The EP was recorded in three days in March 2013, at Pioneer Studios in our hometown of Colchester, Essex, with a further day for mixing. Time was tight, so we chose probably the most direct songs from our live set at the time. Meet Me by the Sea Lyrically, it’s semi-autobiographical. I grew up on Mersea Island in Essex and the sea was just a couple of minutes walk from the house. Whenever I needed to clear my head or just get some fresh air, I would walk the length of the beach and back listening to music on my walkman / I-pod. It was upon return from one of these walks that I wrote the words for this. Again, I tried them with a few different riffs/chord progressions I had, before eventually stumbling on the right combination. I like the feel of this one, especially the mix of piano, trumpet and dirty guitars. The chorus is pretty catchy too. Ultimately, the song is about missing someone, no more so than on one of these walks where’s there’s time to think/reflect. The idea of throwing your future to sea (in the chorus) is quite dark/abstract I suppose, so make of it what you will. Tiny Little Moments I really love the bass and drum groove on this one and the way that rather than go heavier for the chorus thing become clearer. The idea to do it as duet probably came from the song ‘Nothing Better’ by the Postal Service which proved to me that it could be done in a (hopefully) non-cheesy way. I later found out that they got the idea from The Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’ anyway! But hey ho, they’re both great songs. Lyrically, I had written the verses a while back as a kind of stream of consciousness I suppose (one of the few occasions I’d written words not to a specific tune) and then struggled to find a home for them, but after a few false starts they seem to work over a looping guitar riff I wrote on an acoustic guitar, which in-turn sounded a lot better when Ben played it on piano, so we did it that way instead. The song isn’t autobiographical. It’s about two on/off lovers, both wanting their own space, both looking at their own life and thinking ‘is this it?’ both have made mistakes and hurt the other in the past, but ultimately there is something that keeps drawing them back to each other. The phrase ‘Quarter-life crisis’ seemed to be very en-vogue in magazines etc a while back. It’s the idea that the period of drastic reflection on ones life had shifted forward from mid-50’s to mid-20’s, and seemed fitting. The bit about counting calories in our sleep is about the pressures heaped on the modern gentleman/lady by these aforementioned magazines etc. I read, or heard, somewhere that Jesus was supposedly 33 years-old when he died. I’m an atheist, but it was still kind of weird thinking of a spiritual figure in such human terms. I suppose it saying, we can’t take anything for granted, even Jesus only made it to 33. The ‘Things We Lost in the Fire’ mentioned is an album by the American band Low (not the Bastille song) and ‘The Execution of All Things’ is by Rilo Kiley, double indie-points if you got both of those references. Clear the Coast This is our oldest song. It was played at the last Absent Kid gig (band that some of us were in before Warm Winters). I really liked the way it came together and wanted to carry it forward. We re-jigged the structure a bit, but it’s essentially the same song. I wanted it to be a snappy and direct song, but we worked hard to avoid it being too pop-punk, as there’s a tendency for people to think of the genre as throw-away, even if it is a legitimately good song. Lyrically, it’s about two people who want to be together but there are too many obstacles in the way, geography being one. Unlike ‘Meet Me By the Sea’ the coast mentioned is a metaphorical one. The Bonnie Tyler bit is obviously a reference to the lyric ‘Once upon a time I was falling in love, but now I’m only falling apart’ (from Total Eclipse of the Heart). That lyric, is probably one of my favourites in a mainstream song, along with ‘I’m never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm’ in Careless Whisper by George Michael – both devastating in their simplicity. I originally put the reference in as a joke to please Kerri (who’s a big fan of Bonnie) and it kind of stuck. Walk You Home This one came along quite easily, I had the arpeggios and chord progressions and just played and played them, making up and writing down the lyrics as I went. I think I was attempting to write something like ‘Scattered Black & Whites’ or ‘Mirrorball’ by Elbow, they’re a different league I know, but I feel this is a touching song all the same. This is about holding a candle for someone long after it’s healthy to do so and trying to draw a line under things. Kind of saying - this is the last time I’ll walk you home, this is the last time I’ll say I miss you, if you’re not gonna say it back. The double drumming at the end is a favourite bit live and thought it would be a good way to end the EP. The spoken word bit is a collection of lyrical fragments that didn’t make it into songs, but put together seem to some up the theme of the record nicely.