Unexpectedly liberating us from the gloom of Winter, Dorking export and Stagecoach moonlighter Matt Emery recently offered his own beautifully unique take on some modern rock classics with his solo cover EP – ‘Pulled Apart By Matt Emery‘, available for free download here.
Being the gentleman he is, Matt took the time to put together some details on the release for the upright readers of GIITTV;
Pulled Apart By Matt Emery is pretty much what it says on the tin, an EP of Pulled Apart By Horses tracks literally pulled apart, spun on their head and turn into dreamy, acoustic, piano and acapella versions by myself Matt Emery. Firstly I’m a big fan of the band, I’ve seen them a countless number of times, and had the pleasure of supporting them a number of times too with the band I play drums in called Stagecoach. They are literally one of, if not the best live band around. The passion and energy that goes into their live shows is just awesome, I’ve never come away disappointed because they always push themselves to the max whether I’ve seen them in front of 20 people or 2000 people, its inspiring! Not only this, but they really have the songs to back it all up with. That’s why I wanted to cover them, to show the songs in a completely different light, they’re so far from what I do, it was the perfect band to cover, and I think if you’re going to cover a song or band, make it your own.
It all first started last year when I recorded a cover of their single ‘High five, Swan dive, Nose Dive’ I put it up for free download and it just had an amazing reaction, Pulled Apart were kind enough to put out the link via there Twitter and Facebook and I literally had over 500 downloads within the first hour or so, with a lot of people getting in touch asking for more, and saying how much they were enjoying it, so over the last 4 or 5 months in my spare time I started working on some more of their songs, it just so happens that it ended up being all of their singles as they recently released ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’ which had to be on the EP as it is probably the fan favourite, it’s the first song I ever heard of theirs a couple of years ago via their Myspace.
The EP certainly took its time to record, Yeah Buddy and I Punched A Lion In The Throat are both 3rd versions/recordings, I’d record a version, then decide to add more in over the next few weeks, then decide to re-record a new version with all the things and more that I’d incorporated in the last few weeks. The final version of I Punched A Lion was a beast to mix in the end as there was so much going on instrument and vocal wise, it almost had a mind of its own, and that one turned into quite an epic in the end.
Again the EP has had an amazing reaction, I’ve been overwhelmed with the response its had, and the amount of people getting in touch, it’s actually picked up quite a bit of press now and all the reviews and articles it has received have been so positive, even Huw Stephens has spun my acapella version of Yeah Buddy on his Radio 1 show for the last 2 weeks running which is just awesome. But I do have to admit a week before launch I was really nervous and did think oh no, have I gone too far? I really hope I haven’t ruined a good thing and should have left it at the High five cover, but glad I did get it out there. A massive thanks to anyone who has downloaded it and a massive thanks to Pulled apart By Horses.
