Short interview with Matthew Sturgess of The Silver Reserve

På den senaste listan som är ute nu, så kan ni som sång nr 3 lyssna på det
engelska bandet The Silver Reserve. Jag blev så imponerad av denna sång
och läste lite om bandet på deras hemsida.
Jag kontaktade tidigare idag bandets ledare Matthew Sturgess och frågade om han
kunde tänka sig att berätta lite om bakgrunden till sången "Forget".  Det dröjde
inte lång tid innan han svarade med en utförlig beskrivning av hur denna sång
växte fram. Väldigt fint att få ett så snabb respons, Matthew. Stort tack.
Här är hans svar:

Forget was actually first written on a small pink child's classical guitar!
I was playing around with DADGAD tuning at the time but didn't like having to
retune all the time so I left the little pink one in that tuning and kept coming back
to it until all of the pieces were assembled.

It sat as an instrumental for a few months until I received an email from a close friend informing me that his mother has died suddently and unexpectedly - the lyrics were
written that day very quickly and are a response to that feeling of sharp perspective
when confronted with death - trivial things slip away and you are reminded of all
of the things that are actually important to you.

My guitar track was recorded first and separately from the other members and it
included a huge instrumental break which we eventually dubbed the 'middle 80'.
Honestly, I had no idea of what I wanted to hear in there other than the drum pattern.

We recorded the other instruments in a barn in East Yorkshire and hit a brick wall
with the instrumental section at one point as nobody could seem to find a melody
to sit on top of the guitar. Frustrated, we gave ourselves ten minutes and said
'if nobody comes up with anything we'll scap the song' - luckily Zeb came up with
the main melody line you hear on the track and we built it up from there.

The song features all sorts of instruments but the oddest is probably the huge
gas cannister which we used for percussion a couple of times in the instrumental
section - it's got a great clang!

Here are the lyrics:

Keep moving forward, 
If only in time, 
Sometimes frustrated, 
By these single lines, 

Don’t you forget, 
All that you know, 
I try not to forget all that I know, 

Inverted perspective, 
The further I go, 
From these odd, grim reminders, 
I let the smallest things grow. 

Don’t you forget, 
Those who made you who you are, 
Cause it goes, closed I suppose you just forget, 
It isn’t far…. 

If there’s only stony silence on the other side (I hope I don’t fall) 
Then all that I have are the trails you left behind (back and focus on nothing at all) 
I keep you in mind, in my dreams you still have time (I hope I don’t fall)
You never know exactly how far you’re along the line (back and focus on nothing at all) 

[Middle Eighty!] 

Keep moving forward, 
If only in time, 
I try to stay grateful 
For this single line, 
As I find myself sandwiched with kin, 
Between the basket and the bin, 
If I could stay paused here forever, 
Then I’d win.