Making Friends walk us through Home is Where the Heart Was, track by track.
Suck Brick, Kid
Ryan: This track is named after a quote from my favourite Home Alone movie, but has no relation to it whatsoever… just a fun opening track. Perhaps the most Making Friends song. Also the first time I have added a key change to a song I’ve written (Pete - I had been requesting this for years!). Daly said it was one of the best key changes he’s ever heard, and he usually dislikes them!
Billboard Town
Ryan: Insert classic I-hate-my-hometown skatepunk/pop punk record cliché. I tried to make this one a bit more sincere and smart with the lyrics. It’s a very meaningful song for me. I wrote this song when I moved out of Brighton briefly and went back to the suburb of London where I grew up, and basically spent two months completely alone. We have a video on YouTube which I think rocks, directed by Shark Sauce. It’s brilliant, you should go watch it.
Anyway
Ryan: ‘Anyway’ was the last track I wrote for the album and I feel like it was the perfect sounding song for this record. For me it ties the entire album together and makes the other tracks make sense.
Cosy
Ryan: This song is supposed to be played off the back of ‘Anyway’, I wrote these songs pretty much together. Originally I wrote ‘Cosy’ to go before ‘Anyway’ but accidentally switched it around and realised it works better this way. I’m particularly proud of the lyrics on this track, I think it dives deep into some emotions about a particular situation in my life. The stops in the first verse are very punchy. I also couldn’t help but insert my favourite Breaking Bad quote in the outro (again no relation to the song, just sounds oddly fitting).
Gut Feeling
Ryan: This one is about being in a long distance relationship and being kept apart by bureaucracy. A stretch of water between you, and rules to follow which limit your time with that particular person, making it hard to build something. This song expresses those frustrations and leaves you with a sense of hopefulness with the reassuring lyrics in the chorus. We have a music video for this song directed by Shark Sauce / Nick Burdett (from All Better) on YouTube, which is just a masterpiece. I cannot get through it without cracking up. It was an extremely fun day filming it.
Lifeboat
Pete: This was previously released, in a different form, by one of Ryan’s old bands Maisonette. I’ve always loved this song and I was really excited that we were allowed to steal it to record our own version.
Blabber Blabber
Pete: This song is a bit Satanic Surfers, very fast with lots of stops and the occasional odd-time bar. So much fun to play. I like the anti-billionaire sentiment too.
Ryan: Me and Dan argue about who wrote this song sometimes, but not like one of us is taking credit. I swear he wrote it, he swears I wrote it. We literally can’t remember who came up with this bass riff in the beginning, which ended up writing the rest of the song. Either way, when we were recording this, it was so nice to see the smile on his face when he was perfecting the guitar parts and playing the solo. If I did write this, I’m glad I made you happy Dan.
Home is Where the Heart Was
Ryan: The title track, the first song I wrote for this record (apart from ‘Stab Wound’ and ‘Danger Close’, but at the time I wasn’t sure if these tracks were going to make the record as they have a completely different sound). I tried to shape the entire record around this track. I won’t go into detail and dissect every single lyric to give you the meaning of the song, but you could probably work it out for yourself.
Weatherboy
Ryan: I love this song. I wrote this after ‘Home is Where the Heart Was’, and they were always intended to be played together. A little trivia, it was originally called ‘Heart Defect’, but because ‘Home is Where the Heart Was’ also starts with an H, it made it too confusing for Dan to learn. He didn’t like this song to begin with, so I had to do something. I particularly enjoy playing this song and I know that Bill does too. I’m not sure about Pete, I can never tell when he’s happy about something. But I’m sure he probably likes it. Again, I stole this name from a quote I really like from a classic viral YouTube video. I would tell you where it’s from, but, wouldn’t you like to know, weatherboy?
Paper Mache Mannequin
Ryan: Banger.
Pete: If Making Friends was ever on the radio I think it would most likely be this track.
Danger Close
Pete: This is so much fun to play and the slightly prog-like bridge into the final chorus is one of my favourite parts of the album.
Where Do My Feet Go
Ryan: This is Dan’s song, which is about being awkward at gigs, even though he’s not. He’s actually really approachable and friendly, it just looks this way on the outside so it’s kinda funny.
Stab Wound
Pete: I don’t think we’ve managed to play this since we recorded it, but it’s proving quite popular so it might have to be part of the live set soon. I love the instrumental parts, the drums are really fun to play with the repetitive build and then the release of tension.
Ryan: This was one of the early songs for the record and it’s crazy to me how much the sound evolved as the other songs were written. I didn’t think this was going to make it on the record originally. I thought that it was a bit weak, but it’s proving to be a fan favourite, which goes to show that you truly never know who’s gonna like what.
Spinning Around the Sun
Ryan: A very personal song to me, took me about two months to get the lyrics right. I recorded this with the guys from Tidal Wave recording, who are also in Brighton’s emo band, Prom. It was a fun day. I particularly enjoy this song whenever I listen to the record all the way through. I think it’s a very beautiful way to end it.
