Following on from their triumphant January run of Kaiser Chiefs arena shows, Razorlight release ‘Burn, Camden, Burn’, a never before heard track from 2009, out via Atlantic Culture Records.
The release of ‘Burn, Camden, Burn’ coincide with the song’s use in the brand new North London Apple TV+ show, “Trying”. The comedy-drama follows the lives of a young couple trying to adopt while living in modern-day Camden.
With much of the music for the show supplied by Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Razorlight un-earthed the track at the request of the show’s director Jim O’Hanlon who felt it was a perfect fit.
‘Burn, Camden, Burn’ was written in 2009 during a turbulent period post the third album, ‘Slipway Fires’.
Recording sessions took place in London and were working towards a fourth album which was eventually abandoned. The original production was by Edwyn Collins and Dan Grech-Marguerat came in for overdubs and mixing. The track was recorded with Gus Robertson (guitar) Liam Hutton (drums), Freddy Stitz (bass), David ‘Skully’ Sullivan Kaplan (percussion) and Johnny Borrell (guitar/vocals).
“It was amazing to work with Edwyn,” recalls Johnny. “I’m really pleased that the track is finally coming out. It was an interesting period. For the lyrics, I was trying to write a history of my life through three verses, something like the view from the Dublin Castle. 19, 29 years old thinking about what had changed”.
Coincidently, The Dublin Castle also features as a major location in the second episode of the new ‘Trying’ series.
Borrell continues to say “I learnt everything I know in the toilets of the Dublin Castle. Back then, if a stylist came up to you and told you that they liked your look, you told them to fuck off. Your image was yours. Nobody could even take a photo of it. Contrast with today’s culture of sharing pictures of oneself, quite a change”.
The artwork for ‘Burn, Camden, Burn’ features a photo of a youthful Johnny Borrell, styled by himself.