Behind The Scenes: Cove On A Conscious Motion

Following up their debut We Were Once Lost sees Kent heavy crew focussing on collaboration for A Conscious Motion. With the record scheduled for release on March 23, the band is here to give a greater insight into what can be expected from the sophomore…

Coincide:Collide
This was the last track to be written for the EP. The song went through multiple variations before we “Frankensteined” it into what it is now, experimenting with a few different structures before we settled on the final version of the song. After talking through lyrical ideas we knew we wanted to do something different to what we had done before, in terms lyrical inspiration and also the delivery and style of the vocals. The themes tackled in all of our music are deeply personal and this one is no exception, it deals with losing loved ones, not always literally, but sometimes through distance or other illnesses other than physical. The song has a very eerie tone to it, something we’d never done before, and was a great chance to explore Ben’s clean singing, which we had spoken about prior to recording this song. It has all the elements that we had wanted to push further, so we felt like it was a great song for a first single, we kind of threw everyone into the deep end with it.

Solis
Solis is definitely a song that is very special to us. It was the first song that featured Ben on vocals and was a turning point for the band. We had written Solis and All I Believe around the same time with a group of other songs, but these two were the strongest and made the cut. We knew we wanted to take what we had done on our last EP and amplify it, make it sound bigger and write more chorus-based songs as opposed to 4 minutes of riffs and screaming. We’d spoken before about trying to include more melody in our music, and this song really bridges the gap between the roots of what the band was and what we are trying to achieve now.

All I Believe
All I Believe is a song about self-reflection, being able to look at the good and the dark parts of yourself, recognise them and accept them. The song was written at the same time as Solis and is probably the softest song we have in our catalogue so far, but still packs a punch. We had demoed the song before, but slightly changed it instrumentally when it came to recording the real thing, the only thing that didn’t change was the lyrics. The first time we heard the lyrics for this track from Ben we were all stoked about them, in particular, the first verse with the intimate clean singing. This song was also written in the mindset of we wanted to write more dynamic songs, the quiet, melodic parts being really gentle, and the heavy parts blowing your head off.

Host
We’ve always been a fan of interludes/intros into tracks on records. We wanted to write something that breaks up the EP and can also be used in the set. On A Conscious Motion it’s the first time we’ve used more than one tuning, so having Host to be able to be played live whilst we change tunings makes our live show a lot more seamless.

Reflect:Resolve
This is our most collaborative effort to date. The song has parts written by everyone in the band and draws lyrical influence from every member. The main riff had been written for a while but once we had taken it to the rehearsal room, guitarist Ben Brazier came up with the end section. We’re all fans of different styles of music, in particular post-rock, which definitely has a strong influence on the end of this track. The song was inspired by the imagery of ashes drifting through the air from a fire, that’s where the lyrics “drag me through burning ashes” originated from, and deals with the themes of what happens to us after death, in particular, the choices we make in what we want to happen with our bodies once we have died.”

Cove are supporting Feed The Rhino over the next few days, catch them at one of the dates here:
20th Feb Bristol, The Exchange
21st Feb Exeter, The Cavern
22nd Feb, Southampton, The Joiners
23rd Feb, London, The Underworld
24th Feb, Norwich, Owl Sanctuary
27th Feb, Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
28th Feb Newcastle, Think Tank
1st March, Glasgow, G2
2nd March, Manchester, Rebellion
3rd March, Birmingham, The Flapper

About Natalie Humphries 1926 Articles
Soundscape's editor. Can usually be found at a gig, and not always in the UK. Contact: nathumphries@soundscapemagazine.com or @acidnat on twitter.