Your spring issue playlist is here…

Now that you’ve all had a few weeks to dive into the latest issue, we thought it was the perfect time to bring you a playlist featuring some of the songs discussed within, giving you the chance to hear the finished results of the creative journeys explored by the likes of Meghan Trainor, Amy Grant, Matt Hansen, and John Newman.

Wherever they find inspiration, and however they channel it through their own creative lens, the outcome is always something distinct: a song with its own story, character, and emotional pull. From first spark to final production, these tracks offer a glimpse into the artistry behind the music…

CLOSE UP

“There’s a few of these demos that’s a one-take, no click, where I play the piano, Max plays the base, Olivia [Dean] sings, and that ended up being the song. Close-Up, that was pretty much a one-take demo. Poor Zach [Nahome] then cleaned it all up, but there was something so special in the demo that we had to stretch it, to make it work. But isn’t that also the fundamentals of music? It’s a feeling, it’s an emotion. It’s not something that’s calculated, manipulated, or feels controlled. It’s more something spiritual you dive into…” — Bastian Langebæk

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

“I went to this thing called bioenergentics, which I don’t even know if anybody’s a practitioner anymore. One of the things we did was punch pillows and at the same time talked about, or perhaps even a louder than talking, and expressed, the things that were frustrating in our lives or were making us angry. I did that one day in Toronto, I finished the session, and I walked out on the porch of this house, and went, ‘Hit me with your best shot.’ I had this piece of music that had now gone from acoustic to electric that was called Lead Me To Your Love Light. I sang those words over that music and guess what happened, I had the beginnings of Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and the chorus is a refrain.” — Eddie Schwartz

ANGELS

“That’s my family song. When I was growing up my dad would play music, it sounded like that. It was like, ‘Let’s dance together.’ It’s a beautiful love song that could be to a specific person or anyone… I love that song. I love that it has a big key change at the end. My mum is always like, ‘We gotta have a key change.’ I’m not afraid of cheesiness nowadays, because I think it sounds timeless, and that’s fine. A lot of people say my songs sound like Christmas. I think it’s because there’s a lot of horns and it doesn’t sound like anything else on the radio. I think they’re like, ‘This sounds too happy and joyful.’” — Meghan Trainor

PLAYGROUND

“Remaining committed to preserving the melody precisely as it arrived, I endeavoured to find a picking pattern to support it – its odd bars and uneven measures included. Again, had I ironed it out, I would have forfeited what I love most about the song. These unexpected beats and asymmetrical shapes assist in putting the listener on edge… in a good way, I think. I tuned the guitar to DGDGBD—an open tuning to make more room for the strange melody. It was important to build urgency into the music, and I did that through pace and a rather aggressive, muted picking technique.” — Jesca Hoop

THE SAINT

“I’ve got two friends, and they’re sisters. One is a nun, and one struggles with addiction. I got to know their mother through the music business. On a walk one day, I asked them, ‘Have you ever told each other your story?’ And they said, ‘No, not really.’ And I said, ‘Well, what led to one of you becoming a nun?’ She did it right out of high school when her younger sister was probably in middle school, and their parents were in the middle of a divorce. So, on our walk, we talked a little bit and I said, ‘Will you tell each other your story and would you let me be your witness?’” — Amy Grant

SLOW

“Slow was definitely about a crush or an infatuation I had at the time. I’m in my early 20s and prone to infatuation, and it was a particular time in my life – I found fantasy relationships safer than real ones. I wasn’t really in a position to have any kind of healthy relationship. In fact, for those 10 years that I was focused on my album creation and my writing and my creativity, I didn’t really have any relationships. So, most of the relationships I had were in my head.” — Rumer

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER

“Something To Remember explores a relationship that once meant everything to me but eventually slipped away. I’m looking back on the memories we shared and realising how someone who used to be such a big part of my life can slowly turn into just a memory. Even though time moves on, the feelings and moments we had still stay with me. The song captures the mix of sadness and acceptance that comes with losing someone you cared about deeply. I’m expressing the struggles of letting go while hoping that, even if we’re no longer together, what we had will still remain a part of us both.” — Matt Hansen

COOL FOR CATS

“Cool For Cats has the most famous story, I suppose. Glenn had already written the tune and we used a joke lyric on the backing track, but it didn’t sound that great. It was unrecognisable and a completely different melody. So, he persuaded me to rewrite the lyric. I went back to my house – a flat in London, my first flat that was mine, away from my parents – put the cassette on, watched Benny Hill on television and then the lyric just felt out on the table. So I blame him! I wasn’t trying to get across anything other than to try to fill the gap in the music, by putting some words to it.” — Chris Difford (Squeeze)

LOVE ME AGAIN

“The production’s lean, but it’s also very discombobulated…. We’ve got every element in it; the Motown strings, Frankie Valli’s Beggin’ guitar… It was like, if I’m gonna have a hit, I need to have this sound – the 90s M1 mixed with attack piano to make it sound more rave piano, had to be there, the high strings that’s in the chorus had to be there from dance music… And the chord is based around a dance chord. So they had to be there for me, because it was 20 or however many years of me building up to this.” — John Newman