Track By Track: RESPONS - 'Virtually Everything Means Nothing'
Emerging singer / rapper RESPONS has just released his debut EP ‘Virtually Everything Means Nothing’ - which captures a perfect introducing to this rising newcomer. He took a moment to talk us through the EP - track by track.
JACK DANIELS (INTRO):
I wrote Jack Daniels with my mates Greg and Dan in Greg’s living room, where a fair bit of the EP was written and recorded. I wanted the intro to be dark and just excessively real. Like, this is where I’m at right now and I just need to get it out into something. My Grandma actually said to me a few days before, “Nothing a Jack Daniels and a prayer can’t solve,” as a joke and I was like “shit that’s great” haha.
THERAPY:
Again, this song was done in Greg’s front room with the 2 of them. I’d been going through old Kanye albums on the train to his place, and Dan came in that morning with the track for Therapy pretty much there. It’s more pop and is just a shout out to music really. We sat on the sofa and just started talking about how much music helps in tough times and the lyrics kind of fell out pretty quick.
SCARS:
I had a tough Christmas/start to this year with a couple family connected issues, and scars was definitely me getting out what happened. I wanted it to be more empowering and upbeat though, like we all have tough shit happen to us and it defines us for sure in a positive way if we want it too. I did this with Ray and Ash (Culture X Tones), and I wanted something that had a Jon Bellion vibe with the synths but leaned more towards the dark hip hop influence.
HATE ME:
Another one from Gregs front room haha. He played me this crazy track with the old bluesy voice sample and I was gassed. Hate Me, honestly was off the back of a bad day. Just one of those ones where everything was going wrong and I was just mad. I also overthink as a person to a crazy extent and I hate myself for it a lot sometimes, so we sat and wrote about it.
BLOOD RED:
I’d had this idea for a while before writing it. I wanted to do something that was more vocal focused and a little abstract. It is a discussion I suppose, into how technology and social media is possibly zombifying my generation and the next. I wrote this with Gaz down in Dorset actually in his Mum’s living room. I love writing in living rooms clearly. I hope Blood Red just makes people think. It isn’t a preach, it’s just a chat really.
PRAY FOR CHANGE:
I’m from a little commuter town outside of London, and in the week running up to writing this song, there was unfortunately a series of suicides in my hometown. It definitely shook everyone in the town and just opened my eyes to how serious mental health is for everyone, but particularly lads my age. This was my first ever session with Gaeten Judd, and we got this down and were really happy. He’s the guy! I wanted again something uplifting about that really sad situation.
FREE (OUTRO):
I loved writing this. We had quite a few people in the studio just chilling. Free is the light at the end of the tunnel in this project. It’s bright and has a lot of gospel influence which means a lot to me. I wanted to finish of the EP with hope. The whole project is a journey of my thoughts, starting in a pretty dark place but ending with Free, in a place that is more encouraging and bright.