Tell you what – we love hearing from artists when things go right. We equally love hearing from artists when things go dreadfully wrong. A song that was a piece of piss, written in 20 minutes? Or years in the making and a bastard to write?
Whether it’s a song that came together through great duress or one that was smashed out in a short amount of time, we’re getting the lowdown from some of our favourites on the one song that they can’t stop thinking about – in their own words.
Off the back of announcing a new 7″ record is on the way – out June 24th 2022 via Specialist Subject Records – Nathan Stephens-Griffin of Martha talks us through new single, ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back‘. Take it away, Nathan…
Words: Andy Hughes (Photo Credit Victoria Wai)
“‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’ is a song about trying to resist the urge to view the past through rose tinted glasses, and I suppose, about somehow trying to think about ‘futures’ that aren’t just desolate wastelands (as hard as that may seem). Daniel came up with the hook and the chords and a nice vocal melody and sent them to us via our band chat, and I was immediately like I’m gonna try and write some words for this right now.
I feel like through the pandemic there’s been a lot of well-meaning sentiment that’s been like “I wish things could be back the way they were before” and really, I just feel like that’s not good enough. Things were fucking shit before. The world could be so much better. So the song kind of has a bit of that energy to it too. But also like, inevitably, aspects of self-parody, Martha being a band that draws heavily on many influences from various forms of guitar music from the ‘old days’. Having our cake and eating it (for breakfast) maybe?
Anyway, we were really excited about doing a video for it, and our friend – the amazing photographer and filmmaker Sonny Malhotra – came up with this idea involving us posing like we were on the covers of various ‘vintage’ record sleeves to tie in with the lyrics. We found a date, booked a proper photography studio in Newcastle, and Sonny’s train tickets from London. He came up and brought all his gear, and we were all ready to go and then… We got a call from Daniel sounding very worried saying that his partner Steph had gone into hospital and was in labour very prematurely. It was a scary time, because the due date wasn’t meant to be for another 7.5 weeks or so.
Daniel wanted us to still do the video, so Laura Kovic (from Fortitude Valley & Tigercats) kindly stepped in on the day to play the role of ‘Daniel from Martha’. We think she did a great job. Thanks to the incredible NHS, Steph and the baby were both fine and Austin Ellis Bartle is now a very healthy happy little lad!
It’s an odd video in the sense that Daniel only appears as a knitted doll that my mam made a few years ago, but it is a snapshot of an important moment in our life as a band, as we look to the future. We all need to fight like hell to make sure that the future is a better place than the past was. The old days were bad.“
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