Listen to Alex Bayly performing 'Animal'.
We are facing our animal instincts with alternative-folk artist Alex Bayly's latest single Animal, taking from his debut album Ley Lines which was released in 2019. Following a successful crowd-funding campaign to release a vinyl edition of the record, Alex caught up with Discovr.TV to discuss his current single.
Alex Bayly / Photo Credit: Piers Murray Hill
"It's about feeling like an animal in the modern world (part of the rat race) and partly our relationship with the animal kingdom", he explained in the interview. "Also feelings of changing responsibility in adulthood."
If you want more of an insight into the kind of thing that inspired the song, read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. It was the section on The Agricultural Revolution that really sparked Alex's imagination with regards to mankind's evolution.
"I was reading the Sapiens chapter about how industrial agriculture is one of the greatest crimes the human race has committed", he recalls. "I think to a certain extent we farm ourselves as well into positions of work and social standing. I think that's the premise of the song."
When it came to writing the song, Alex knew exactly what kind of sound he was looking for, with guitars influenced by one Argentinian-Swedish indie folk singer who he just can't get enough of, coupled with a string section from London-based violist Rachel Lanskey - aka la.nskey - of The Last Dinosaur, a band with whom Alex has performed with in recent months.
"I wrote [Animal] to have a Jose Gonzalez inspired guitar part with an intricate rhythmical pattern", he says. "I recorded that and some lyrical melodic ideas at home then took it to Elliott Richardson at Highfield Studios where we added his drum parts and la.nskey's beautiful strings which really lifted the arrangement."
According to Alex, Animal is a particularly timely song for the season, with the sound largely inspired by the cold weather and darkening days.
"Animal has a very wintery mood which is good as it's been released this winter", he explains. "It feels like a nighttime song and the days are so dark now. It's a good song for headphones on a Monday morning on the way to work. In the midwinter. It's that Monday morning feeling we all get that you just have to embrace and get through."
We certainly know that feeling, Alex!
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