When The Party Left You
I've just released a direct-to-streaming single, a special New Year's Drop. The new song is called When the Party Left You.
It’s Tuesday afternoon here in Dublin, and it’s freezing. Or at least it was the last time I stepped outside. Radiators have been on all morning. It’s been around zero, dipping to minus one; frosty, sparkling roads, frozen cars, the lot. Pretty though, in fairness. That’s about 30 degrees for the Fahrenheit people, I think.
Anyway, it’s my first day off in a while (I’ve been teaching a lot of yoga to pay the bills). I’ve been trying to slow down a bit — finishing off a lot of mixing and producing new material for release this year with my bro Michael Heffernan, then straight back into teaching a tonne of yoga. It’s been pretty hectic. I was off Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day, and then it was straight back to sweating in hot yoga rooms, ha!
I’m trying to slow down a bit when I can, you know? Today is certainly one of those slow days… I love slow days. Of course, I’d love an entire week of slowness. But instead of wishing I could have more, I’m trying to fully be in them when they come along. Next week, I’ve got to start rehearsing with the new band for gigs coming up, getting everything ready to properly showcase this big new chapter, so next week things will begin to speed up again.
Anyway, now cosy at home with a large cafetière of brewed black coffee, I decided to finally sit down and write this blog post about the new single.
I’m incredibly proud of how it turned out. It was co-produced and recorded/mixed by my good pal Michael Heffernan, and mastered by Noel Summerville. The song brims with energy, thanks in no small part to the incredible musicians involved, including drummers Alex Reeves of the great British band Elbow, Cian Hanley and Ryan McClelland, who added further percussive layers throughout.
Michael flew over to Dublin to jam out some synth ideas with me later on into production, and we added loads of nice layers, arps, and little notes here and there that lift it all up into that gorgeous, ethereal space using my DX7 FM II and Korg Mini. Towards the end of the process, once all the drums were in and sounding great, we realised it needed a bass guitar to properly ground it. I tracked the bass myself, keeping it simple but with the right driving energy it called out for.
As the song took shape, it slowly became what I’d always imagined: driving, band-led, expansive and atmospheric. When my songs come to fruition, I often hear echoes of the artists that have meant something to me, or colours I’ve drawn from like a painter’s palette, usually arriving by instinct, even by accident sometimes. Here, it felt a little The War on Drugs-esque, married with the raw, restrained dynamics of bands like Talk Talk.
When The Party Left You means a lot to me because I see it almost as a quiet follow-up to my last LP, WETLANDS. That record was, in many ways, a break-up album, and this song arrived as a response to standing in the aftermath of that…perhaps lingering there for too long. It reflects a clearer sense of who I was, who I am now, and who I’m trying to become. While the track takes comfort in the familiar emotional terrain of love and loss, it also urges movement: to rebuild, to stand up, and to be courageous. What began as a call-back slowly became something more complex: a self-study of how my understanding of love has changed, and where I see myself heading next.
I hope you guys enjoy this track!
Regards,
Christian x
