The Band Explains: Bright Orange Spectacle - ‘I Struggle To Comminicate’
After crashing onto the scene in pure indie style with debut track ‘She Could Do Better’, North London’s Bright Orange Spectacle are back with new single ‘I Struggle to Communicate’. We had a chat with the band’s Charlie Sinclair about the track, to reflect on politics and what 2019 has been like for the band.
Your new single ‘I Struggle to Communicate’ is out now, what is the meaning behind the title? What is the inspiration behind the song?
I just wanted to be really up front and honest. Song titles need a big hook, something to attract attention, get you thinking “fuck that’s hit me straight in the feelings” or at least intrigue you. The lyrics of the song came very quickly and when I read them back, the words “I struggle to communicate” were just kind of hiding towards the end of the second verse. It just immediately got me as a phrase on its own. Like, yeah, I DO struggle to communicate… I am guilty of it…. let’s roll with that. I sent the guys a mix of the track with that as the title and they all had the same reaction. In terms of inspiration I think the song was largely inspired by other songs I was writing, not working and that annoyance. I was trying to write our big ‘political statement’ but failing every time and i was fucking frustrated you know? So I just began with the “I don’t think I really understand” lyric and it started working… I just admitted I didn’t know enough and suddenly the song happened.
Where was the track recorded? Are there any behind the scenes stories you are happy to share with us from the recording process?
The song was recorded in myself and Kyle’s (guitar) bedrooms. We snuck a few drum takes in at ICMP uni which was super helpful to keep our budget down. We are lucky that Darcy (other guitar) actually goes there so we weren’t breaking any rules with where we were sneaking into for once. I produced and mixed the whole thing myself and just spent hours tweaking bits and bobs until I was happy. We used to work with other producers but it’s just too expensive for a band with no money behind them…. The same thing happened when we recorded the video and we had a £0 budget. We needed a studio so we just turned up at Central Saint Martins on a Sunday morning and gave them all the excuses under the sun until they let us in. Fake it until you make it? Nah… I guess just fake it… this is music, you never really make it!
You are releasing it via your own imprint What About Records? How did that come about? Do you consider yourself a DIY thinking band?
We have no option but being a DIY band. There’s no money being pumped into us and we aren’t making anything from shows so we have to get things done in our own way. We call on a lot of favours and are incredibly lucky that our friends will help us… the huge amount of support we get makes up for the lack of cash. What About Records came about through us being unwilling to just release everything through Bright Orange Spectacle, we wanted something to channel any income that does come about through and a way to control how we invest it back into the project. It’s co-owned with Harriet Brown and Josh Fletcher who are both incredible creatives and the three of us all want to get to a position where we can help other bands, myself as a producer and the other two as visual artists. It just opens those doors. Makes us feel part of something. Everyone tells you that the scene is dead so why try and revive it? Create your own scene…. Jesus… what even is a scene. I don’t know? JUST be a part of something, have one foot firmly in the real, tangible world.
Artists and bands have a lot of pressure to make a big political statement from day one, do you feel this pressure? Or do you feel more at ease to just get on with it your own way, when it comes to creating your music?
So much pressure. But a lot of that pressure comes from ourselves… the idea that we have a very small platform and in this day and age we should be using it for more than just boys, girls and boozing. I’m so unhappy with the world man. I think we all are? But when you put that in lyrics and you don’t have evidence to back anything up you can sound like such an idiot. I love Father John Misty… he’s someone who manages to be so politically aware, whilst also funny and mainly just intelligent at every moment. I was beating myself up for not being that. Really badly… I was insecure and I was so angry that I wasn’t saying anything meaningful. But it’s because I was trying to tell other people’s truths… or statements that they want to hear. I wrote this song and it was just about me and how I felt… now that everyone else has heard it, it turns out many people feel like this. Lesson learnt. Listen to yourself. Be honest. We aren’t that different.
Talking of political statements, where do you stand as a band when it comes to the current state of it all right now?
We stand to see a change. People are more than welcome to their own political opinion, otherwise what’s the point? But we very firmly have ours and it’s very firmly as 4 labour voters. I don’t want to get too into it as I’m no expert, I just don’t see why you wouldn’t at least vote for the person who wants you to have nice things over someone clearly in it for themselves? Fuck politics though realistically… like, yeah, we all HAVE to engage, I agree with that. BUT I can’t wait for this election to be over. So many people pretending they are suddenly experts. I don’t really trust any of them to be honest. Let’s just see what happens.
With 2019 coming to an end, what have been your best highlights of the year? And what does 2020 hold in store for you?
Our first year as a band is over. It’s been a good one. We learnt a lot about who we are as people through doing this band and that’s been amazing. I’m thankful for the friends we’ve made and the journey we’ve been allowed to take so far. The small amount of fans who message me online and the small amount of people fighting our corner in the music industry mean so much to all of us and to have any real support is almost overwhelming… But our highlight has to be having a record printed by Flying Vinyl… that’s a dream come through and it happened on our first single? Mental. Big love to everyone who’s made 2019 possible and let’s smash it with more music and more shows in 2020. Let’s just have fun and create art. Fuck the statistics and figures, I just want to make people happy. I want to make MYSELF happy.