Track by Track: Artificial Pleasure - Wound Up Tight EP

Times like these, they need a bloody good shake-up and a bloody good time . Artificial Pleasure are the antidote - coming through with the sort of infectious and glam-soaked pop that has us on our feet, throwing our arms all over the shop.

(This is actually happening now btw)

After the opening crescendo of debut EP ‘Like Never Before’ - they’re back with another bonafide statement of intent with their ‘Wound Up Tight’ EP - out today. Three tracks, sizzling with the big leagues, it’s an absolute scorcher.

To find out more, we got the chaps to run through each track on the EP - giving an inside scoop to their world ahead of a barn-storming headline show next Tuesday (December 12th) at The Lexington in London. Have a listen, have a read - it’s kinda what we’re all about.

Wound Up Tight

This one is about the feeling of constantly being on edge. I think that worrying is now just our normal state of mind. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes it feels like my head is about to fucking explode. If you watch the video for this song it probably sums it up better, I look like I've got a part as an old boxer who's let himself go. We recorded the track in my Uncle's basement. The room was so small that I had to wait outside the back door listening in whilst Lee was doing takes.

Better Than Nothing

At the time of writing that track I was listening to Todd Rundgren's album A Wizard, A True Star and I loved the way that loads of the songs went into each other. When you listen to Never Never Land and that final note resolves and takes you into Tic Tic Tic It Wears Off it makes that second song so much more exciting. So I'd already written the second half of the song and challenged myself to write an introductory piece of music so that the second part of the song would be given that lift. Lyrically it's about how some relationships are ill suited but they'd rather be in something than have nothing.

Stay With Me Tonight

This one was inspired by the death of a friend a few years ago. The song is from the perspective of the partner that was left behind, how they had planned their life together and the struggle to move on. This track started as just me and an acoustic guitar but felt too emotionally raw so it gradually evolved into the most electronic track we have. I'm rarely one to express honest emotions, particularly in our music, hence why I used the vocoder for my vocals. The vocoder allowed me to distance myself from the emotion.