Description
Before I Saw The Sea is an album about anticipation and change. The moments in which we feel the certainties that hold us securely in place come adrift. Out 27th January, Me and My Friends' new release is an immersive set of nighttime meditations conceived during lockdown, replete with laidback grooves combining bittersweet nostalgia with hypnotic rhythmic interplay.
This is a record made to accompany journeys when none could be made, as we awaited the parting of the stormy clouds.
Lockdowns brought us into a collective sense of time that was abruptly unhurried, yet filled with an urgent sense of anticipation. This state of being is encapsulated in the slow-burning Afrobeat groove of the title track, Sam Murray's spacious, rasping clarinet solo followed by Nick Rasle's haunting vocal brimming with understated melancholy.
"The long stretches of lockdown meant that I could start with an idea and it would percolate unhindered, revisited each day without interruption from the frantic churn of everyday life before. This clarity of thought harked back to my first attempts at songwriting aged 12, where creativity was an end in itself." Singer and Guitarist, Nick Rasle
Key tracks 'Witness' and 'You Came Into My Life' set the tone for the album, delving into how we respond to transformational events. 'Witness' was written in response to the video that showed the killing of George Floyd, paying tribute to those behind the phone cameras that helped kickstart an international sea-change in attitudes to racism and state violence ("here's one to those with guts, to bear a witness"). 'You Came Into My Life' is a Jose Gonzalez-meets-Famoumata Diawara ballad to the arrival of a child: "In that first year or so, there is so much change, so fast - I was grappling with the realisation that with each magical step of their development they are slipping further away into their own personhood" says Nick Rasle.
Me and My Friends was started over a decade ago, growing from the basements of Leeds to tours across Europe. The quintet's unique blend of Afrobeat-inspired grooves, rich vocal harmonies, languidly graceful cello and playfully funky clarinet has carved out their very own niche of sun-drenched music for the soul, gaining support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, FiP, Soundway Records, Nubiyan Twist and Quantic.
Before I Saw The Sea is an intimate, reflective take on the band's signature sound, held together by bassist and producer James Grunwell's ability to subtly merge influences as diverse as Fatoumata Diawara, Khruangbin, Billie Holiday and Alabaster DePlume into one new sonic palette.
The album presents as a single body of work, with returning melodic themes and vignettes creating an interweaving, dream-like quality to the listening experience, all building up to the anthemic album closer, 'Lover, Come Back To Me'. Built through a series of experimental, pandemic-enforced Zoom writing sessions, this album reflects a thread held onto, a collective sense of purpose, as all else seemed to become untethered.
