Where Did The Time Go? is probably the most guitar-heavy record I'll ever make.
Which is quite an achievement, considering the entire project started with me wanting to make guitar music.
But there's a reason for that.
These three tracks come from very different periods of my life, and each one represents a slightly different side of what eventually became The Kubrick Stare.
Where Did The Time Go?
The main riff actually started life as me messing around with the riff from Ride's Taste.
I took the basic idea, twisted it around a bit and gave it more of a Stone Roses feel. At its original tempo, it had something of a Mersey Paradise quality to it. Much more upbeat, much more energetic, and much more obviously an indie rock song.
That's because it originally was one.
I first wrote Where Did The Time Go? for an indie rock band I was playing in at the time.
It was faster, louder and written with a completely different purpose. The sort of song that was supposed to get people moving in a venue, rather than standing still with their eyes closed.
Turning that into something introspective was surprisingly difficult.
The basic structure was already there, but almost everything surrounding it had to change. I slowed the tempo, stripped away some of the urgency and started building layers around the parts I wanted to preserve.
Eventually, it stopped sounding like an indie rock song that had been slowed down and started sounding like The Kubrick Stare.
Which was rather the point.
It's also one of the rare occasions where I've allowed myself to just be a guitarist.
There are some fairly substantial guitar parts throughout the track, including a solo that comes from the part of me that grew up idolising blues rock.
It's probably not the sort of solo you'd expect to hear on a record built around dense textures and atmospheric arrangements.
But I didn't particularly want to make it fit.
I've spent years developing a sound where guitars are often more about texture than technical playing. And while that's still very much part of what I do, I don't think there's anything wrong with occasionally letting my older influences come through.
Sometimes it's nice to just play the bloody guitar.
Play Dead
The first B-side comes from a very different place.
Play Dead was one of the earliest sets of lyrics I ever wrote that actually survived.
I'd been attempting to write lyrics for a while, but most of them would end up being abandoned within a couple of months. I'd write something, decide I hated it, and move on.
Play Dead was different.
It's also probably the most vulnerable song I've ever written.
I wrote the first draft during some of the worst days of my depression, while I was living in a shared university house.
I remember one particular night quite vividly.
There was a party happening downstairs. People were drinking, laughing and generally having a brilliant time.
And I was sitting alone in my bedroom.
There was this strange contrast between what was happening on either side of the door. Downstairs, everyone was enjoying themselves. Upstairs, I felt completely disconnected from all of it.
I think that feeling found its way into the lyrics.
There's something particularly isolating about being surrounded by people having a good time when you're struggling to feel anything yourself.
I don't think I could have written Play Dead from anywhere other than that particular point in my life.
And I don't think I'd want to try.
It's a very personal piece of writing, and although I hope people find their own meaning in it, I don't particularly feel the need to explain every line.
Some things are better left in the song.
Dreaming
And then there's Dreaming.
This one has a rather special place in TKS history.
It was the first track I ever recorded as The Kubrick Stare, back when I was experimenting with the idea of making an entirely instrumental project.
At that point, I wasn't particularly interested in writing lyrics or singing. I just wanted to make atmospheric music with guitars, synths and drum machines.
Dreaming was one of the first results.
The original recording eventually appeared on my first EP, Time Is Precious.- The Instrumental Tapes, released in early 2022.
I think about four people bought it on Bandcamp.
Not exactly a commercial breakthrough.
But those four people ended up owning the very first Kubrick Stare release, which is quite a nice thought.
In fact, those four people are in a rather unusual position.
They still have access to all four tracks from that EP.
I've somehow managed to lose every single one of the original files myself.
Two of the compositions survived in substantially revised versions, but the recordings as they appeared on that EP are gone.
Well, almost.
The original version of Dreaming is still floating around on YouTube, uploaded to an old Kubrick Stare account that I've long since forgotten the password for.
So somewhere on the internet, there's a version of my first ever recording that I can listen to but can't actually do anything with.
Wonderful.
The version of Dreaming appearing here is considerably different from the original.
I've spent years returning to it, changing things, recording new parts and generally spending far too much time trying to get it exactly how I wanted.
The arrangement has evolved, the production is much more developed, and the overall character of the track has changed considerably.
But underneath all of that, the original idea is still there.
In fact, some of the guitar recordings are exactly the same ones I made back in 2021.
They've been slowed down and placed in a completely different arrangement, but they're still there.
I quite like that.
There's something satisfying about hearing a piece of music develop over several years without losing the thing that made you want to record it in the first place.
And there's a little guitar solo in there too.
Apparently I couldn't help myself.
Three Different Beginnings
I think what connects these three tracks is that none of them originally began as part of the same project.
Where Did The Time Go? started as an indie rock song, written for a band with a completely different sound.
Play Dead came from a particularly difficult period of my life, when I was still figuring out how to express myself through lyrics.
And Dreaming was one of the earliest experiments that eventually led to The Kubrick Stare existing in the first place.
They weren't written together, and they weren't originally intended to sit alongside one another.
But somehow, they work as a record.
Each one represents something that has contributed to the music I'm making now.
The indie rock and blues influences I grew up with. The more personal side of my songwriting. And the instrumental experimentation that started everything.
I think there's something quite fitting about bringing those different parts of my musical history together on the first original TKS single.
There's probably more lead guitar across these three tracks than there will be on most of my future releases.
Not because I've suddenly decided I don't like guitar solos.
Far from it.
But because I don't want The Kubrick Stare to be defined by any one particular approach to making music.
Sometimes the guitars will be right at the front of an arrangement. Sometimes they'll be buried beneath layers of synths and effects. And sometimes they might barely feature at all.
That's one of the things I enjoy most about making music under this name.
I'm free to follow an idea wherever it takes me, without having to worry too much about whether it fits somebody else's expectations.
These three songs happen to be particularly guitar-heavy.
And I think that's a pretty good way to begin.
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