Talking with musicians it’s often interesting to find two opposing thoughts when considering how to follow up a well-received single.
On the one hand, there can be the feeling of heighted confidence that follows the praise others provide to your work (and therefore a desire to build on the momentum quickly); on the other there can be the slight paralysis which comes from the self-doubt of wondering if you can reach those heights again.
Often falling into the extremes of emotions, a well-received single can be just as damaging for future output as it can be useful.
There is however, as Plastic Glass prove, seemingly a third way: You can record as much as you can altogether in one great creative moment.
Hot on the heels of previous impressive single ‘Let me know’, the new release from Plastic Glass, ‘Going away’, finds the band reaching a real peak in performance. Compounded by a pounding baseline, pronounced vocals, and a well-constructed narrative about modern-day relationships, Going Away mixes the machine-gun guitars of the early Clash with the spite and wit of a sophomore Arctic Monkeys record to produce a single that is as punchy as it is match-fit.
“As it happens we recorded Going Away exactly the same time as Let me know back in December 2019” confirm the band when asked about the difficulty of following up Let Me Know, “and we actually started playing both of them live at the same time as well, around about Summer 2019, so they started to develop together”.
Focused on the interplay of human relationships, as well as the demand for personal re-invention (“the track focusses in on being around the same set of people for years and years but constantly being let down and the moving away, finding a new scene, a new group of friends”) the strong narrative of Going Away is also supported by its strong, precise, production; a sound the band are keen to recreate when playing at their future close to sell out shows at Sunderland’s Independent (“Yeah, we were buzzing that it sold so quickly, they’re such small intimate shows so we were hopeful of a sell-out but when it actually happened, on the same night, it was mental. We then added a second show and the tickets have been going fast for that too”).
A prospective tour already being lined up for next year (“we’ve got loads of shows pencilled in for 2021, it’s just a waiting game and as soon as we’re allowed there’ll certainly be a UK wide run of shows, hopefully including our April headliner in Sunderland working with national promoter This Feeling”) the band are already working on Going Away’s follow up with material written during the early stages of lockdown (“We spent our time together writing and developing a couple of new songs, so hopefully you’ll get to hear them at some point in the future.”).
If following a strong single is hard, God only knows how hard it must be to follow an even stronger follow up…
(1st draft below)
Talking with musicians it’s often interesting to find two opposing thoughts when considering how to follow up a well-received single. On the one hand, there can be the feeling of heighted skilfulness that follows the praise and recognition others provide to your work (and therefore a desire to build on the momentum as quickly as possible); and on the other there can be the slight paralysis which comes from the self-doubt of wondering if you can ever reach those heights again. Often falling into the extremes of emotions, a well-received single can be just as bad for future output as much as it can be good. Who’d be an artist eh?
There is however, as Plastic Glass prove, seemingly also a third way: You can record as much as you can altogether before releasing it to an audience.
Hot on the heels of previous impressive single ‘Let me know’, the new release from Plastic Glass, ‘Going away’, finds the band reaching a real peak in their performance. Compounded by a pounding baseline, pronounced vocals, and a well-constructed narrative about modern-day relationships, Going Away mixes the machine-gun guitars of the early Clash with the spite and wit of a sophomore Arctic Monkeys record to produce a single that is as equally punchy as it is match-fit. Coming in at under 3 minutes there’s no fat at all to chew on a single which, like a prize fighter, gets in, does the job, and gets out.
“As it happens we recorded Going Away exactly the same time as Let me know back in December 2019” confirm the band when asked about the difficulty they’ve faced when following up a well-received single; “we actually started playing both of them live at the same time as well, around about Summer 2019, so they started to develop together”.
Not hampered by the challenges of recording during lockdown (“we didn’t record it over lockdown, we managed to have these already ready”) Going Away also benefits from a strong, precise, production; a sound the band are keen to recreate when playing at one of their future two shows at Sunderland’s Independent. As it happens, the first of the shows sold out on the day of the tickets going on sale, and the second is already also close to capacity “Yeah, we were buzzing that it sold so quickly, they’re such small intimate shows so we were hopeful of a sell-out but when it actually happened, on the same night, it was mental. We then added a second show and the tickets have been going fast for that too”
A prospective tour already being lined up for next year (“we’ve got loads of shows pencilled in for 2021, it’s just a waiting game. As soon as we’re allowed there’ll certainly be a UK wide run of shows, hopefully including our April headliner in Sunderland working with national promoter This Feeling”) the band are already thinking about Going Away’s follow up with material written during the early stages of lockdown (“We spent our time together writing and developing a couple of new songs, so hopefully you’ll get to hear them at some point in the future.”)
Good luck with the new material; God only knows the challenge which must come with following up a strong follow up…
New single – Going Away will be released on Friday 6th November. Plastic Glass play Sunderland’s Independent on the 7th and 8th November.
7th at independent now a gig on the 8th