See below for the spine-tingling live video of ‘Journey’, a track taken from the new album ‘I Could Be Asleep If It Weren’t For You’ by Sheffield’s Before Breakfast. Before its release, Exposed’s Eve Cowlishaw had a chat with BB’s Gina about the inspiration behind the song and the band’s return to hometown gigs.
So, the debut album was released last month. How are you feeling about getting it out there?
Yeah, I think it’s been a long time coming. We’ve been sat on the album for two years and so it feels like a big relief for it to be out finally. It feels very old to me. It’s huge to finally shift it out and I suppose I’m ready to just move on from it now!
The album launch took place in front of a hometown crowd at Yellow Arch. After not being able to play live for so long, how was it?
We’ve been gigging for months now. Thankfully, we’ve managed to perform quite a lot despite the pandemic, so it wasn’t a baptism of fire getting back into it. The gig we sold out three weeks in advance, which is crazy because none of us expected that at all. Yeah, it was really nice so many people came down to support us. It was just really cool to see people I didn’t recognise. Yeah, your friends come out to support you, but then it was like, ‘Who are these people? Why are you here? Why do you know the songs?’ So weird.
Your music video for ‘Journey’ is out now. Could you tell us a bit about putting together that song and making the video?
I wrote that song about six to seven years ago. It was the first song I wrote for the project. I was living with Lucy at the time and was like, ‘Hey mate, do you wanna play cello?’ It’s just one of those songs that’s very relatable, having those ‘what the hell am I doing with my life?’ moments in a job, then quitting with nothing to do. And then it’s just trying to figure out what’s your thing – you know, those cliché crossroads that we all come to. We knew it was a song that people had been looking forward to the recording of because it doesn’t exist anywhere, and we wanted to do a live video for it because it’s got these lovely cello lines. We prefer playing live to recording; we’re a live act and the studio stuff is always going to sound different, and now I’m at peace with that. Having a live video for that felt like the right move because it is especially one of the more emotional, vulnerable songs.
It’s just one of those songs that’s very relatable, having those ‘what the hell am I doing with my life?’ moments
It’s also the last song on your album. Was there a specific reason for it being the closing track?
It felt like a big dramatic ending tune. You find that on albums these days, the big emosh number is at the end. It was going to have this orchestral outro and then we all backtracked on that.
Personal storytelling seems to be a running theme throughout your songs. Is that an important part of making music for you?
I get quite jealous of people who can just write about going to the woods or a sunset. For me, a song has to be super personal and I’ve been a bit of a control freak in the past with lyrics and songs. It started off as completely mine and it’s been hard to relinquish a lot of control. Lucy is now more present in the writing, and this album’s the first time she had more of a voice lyrically and melodically.
What’s next for Before Breakfast?
We’re going to the studio in a couple of weeks’ time, me and Lucy. Lots of shows have been booked throughout the year, music coming out later this year, all a bit vague at the minute!
“Lucy is now more present in the writing, and this album’s the first time she had more of a voice lyrically and melodically.” Photo: Emma Ledwith
‘I Could Be Asleep If It Weren’t For You’ is out now and available to purchase here
