Today Nathan from Argonaut tells us about the single, "More Life," their new self-titled album, which was released today. Here is the story:I Want More Life is a phrase that I had been using for a while as a kind of Situationist slogan. It is originally a quote from Bladerunner but seemed to sum up everything I felt, especially about being in a band and using music to open doors and live my dreams. We later wrote a mighty track called 'I refuse to die' which I guess is an appropriate follow up.
When Argonaut began writing songs it was the perfect mission statement, two people feeling trapped in their relationships and day to day lives who wanted to step into a parallel universes. I was reading and re-reading the Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy at the time, especially The Subtle Knife, and like the book, the lyrics felt very visual and cinematic. We have just completed the video and it is everything that I ever dreamed it could be, really complementing the concept and transporting the band so effectively. A dream of mine would be to commission movies of the other two books
The music was a very natural rhythm and progression for me as a guitarist. The quiet/loud format is an obvious homage to the Pixies and later Nirvana musically we saw 'Where is my mind' by Pixies as the greatest song ever written and wanted to use that as our modest staring point! The bass is very Kim Deal too. There is a lovely little piano ditty at the end recorded on a tiny casio keyboard- that was inspired by the way the piano trails off of Epic by Faith No more.
Oh, and the vocals. Neither Lorna or I knew that she could sing when we formed the band. The time that she opened her mouth and screamed those words was an epiphany, the hairs still stand up on the back of my neck. Such soul and passion and genuine angst. I have heard people in the audience comment ' she wants more life', damn right! It's a great penultimate song in our live set, ending conversations and bringing all attention back to the band. One day we hope to resent it as a weight around our necks! For now we can't wait for everyone to hear it and sing along and although we by no means condone such things, it would be great to see "I Want More Life" spray painted on the Saint-Germaine-des-pres
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!
