Like all good things, let us do this as a trilogy as well. 'The Hurt & The Humour' has 11 tracks and each one of them harbours a unique little story of its own. So here are the stories behind the Starting Three of our debut album!

 

Hurry 

’Hurry’ was coincidentally written in…well, a hurry. About 5 minutes before I had to leave for work I suddenly started playing this riff you can hear in the verses. So about 10 minutes later I’d demoed the first version of the song onto my phone and was absolutely late for work. Other than the lyrics I don’t think I ever refined it much, it’s still basically the song that happened in those 10 minutes of conception. 

What I particularly like about ’Hurry’ is that it sounds like a happy, cheerful song – I mean there’s lines about hurrying up, phone calls and mom – but it’s actually a profoundly sad break-up song. To me it’s the perfect song to open an album called ’The Hurt & The Humour’ – although it wasn’t supposed to for the longest time – because it incapsulates both those sentiments perfectly. 

 

Stuck With A Rhyme 

Well this one you already know. I really love the recorded version of it. It’s got grit, raw power and almost kind of a punk feel to it. Suffice it to say, I can’t wait to play it live in January with the whole band. It’s going to kick so much ass it’s ridiculous! 

Initially about writer’s block, this song finally unfolded when I made it about a whole personal blockage on many levels. Not just being stuck with the pencil and paper referred to in the chorus but also with yourself and everything you’re trying to achieve. 

The video to this song is still my favourite one out of the self-directed ones, at least still at the point of writing this… 

 

The Fairytale Waltz 

This is my personal favourite song on the album at the moment. I love how effortlessly everything fell into place during the recording and mixing stage. Because for the longest time I thought getting this song right was going to be the hardest thing ever. But now it just perfectly blends the Alice in Chains Unplugged-album with something eerie out of Twin Peaks. 

I believe this song’s actually one of the more humorous ones on the album with the protagonist wanting, but struggling to stay miserable in the face of falling for a girl that's making fun of his misery. I’m basically just having a laugh at my own expense, about my personal moments of ridiculous but sinister doom and gloom here.