Many bands lay claim to the adjective “cinematic.” But how many can claim a truly cinema-worthy moment as part of their inception? It was a dark and foggy night when Still Corners songwriter and bandleader Greg Hughes first laid eyes on vocalist Tessa Murray. “It sounds stupid but it’s completely true,” he recounts. “I was on a train that was going to London Bridge. But for some reason it went to this other stop. And I got out, and this other person got out. It was Tessa.”
Back In July Still Corners announced the release of their debut album ‘Creatures of an Hour‘ on Sub Pop, coming on October 10th. The first single to be taken from the album released on 7″ and available for free download ‘Cuckoo / Endless Summer’ now has a video.
Recorded at the band’s own studio in Greenwich, the devil is truly in the details of Creatures of an Hour. Fusing whispered intimacy to the emotional expansiveness of composer Ennio Morricone, Still Corners (filled out to a four-piece by Dufficy and Luke Jarvis) crafts deceptively simple songs that linger like half-remembered dreams. Lead single “Cuckoo” shines in its simplicity, a single drumbeat, ghostly guitar, and distant organ highlighting Murray’s haunting soprano as she asks, “I’d like to read your mind/can you read mine?” “It’s about confusion,” explains Hughes. “It’s about being confused. Am I going crazy? Does this person like me? What’s happening? That’s the vibe of the whole record really.”
Elsewhere, the tone isn’t so much one of emotional conflict as it is pure atmosphere. Like a world-class art director, Hughes fills the set of “Endless Summer” with walls of reverb and splashes of longing, echoing a very real conflict in his own life—the pursuit of the illusive London sun. “It’s about wishing and chasing after the fleeting sun of England and wishing for an endless summer—or at least that the summer would go on a bit longer,” he says with a laugh. “It only seems to last about a week here!”
For the time being, Hughes is happy to maintain Still Corners’ musical mystery as—like many artists—he’s discovered less is more. “I don’t like to talk too much on decoding the songs. It takes the mystery away,” he says, cagily. “I like when people listen and then come up with their own kind of thing.”
So grab some popcorn and stick around, for Still Corners this is just act one.
Get a FREE download of the recently released ‘Cuckoo’ 7″ HERE
