I laid down the drums and rhythm guitar myself, then sent it away to bass superstar George Bunting, who sent me back four excellent bass takes. I then got Joe Chipperfield in to session on lead guitar. I’d laid down some distorted electric guitar parts myself and mixed the two versions. These single strummed chords in the chorus were the same on the original demo, and I think they really push the song forward.

With the solo in the middle 8 Joe originally played the part I’d written on the demo, but I told him to just let loose and play what he felt was right, I wanted him to be inspired by the track to create something that would tear up the ear. We did about 80 takes but eventually we got something wonderfully fruity and rich!

After this I re-recorded the vocals, the track then sat for about 8 months while the world opened back up and I went forth and lived my life.

I came back to it and decided to see if I could get it to a releasable quality. I recorded some Hammond organ and backing harmonies in the choruses to give it some lift and added a clap in the outro, then took it to Elliot Richardson of Highfield Studio and we worked on the mix together.

I wanted a really present vocal and we set the guitar quite back in the mix. I wanted the solo to have a ‘dusty’ quality to it, so it’s set a little low in the mix. We then added distortion and tape delay to give the whole track a “crunchy” feel.

A few weeks after finishing the mix I decided I wanted to get it professionally mastered, Elliot put me onto Audio Animals and they did a fantastic job.

When I got the master back I listened to it in my car. It sounded like a commercial track that could be played alongside any established artist. I truly felt like the past 10 years of my life had been leading to that moment.

Thomas Dulieu