It's all go! We won the Breakthrough Award at the 2013 Progressive Music Awards, we have a BBT Ale out and now we have released a single with its very own video.
I wrote Make Some Noise as a retro sounding nostalgic piece about being young and wanting to form a band. I fondly remember starting to play music with my school friends in drummer Sam's attic room throughout one summer. Sam's mum and dad worked during the daytime so we had the house to ourselves and we could make as much noise as possible. Much to the horror of the neighbours - Philip Avenue would never be as quiet again. Sam's parents had recently bought a greenhouse for their garden and with that our band name was born. We were GREENHOUSE.
I wrote Make Some Noise as a retro sounding nostalgic piece about being young and wanting to form a band. I fondly remember starting to play music with my school friends in drummer Sam's attic room throughout one summer. Sam's mum and dad worked during the daytime so we had the house to ourselves and we could make as much noise as possible. Much to the horror of the neighbours - Philip Avenue would never be as quiet again. Sam's parents had recently bought a greenhouse for their garden and with that our band name was born. We were GREENHOUSE.
This song is more of a rock song rather than a progressive rock song and it doffs its cap to bands/artists like The Beatles, David Bowie, Queen, The Faces and all those other bands that caught imaginations and inspired young would be musicians to want to get together and make a racket. It also has a Grange Hill style instrumental section which lead into a rock'n roll style section. [Many notable bands from that time had rock'n roll tunes in their live sets because they were inspired by it when they were starting out - Mott The Hoople and Uriah Heep to name two!]
We were certainly rough around the edges back then but what we lacked in ability, we more than made up for in enthusiasm and hopefully charm. Once we had a few covers under our belt, I tried my hand at writing songs, simply because the band needed them. It was all very exciting and inspiring and now, many years later, we look back on those days with fond memories.
We [BBT] had a drum tracking session at Aubitt one Christmas and Greg said there might be some downtime left over from the session and asked if I had any solo material that Nick could play on. I only write within BBT at the moment and so thinking about solo material seemed unusual. I had my demo of Make Some Noise and it was part of a project I'd been working on called Door 1. Because of the nature of the songs subject matter, it deliberately sounded like a retro rock song and I thought it would be fun for Nick to drum on.
So we did the tracking session and it came time to do Make Some Noise. As we worked on it, Rob Aubrey really got into it and Greg was getting a Jellyfish vibe from it. As a reasonably short and direct piece of rock music, it was thought that it would make a good single for BBT!
So no, it isn't your usual BBT sounding recording. It's us letting off steam (groan) and having some fun.
We are often asked about the possibility of our performing live but being studio based has allowed us to make huge and intimate dynamic soundscapes. Transferring these expansive songs onto a restrictive stage with the strings and brass etc will be a huge logistical undertaking. For me, Big Big Train albums have always been things of fantasy. Make Some Noise shares this same fantasy but only this time it is viewed from the other end of the telescope. In this track we have tried to rein in the multi tracking and present the band in much more scaled down version of itself. After the success of our promotional video for English Electric part 1, we decided to make a video to accompany the song which would show the band performing the track in a live like environment. It affords the fans the opportunity to have a glimpse of what we might be like in a live situation. The video was shot on location at the Eastleigh Railway works in Southampton on 02/01/13. It was well nippy!
The video also features archive photographs and vintage Super 8 footage of BBT members in their early bands. The footage was shot by Tony Withers, Sam's father. So the young lead vocalist that you see moving around was a teenage me.
With love
David
So we did the tracking session and it came time to do Make Some Noise. As we worked on it, Rob Aubrey really got into it and Greg was getting a Jellyfish vibe from it. As a reasonably short and direct piece of rock music, it was thought that it would make a good single for BBT!
So no, it isn't your usual BBT sounding recording. It's us letting off steam (groan) and having some fun.
We are often asked about the possibility of our performing live but being studio based has allowed us to make huge and intimate dynamic soundscapes. Transferring these expansive songs onto a restrictive stage with the strings and brass etc will be a huge logistical undertaking. For me, Big Big Train albums have always been things of fantasy. Make Some Noise shares this same fantasy but only this time it is viewed from the other end of the telescope. In this track we have tried to rein in the multi tracking and present the band in much more scaled down version of itself. After the success of our promotional video for English Electric part 1, we decided to make a video to accompany the song which would show the band performing the track in a live like environment. It affords the fans the opportunity to have a glimpse of what we might be like in a live situation. The video was shot on location at the Eastleigh Railway works in Southampton on 02/01/13. It was well nippy!
The video also features archive photographs and vintage Super 8 footage of BBT members in their early bands. The footage was shot by Tony Withers, Sam's father. So the young lead vocalist that you see moving around was a teenage me.
With love
David
