Today sees the release of ‘Pacific’, the latest EP offering from British singer-songwriter Roo Panes. It follows the 2019 release of his critically acclaimed third album ‘Quiet Man’, and features five brand new recordings.
To celebrate its release Folk Radio invited Roo Panes to talk us through the new EP, track by track, telling us the story behind the songs.
Roo Panes on Pacific
Listen To The One Who Loves You:
I was just reflecting on how often our lives become defined by the voices we choose to listen to along the way. So many times I’ve seen people I love in distress because they let other people make their choices for them. So I guess this song is kind of about peer pressure and the weight of all the voices in our world.
Pacific:
So Pacific is simply about the confusion of love. The most peaceful accepting place in the world and the most intense and reactionary. For me, Pacific was a good metaphor. The word actually means peace, but everyone knows the pacific is a wild place, so big you could find yourself lost on the slightest difficult breeze, just like love. Everything is amplified when it comes to love. It’s also a reflection like I said on the bad decisions we may have made that make this sea stormy instead of the complete peace it was meant to be. The verses of this song are all about the struggles, and the choruses are all about the reason we don’t give up and decide it’s all worth it despite.
Colour In Your Heart:
After touring last year, I just wanted to get back into the studio and have fun with the pressure off. This was a song I actually wrote for someone close to me to just cheer them up on a wet winter day! And throughout the writing and production of it, it was a simple, easy-going and carefree song. I just got on the phone to my old friend Sean Hatton who produced my first EP “Once” and a few other songs along the way, and we recorded it in his living room with his sister also joining in with vocals. It was just fun, had no plans for it really, but once it was done, it just put a smile on our faces, so we took it forward. I remember the bridge came together through a conversation I had in a supermarket – it was pouring outside, and I was telling the cashier I was off for a jog – they thought I was weird – but I just said “if it’s going to rain then we have to jump in puddles” – It kinda brought the song together for me!
The Sun Will Rise Over The Year:
This is a sentence that sometimes comes to mind when I’m feeling low, and so I thought I’d make it a song. I started writing it in bed one morning, and I feel like I finished writing it in bed at my b&b on the Isle of Wight the day I demo’d it. It’s about trying to look beyond the moment you’re in, and not losing hope because even if at that moment you feel helpless, over time you may be surprised by how things shape out. I’d tell myself not everything is always solved in a day – it’s one big long sunrise at times. It was fun to throw around some new production and instrumental ideas too; it made sense to rock out a bit on this one, all be it a mellow rock out!
There’s A Place:
This is a bit of a documentary song – and is literally a story from last year when I was returning from a trip to South Africa, and literally did miss my flight home. When I got back, I went and stayed in a cottage by the coast for a few days and wrote it as a kind of stream of consciousness. It was a song that starts with the words first – and when the melody came, I was just happy for it to be a no chorus song, just verses, and circular melody, cos at the end of the day that’s how I was feeling. At its heart, it’s about the circular feeling you get when things are beautiful and hard at the same time. It’s about the struggles of coming to terms, trying to make things work, hoping there can be a place where you can get to.
Pacific is out now: https://roopanes.lnk.to/PacificSo
Connect with Roo Panes via Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube