Let Em' Talk: Cross Wires guide us through their new album 'Yesterday in Mourning'

The difficult second album. Never has a music cliche ever been so true. If your first album is succesful then how do you follow it: more of the same or a reaction against? If your first album does modestly but shows promise, then how do you improve it and take it to the next level? Fucked if I know.

 Of course, there are no correct answers to this puzzling conundrum that has troubled Pop and Rock stars since the dawn of the album. Just experimentation, gut instinct and whole lot of luck. 

For Essex based band Cross Wires - who have just released their second record Yesterday in Mourning - it's a problem they have spent a couple of years wrestling with. We talked to the band's frontman Jon Chapman about Yesterday in Mourning and he gave us some insights into the album track-by-track.

 

      ALL 📷 BY ILIAS FRAGKOTSIS

1) Drowning 

We always knew this would be a single - we pretty much played it through as it is now the first time we attempted it in rehearsal. It came together in an hour. That rarely happens but when it does it's magic.

2) The Apparition

One of the last songs we wrote for the album. I didn't even have a chorus written for it when we went into the studio, had to write it as I was recording! Lyrically, it's about letting go of something damaging that's you've been carrying round for a long time and asking the universe for forgiveness. Heartbreak? Addiction? Guilt? It could be any of those things.

3) Hold On 

One of our favourites on the album and one of the first we worked on after the first Covid lockdown. There's actually a rehearsal recording with our old bass player Pete Letch playing on it. The version we have now is very different. It's got a real anthemic quality to it and we love playing this live.

4) Exhibit A

This is one of those slightly off-kilter pop songs that we seem to come up with every now and again. I think we were channeling Blur, Spoon and XTC on this one. I love Rory Atell's production on this track. He gave it a real psychedelic feel that we all absolutely loved as soon as we heard it.

5) Postcards From An Ex

Another strange little pop song. Pete is playing his guitar through a synth pedal on this one. He tried loads of different setting on what you hear now. We had 3 or 4 versions of this over a 6 month spell. The first time we played it, Matt hadn't joined the band on bass yet, so it was just the 3 of us at this point. It was probably one of the first things the 4 of us played together. 

6) The Ship

A really early one that was written around the same time as 'Hold On' (another track where we have a very different rehearsal recording with Pete Letch on bass). We played this one at Matt's first gig - supporting LIFE at Ramsgate Music Hall - and it really wasn't finished at that point. We knew it was lacking something so we re-worked the chorus the very next week.

7) Monolith

I had half the lyrics to this knocking about for ages, but couldn't think of a way to finish it. It was just a standard break up song, but then I saw this article online from a woman who had been 'the other woman' in a relationship with a married man for years. She said she lived this kind of half life, always in the background. Finally, she ended it to be with someone more stable and that gave the impetus for the rest of the lyrics. 

8) Everybody Loves An Acrobat

I absolutely love Ian's drums on this one. Funnily enough, we were going to scrap this song a week before we went to the studio because we weren't sure on the verses. We decided to give it another whirl because we all loved the chous so much. Pete came up with a more aggressive guitar part and it breathed new life into it. It's a little bit Interpol and a little bit The National.

                                              

9) Camel Blues

I absolutely love this one. The first version we had of this one was much longer but we stripped everything away - everything we felt was unnecessary - and turned it into this strange little psychedelic pop ballad. We've not played this one live as yet but have been working on the live version. Matt plays a really cool bassline on this and it's some of Pete's most beautiful guitar work. I really tried to sing on this one. 

10) A Room Full Of Memories

The oldest song on the album and the only one that didn't come from on of my Garageband rough skech demos. Pete sent me this one in the first few weeks of the first Covid lockdown and then I came up with the vocal. It's become one of our most popular live songs. 

11) Mourning

I think we always knew this would be the first thing we put out from the album and also where the album's title is taken from. This one is influenced by late era Blur, Berlin-era Bowie and This is Hardcore-era Pulp. I wanted to get across that feeling of complete and utter devastation that comes from the end of a relationship.

12) I Remain

This really had to close the album. I don't think it would fit anywhere else on the record. I love the way it feels like it's all going to fall apart towards the end of the song. 

You can follow Cross Wires on Facebook and Twitter and can download and buy Yesterday in Mourning the Bandcamp link above.