Songs for Walter, the moniker of Manchester-based Laurie Hulme, released his new album An Endless Summer Daze last month on Tallbird Records. As with his eponymous debut album, his family’s grand tradition of storytelling continues, from the most outspoken to unassuming observer alike.
Its lyrics both challenge and entertain, telling tales as tall as they are true. “I’ve never wanted to write about love, it feels so unimaginative,” explains Songs For Walter, of his development as musician and writer. “I like writing about peculiarities in people, personal stories, the bizarre world we’re born into and strange things we do.”
Listen to the album in full below and read Songs for Walter‘s personal background on each song, from the stories to the music.
Track by Track
Earwigging – Lyrically this song contrasts the rising alienation in the western world with the fact we are all being watched, observed and monitored. It’s inspired by an article I read about Edward Snowden’s leaking of classified information on the NSA’s global surveillance. Musically I had the verse melody and chords lying around for years I just needed a chorus to fit it all together, eventually, I found one! This was the first song I sent to Phil to produce, the cello-like instrument in the middle is a modified bubul tarang that Phil plays with a bow!
Squaring Circles – Is an ode to those trying to please unscrupulous bosses and working unpaid overtime in the age of the austerity, zero hours contracts and the gig-economy. Musically I was just trying to write something like the Lemonheads or Teenage Fanclub – I love that acoustic/electric big open chords sound!
Traitors – Is a song about the mechanics of the mind’ I was ‘comparing the human psyche to an intricate machine; celebrating its beauty and creativity but also exploring its chaotic, unpredictable nature. The song focuses on the shadows that lie in all our minds. I wrote the music for this after buying this cool capo that only frets 3 strings meaning you can have the same partial chord no matter where you put your fingers! Phil made lots of the ambient sounds on this album using a monotron, a cheap, super portable Korg synth. He’d stick through two or three delay pedals I think almost sounds like a slide guitar at times.
The Battle Of Bexley Square –came about through a collaboration I did with lots of other Manchester musicians (including Liz Green and Sara Lowes) at Sounds From The Other City Festival 2015. It was a celebration of our former label The Red Deer Club, we all contributed a piece of music and performed it as one 40 minute opus in the historic square! is about said event in Salford, where local unemployed people, who had their unemployment support dramatically cut – making it incredibly hard to survive, marched on Salford town hall and were met with police horses and batons. The first line “selling chairs just to pay the rent” is apparently true, unemployed workers were told that extra chairs were a luxury.” Musically I was experimenting with open C tuning after attempting to learn Sun Flower River Blues by John Fahey. I really like the dissonance of the start and middle, something I plan to develop in my future writing.
An Endless Summer Daze – Is about hazey summer childhood days. I am fortunate to have a Grandmother who lives in the Lake District and since both my parents were teachers we would spend weeks up there in the summer holidays. There’s a beautiful river in the Borrowdale valley and any sunny day we would spend there, I guess it’s an ode to that place and that time. Phil and I spent ages trying to get it to work, eventually, Phil suggested cutting it in half which was a really good shout, although it meant the album title lyric “I can’t remember waking up from an endless summer daze” got missed out!
Alien – Lyrically it was inspired by an early Louis Theroux about people who look for Aliens on clear nights out in the Arizonan desert …they are all sat there for hours, desperate to see something, I was trying to capture that frustration they are all collectively experiencing starting at the cosmos! I wrote the riff on my good friend Dave Rowe’s (of PLANK! and the Kiran Leonard band) guitar whilst round at his house for a BBQ, I was grabbing a beer from the fridge and picked up a guitar in the kitchen! Andrew Cheetham’s drumming really transformed this song, it gave it a lot more movement. Of all the songs on the record, this is maybe the one I’m most happy with!
A New Beginning – sometimes you pick up a guitar, strum and sing and a line just comes out of nowhere. I just sang “I don’t know if what you want is ever coming true” over C E chords and built the song theme about that. Originally it was the same chords all the way through but Phil worked out a new chord progression for the second chorus and I loved it, it totally made the song.
I Don’t Know Who You Are – this documents a funny story that happened to me many moons ago when I was my super-skint early twenties! I borrowed my parent’s car when they were on holiday and got the key stuck in the boot lock! It wouldn’t come out no matter how hard I pulled it (allegedly they had never opened the boot with the key) and in retrospect I should have left it and gone back to my parents to get the spare but I didn’t dare leave it in the middle of Rusholme with the key sticking out of the boot. Anyway, it was getting late, my phone had died and I needed to ring an auto locksmith, I knocked on some doors and was greeted by a lovely Spanish man who let me use his phone…after ringing a few locksmiths I realised I hadn’t enough money in my bank account to pay for a 24 hr locksmith and would have to wait until 8am when I could get a cheaper one! Michel, the legend, let me stay at his all night, we had a great chat about lots of things and he kept playing ‘Losing My Religion,’ over and over again! There’s a bit of poetic licence at the end. It’s a funny story. You’ll be surprised to know the key never came out! The locksmith said he’d never seen anything like it! I bought Michel a crate of beer for his generosity! I was really happy with the trumpet on this tune, again something I will develop on future records.
Your Shoes – Of all the songs on the album this is the one Phil transformed the most! I just sent him the simple guitar part, the trumpet and the vocals and I couldn’t believe what he sent back. It almost has a chillwave vibe, with drums – totally different to what I imagined but I’m really happy with it. People have asked me what the song is about and I say nothing specifically but I feel you can apply it to lots of occurrences in our strange world. I spend a lot of time thinking about what an Alien would think of us humans, how we go about organising our lives, the wonders, rituals and hypocrisies we all carry out every day without even thinking about it.
Stranger – This is a banjo song about Brexit! I was gutted when the news broke that we were leaving the EU. I felt that people, through no fault of their own, had been misled by the right-wing press -essentially Murdoch et al. had convinced people into voting for something which is ultimately not going to benefit them. It also occurred to me how much of a bubble I live in…I barely know anyone who would vote Brexit and yet the majority of the population, albeit a small one voted for it. I was gobsmacked when Boris announced he was not going to run for PM after the result, the whole thing felt so cowardly.
Available on Digital | CD | Vinyl here https://songsforwalter.bandcamp.com/album/an-endless-summer-daze