Autumn and early winter have seen Candi’s Dog touring around the UK promoting our new EP, A Light Has Gone Out (listen here). It looks great in the diary, all these new places to visit, but when asked by a friend who was familiar with the town what I thought of Frome, Somerset, all I could honestly say was “It had a nice venue and a nice chip shop.” Such is the nature of the business; you turn up, play and leave. Still it’s the people that make any town and we always hang around to chat (and sell stuff) afterwards until the venue throws us out.
It’s always great to hear which songs people like, confirm their suspicions on the shared parentage of the drummer and guitarist and tell them that we are Geordies, not Irishmen. What many people do appreciate is our happy demeanour, onstage humour, up-beat attitude and the obvious joy we have in what we do. There is always the odd punter though, who listens a bit deeper; filters out the lyrics from the folky-poppy melodies; hangs them up to dry in their mind; studies them for a bit before informing us. ‘Your lyrics are a bit miserable’.
Not all are, to be fair, but A Light Has Gone Out probably contains more than its fair share. The jangly folk-rock title track, an apathetic, fatalistic reflection of a man who feels his life is basically over, sets the scene for the EP rather well. Acoustic ballad Don’t Think I Don’t Care, (which were it not for the number of notes it needed to cover could have been more concisely called ‘I care’), deals with the despair at being unable to show our feelings. Even the jolly, bouncy Sailing For Hobart traverses the stormy sea of agony that is ‘loving someone who will never love you back’.
If you are looking for a positive message, perhaps this can be best found in Let’s Get Lost Again a warm reflection on the joy that is sometimes found in times of adversity, though even this is tempered by the knowledge that it is now over, done and in the past. Rounding off the EP is To The Top Of The Tower, inspired by a surreal show we played at the top of the BT Tower in London, a sardonic commentary on the highs and lows of being in a band.
If you are one of those people who wants to know what our songs are about, you may now regret asking, but give A Light Has Gone Out a listen, you’ll see our melodies and arrangements are anything but negative. And if we’re chatting happily to you after a gig, it’s not just because we’ve had thirty minutes of getting all of the above off our chests, it’s that we genuinely love and enjoy what we do and are delighted when you do too. We look forward to carrying on into 2017 and beyond, with new dates soon, we hope to see you there.
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