Six, it seems, is a lucky number.
SixToes have spent six years working on their second album, a process which has seem them swap the big city life for their new base in Norfolk.
However some things haven't changed. The band's lust for new ideas, for one, alongside a willingness to try something different, something outside the norm.
Sessions at their East Anglian base pushed SixToes to the brink, focussing on the enormous shifts in their personal and emotional lives. Ben Rogers explains: "It’s the processing, lamentation, reconciling and celebration of many years of disparate relationships and experiences, living in London. The boy on the record's cover with the white rabbit represents to me the edge of adolescence and the tipping point."
Out now, 'The Morning After' is a record which is at times challenging yet always enthralling. Rejoicing in the peace of the countryside, sessions for the album found SixToes revelling in an atmosphere of sheer creativity.
With Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan dropping past for a special guest appearance, 'The Morning After' is an album which continues to surprise.
Check it out now on Clash, then find a track-by-track written by SixToes.
'The Morning After (Title)'
Ben Rogers - If 'Trick of the Night' was innocent then 'The Morning After (Title)' is less so. It's the processing, lamentation, reconciling and celebration of many years of disparate relationships and experiences, living in london. The boy on the cover with the white rabbit (which I can't help but see through the looking glass) represents to me the edge of adolescence and the tipping point.
'Low Guns'
David Greenep - 'Low Guns' is a snapshot in time. A photo of the barriers we all put up to protect ourselves.
'The Morning After Melodrama'
Ben Rogers - A story of two people travelling together who get separated. Its written loosely in the style of the second generation populist romantic poet Longfellow, with melodramatic cliches like tides separating people. There is also some fairly surreal imagery that doesn't quite make sense, all to poke fun at how serious my feelings about falling out with someone felt.
'Hawthorns'
Ben Rogers - I went to a car crash wedding, which everyone feared was a bad idea. The song is about the experience of partying regardless with no one saying anything. It then compares knowing the bride as a child, partying and saying nothing, when it seemed from the outside that she might have been in a similarly abusive relationship with her father as she now is with her spouse.
'Zen Box'
David Greenep - totally allowing yourself to be taken by something and completely immersing yourself In it. Music, love and poetry were huge inspirations in this song.
'The Nobody Inn'
Ben Rogers - The only song I've written that came out fully formed in under half an hour. It's written about someone I used to know who drank in the Nobody Inn in Dalston. It references William Burrough's character the Mugwump from Naked Lunch which was both significant to him and apt to his character. It is set in the bar with references to priests. I found out subsequently that the original Nobody Inn was referred to in the Doomsday Book and in its time had served as a court house, a church and a bar. The name comes from an old proprietor who, when he was hungover and people were knocking on the pub door, would shout 'nobody in'.
'The Russian Song'
David Greenep - Testament that sticking me in a room with a mic is dangerous. I'm obsessed with huge amounts of vocals in songs and this was a lot of fun. This was very much influenced by post rock for me and using the coice as an instrument. Anne wrote the song on cello and I loved filling it out with vocals.
'Pedestal'
David Greenep - this track is simply about being built up in a persons mind, to the extent that it's impossible to be the person you are perceived to be. Hugely inspired by Bon Iver this was supposed to be a happy track for me. But ended up being fairly pensive.
'The Volume Song'
Ben Rogers - A friend turned to me when we were quite out of it and described his life since someone that was special to him wasn't around any more. He said it was like the volume was turned down and it chimed with how I was feeling.
'The Welcoming'
Tom Platt - Talking with a stranger and disarming their initial wariness of you...
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'The Morning After' is out now.
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