Luring the listener into an intoxicating realm of lush rippling piano motifs, clamouring beehive atmospherics and unbridled synthesizer pulses, Drake uses the fine art of counterpoint and juxtaposition to explore the boundaries of the metaphysical.
‘It’s about how things can be very far away and very close simultaneously, and how there are constant forces trying to pull us in both directions’ says The Blood Choir’s Robin Maddicott. ‘We wanted the music to reflect this & that’s where the contrast comes from, with the softness of the strings set against the aggressive beats and synths.’
Given the time and circumstances of its origin, it is perhaps unsurprising that the concepts of time and distance would be reeling through the minds of The Blood Choir’s Robin Maddicott and Joe Mountain. As a geographical separation threatened to spell the end of the band forever, it seems the uncertainties and relativities posed by the dawning future would bleed into the very essence of the song they were conjuring.
‘Drake was the last song we wrote together before I moved to Denmark – at least in terms of the music & melody.’ says Maddicott, ‘we finished the lyrics off by sending ideas back & forth between countries.’
Following a series of electronic exchanges across oceans as the pair pieced the track together from their respective bases in Denmark and England, Drake finally came into fruition with the assistance of co-producer Jon Walker, whose singular talents for texture and spacing in production fleshed its constituent parts into the magnificent finished article.
Using elements of the mesmerizing hour-long film on display during The Blood Choir’s recent UK tour, the “Drake” video was directed by James Walker (twin brother of the aforementioned Jon). Walker’s work will be familiar to fans already as director of the band’s former singles – The Boat & Switching off the Perfume Garden, all of which will appear on The Blood Choir’s upcoming album ‘Houses of The Sun’.