Source: Promo Image
UK rockers Brightlight City are set to release their new EP Our Future’s Not Dead on 7th April 2017 through Undead Collective Records. The 4-track release follows’s 2015’s Adventures EP and 2016’s singles ‘You’ve Got Gravity’ and ‘Thieves’, so the band have been busy bee’s. The new EP was worked on alongside Matt Hyde (Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine, Slipknot).
The band have just finished up a bunch of UK shows premiering some of their new material with the EP promising to be a short sharp burst of energy with four songs with added depth alongside their tried and tested trademark formula.
We had an in-depth chat with vocalist Jamie Giarraputo to find out exactky what the lyric writing process is like for him as a musician. Check out what happened right here.
Mosh: How does the lyric writing process begin for you – Does the music come first, or the lyrics? Do you collect fragments and ideas when inspiration strikes?
Jamie: Great question, and there’s no quick answer, I suppose it’s entirely dependant on how inspired I am at that point in time. I tend to have notebooks with random phrases, words or sentences jotted in them. Things that I like the sound of, or that I think has a really important meaning or message, I will then expand on those.
Or other times I write full pages of lyrics, I suppose like a weird stream of consciousness. If something has forced me to pick up a pen and write it down, then I won’t stop until I have a few verses within the same theme, or just reams of lyrics within the same theme, more often than not, my lyrics are based around social commentary, or are politically driven in a sense.
I try not to limit the process, though. Other times I hear some of the parts that one of the lads has written (could be very basic instrumentation or full band) and I start to get a feel for the song and the theme/topic that would fit within that, especially if we’re all in the same room jamming it. Like the track ‘It Depends On You’ from the new EP. The lyrics were written entirely in the room whilst we structured it, keeping it quite simplistic, but ultimately using the fresh decision of ‘Brexit’ (at the time) to fuel the lyrics and the overall delivery. That track stemmed from the frustration I had and still have with the mouthpieces that were allowed to trick a nation. The abhorrent fascism that we saw during those campaigns saddened us all, I couldn’t not put that in a song.
Mosh: Is this process always straightforward for you? Have you ever struggled with ‘writer’s block’ or similar?
J: I have been in a number of bands over the years, myself and Justin were in a couple of more politically minded bands so that has always followed a theme in my writing. Sometimes, however, we had previous band members who didn’t agree with what I was trying to say, or who didn’t want to upset anyone by having opinions, so I found myself writing to please others or ‘keep the peace’ within the band set up. So not so much writers block, but I lost my way slightly with why I was doing this in the first place. There’s so much going on in the world, so there are no excuses really not to be able to write something!
Mosh: Do you go back to lyrics you have previously written and edit or refine them, or is it a case of ‘one and done’? Do you collaborate or share lyrics with other band members and take their feedback on board?
J: I have loads of notebooks, going back maybe 15 years of lyrics I’ve written, and when I look over them, the sentiments and the social/political landscape at the time, isn’t dissimilar to now, so I am finding that I can happily breathe life back into old lyrics and chorus/melody ideas without losing the impact. It’s a rare occasion where I use the ‘one and done’ approach, as I think that can be lazy and detrimental to the song; words can always be refined and improved on.
To get the best out of what I’m trying to say, I will always look back over lyrics and am super critical over them. I’m never really satisfied, but I will settle for a combination of words that make me feel something, that I can put all of my efforts into when singing them live, and hopefully that translates across to the listener.
We’ve never really collaborated as a band on lyrics, I find that an odd concept, but that’s probably because we’ve never actually tried it. If I’m going to put all of my energy and passion into a live performance, I want every word that I sing to mean something to me, I want to be able to be on stage and remember the moment when I penned a particular line, it gets me hyped up even more.
Mosh: Are there any bands or artists that have impressed or inspired you lyrically? Do you try and emulate any other lyricists in particular?
J: I don’t try and emulate anyone, but I do have huge love and respect for the lyrics by musicians such as; Eddie Vedder, Billy Bragg, At The Drive In, Tool, Refused (the list goes on). These are bands and artists I can go back to again and again, just to escape into a story, a feeling, and an emotion.
For me, the first thing I always listen to are the lyrics. It’s probably because I don’t play any instrument particularly well, so I’ve trained myself to find a connection to what the singer is trying to say, and how that makes me feel. Of course, the vocal melody is another thing I listen out for, I feel that the lyrics should enhance and bolster the melody, they should both be the vehicle for what I’m trying to say. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I find it really hard to like a song, if the lyrics sound like a quick afterthought. The instrumentation can be amazing, but if the lyrics aren’t saying anything thought provoking, what’s the point of listening to it? Style over substance I suppose the phrase is!
Mosh: Do you draw lyrical inspiration from outside of music, such as authors, films or artists?
J: Most definitely; I try and ensure that all of my lyrics will either tell a story or provoke a reaction / make people think outside the box. I really focused on that process when writing the lyrics for the EP. Everything I write draws inspiration from all areas and different people; George Orwell, HG Wells, Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Bill Hicks, the list goes on. All of these people have played huge inspiration into how I write lyrics, and the topics I choose to tackle.
Mosh: Is there a specific space (mental or physical) where you get ‘in the zone’, or can you write anywhere at any time?
J: Not really, I’d like to pretend that I have my very own Michael Jackson ‘Thinking Tree’ where he supposedly went to write all of his songs, I don’t, mainly because it’s a bit creepy! I write anywhere, anytime. For example, I remember we were discussing how much of a deplorable wretch Nigel Farage is, it just sparked something, so I started jotting down a few things/phrases. Whether it gets used or not I’m not sure, but at least it’s written down! I sometimes have a pad by my bed too as I always seem to do my best thinking when I’m actually trying to sleep!
Mosh: Do you choose to publish your lyrics or keep them personal? Is it important that fans be able to access lyrical content?
J: I don’t really think lyrics can ever be kept personal, especially if they are on a recording. If a lyricist wants to keep their lyrics personal, write them in a lockable diary!
We’ve actually included the lyrics on the inlay of the new EP, as we all felt it important that everyone can access what we are saying. I miss those days; buying a CD and reading the inlay from cover to cover, reading over the lyrics, being inspired, we want people who listen to us to experience that, or at least sing along at the shows!
Mosh: Can you remember when you began writing lyrics? Was it a conscious choice? Something you drifted into out of necessity?
J: I actually found a book at parents house from when I was maybe around 9 / 10 which had some kind of lyrics/song written in it. Needless to say it was something about beautiful girls and kiss chase, but that’s probably the age I started writing lyrics.
I started to really take lyric writing seriously around age 14 after listening to Nirvana. I fell in love with the way Kurt Cobain just vomited out random words, but with so much meaning, that they all seemed to tell a story, I’m sure they probably didn’t, but at that point in time, they meant everything to me. A year later, Justin (guitarist in Brightlight City and my older brother) forced me to join his band to try and keep me on the straight and narrow, and I haven’t stopped writing lyrics since.
Mosh: What is your favourite lyric and why?
J: To be honest, I don’t really have a favourite lyric, because there are so many lyrics and lyricists I love. Billy Bragg has always been a massive inspiration; his storytelling and word play is amazing and never fails to make me feel slightly emotional when I hear it! I also loved the band Million Dead and how their singer Frank Turner (yes him) tapped into political themes in such a cool way, he was such an awesome front man, he really made you feel and believe every word. The track ‘Charlie and The Propaganda Myth Machine’ from their album A Song To Ruin, is fantastic, give it a spin! COME BACK MILLION DEAD!
Mosh: What is your favourite lyric that YOU have written?
J: Ooooh, tricky question, Ha! There are a few parts on the new EP where I think “Not a bad line that one Jamie”! In the track ‘It Depends On You’, there is a line that says;
“We’ll give ourselves, a fighting chance, a battle cry, a call to arms, this broken pen, will spill it’s guts, even though, it’s not enough” … I wrote that with a leaky biro, after trying over and over again to get the words simple enough to have impact, but still carry meaning. I think it works!
Another line I like is in the track ‘Leave a Light On’; “We’ve had enough, of living on a shoestring, well string us up, give us something to believe in, not just false hope, you don’t have to lift a finger, we’ve got our own rope” That line was written about how the cost of living is strangling any kind of progress for young people. There is a real struggle going on, and poverty is rife. How can we truly progress, if we are constantly oppressed and limited in resources and opportunities?
Mosh: Is there anything you actively try and avoid when writing lyrics? Any topics or themes you think are overdone?
J: I’d say nothing is off limits within reason, but that said I don’t really want to write about relationships or personal matters, for me that is totally counter-productive, and I find it boring to listen to, so I doubt I could perform it live convincingly without feeling like a fraud.
Mosh: Is it important to you that lyrics always tell a story or have meaning?
J: Always, 100%. They have to mean something, and they have to make people think. Maybe I am totally naïve to the fact that the majority of people don’t actually listen to lyrics (which, by the way, I find absolutely crazy) but hopefully those that do, understand what I’m saying and understand the themes being tackled.
‘Past / Future’ was a track that I really wanted to write in the form of a ‘story’, but use current events as inspiration. In this case I found the refugee crisis extremely sad and something I wanted to talk about. We just seem so hell bent on destroying other people’s homes and countries for little reason other than monetary gain and greed…you’d think we would’ve learnt from the Iraq debacle.
I work with a lot of refugees, helping them understand this new life of theirs, and I hear a lot of harrowing stories from them about their struggle and how they got to be where they are now. I suppose that really hit me hard; some of the things they had to go through were unthinkable, and harrowing, all this risk for a better future. I think that inspired the lyrics, it takes you on that journey from a war-torn country leaving no reason to stay there “I guess we’ll take what is ours, leaving the ashes for you”, and moves on to the treacherous journey across land and sea (where immense loss was experienced), then concludes on a positive hopeful chant “our future’s not dead”.
The end chant is universal, it can be applied to so many situations today, it’s a call to arms to say that we will not be oppressed or ignored, we will stand up and be counted, and together we can begin to make a positive change… OR that song is actually about a relationship breakdown and the bar running out of jaeger bombs (it’s not.)
Mosh: Does your knowledge of your vocal delivery have any impact on how you write lyrics? Do you write to fit a vocal style, or fit the delivery to the lyrics?
J: I don’t really write to fit a vocal style, I write to what feels right. That’s why the new EP spans across various styles of vocal delivery. Some songs required short simple lines, with bigger impact; other songs needed more detail as there was a lot more room to say more.
