Track By Track: HANYA - '100 Metre Sprint'
Brighton shoegazers HANYA recently released their new EP ‘100 Metre Sprint’ , they talked us through the record track by track.
FORTUNES
This track is an ode to taking a mildly uncomfortable break from your daily life. For me, monumental moments in my life have taken place in the pauses, the rash decisions, and the somewhat reckless urge for change. These feel like defining times in my youth and although sometimes difficult, I think these moments lead to us becoming the best version of ourselves through testing situations. The instrumentation of this song started as an experiment in early 2000 songwriting - the laid-back beats, catchy chorus, and enough synths to make your eyes water.
LYDIA
Lydia feels like the most cathartic track on the EP. I wrote this track on my acoustic, and I remember the first verse came to me immediately – I love it when that happens – like the song is just waiting to be found. This song is about my first love, the heady concoction of teenage drama and the naivety of youth. It’s about never being able to escape that benchmark, and how your perspective changes over time. Ben’s country-esque guitar riffs on this make the track for me, he elevates the mood to new heights.
HOUSEPLANTS
This track started a jam between Ben and me. He doesn’t play drums usually, but one day we wanted to play some no-pressure music, and we both agreed his bouncy, unconventional drumbeat with my synth motif made for some very cool Cate Le Bon style songwriting. We kept this track nice and lo-fi in production, the melody is light and catchy, and the lyrics basically tell the story of how happy I am right now, with my dog and partner, even if he killsmy houseplants every time I leave for an extended period...
LOGAN’S RUN
Logan’s Run is a perfect example of how jamming is the most satisfying form of songwriting. When we incorporated keys into the live band, I couldn’t help but mess around in between practicing tracks, and the keys line to Logan’s Run sounded like a ridiculous dance track. The guys couldn’t resist joining in, and voila, we discovered Logan’s Run within the chaos. This is my favourite track to play live, and our homage to the 70’s sci fi classic of the same name.
SWIM IN MY SLEEP
‘Swim In My Sleep’ is one of those songs that just drops out of the ether. The track built itself from a guitar line I loved playing in between songs. Pretty soon I realised it would be much more satisfying on keys, and so this chord progression began, and the track felt completely natural in the process. From just a few chords and a melody idea, the home demo recording just flowed easily, even helping to shape the arrangement with a drum part 2-beats out purely by accident.
TEXAS
Texas is the first song we wrote when lockdown really kicked off. It’s special to me as it’s mostly all recorded in our home, with the drums recorded in our loft, and vocals at my childhood friends George’s house. This track was written as a dreamy getaway song, about when you first meet someone special and have the urge to ask them everything and tell them everything, run away into the moonlight, that sorta sweet, scary, pre-honeymoon period loveliness.
MONOCHROME
Building a track like Monochrome shows what song structure can really add. For me, it’s about the pauses in this track, and the breathiness of the vocals sliding up to a big, celebratory chorus. A lot of people say this is their favourite track of ours, the cinematic, summer dreaminess of it all. It’s written about taking your own advice to get out of a funk. I’m very much an agony aunt sometimes, so it’s really a reminder to myself to practice what I preach.