Having met in 2013 when recording a Lead Belly cover, Dawn Landes and Piers Faccini quickly bonded and began work writing and recording together. The fruits of those labours can be heard on their new EP Desert Songs, and to give you a real insight into what the five-track set is really all about, we have hear a track-by-track guide written by the artists themselves. So hit play on the stream below, and read on…
‘Heaven’s Gate’ – Dawn explains…
This was the first song that Piers and I wrote together and it happened pretty seamlessly. I had a guitar idea and Piers started singing a melody over the top that I never would’ve thought of. That’s the beauty of collaboration, really. Once we had the melodic structure, the verses just started flowing. One of my favorite lines from the EP is in this song, “I’ll follow them to Jerusalem, just tell me who they are.”
‘Book of Dreams’ – Piers explains…
The lyrics from the song ‘Book of Dreams’ were originally intended as a poem. I was writing a poetry book that will out in a few months and Dawn thought it would make a good song. I think it was one of the quicker ones we wrote for the ep in the few days we had together, writing and recording. In keeping with the theme of Desert Songs, ‘Book of Dreams’ is inspired by the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, and out of that came an image of reality as a book of dreams burning.
‘I Hear a Calling’ – Piers explains…
With ‘I Hear a Calling’, I think I wanted to try taking Dawn into musical places that were a little more unusual for her, this songs has more of a world music feel to it. I think with that kind of repetitive rhythmic guitar line, the lyrics just need to sit right with the rhythm. There’s an almost Flamenco type melody and chord progression in the chorus. I got to play a few of my favouritel instruments on it too like my dulcimer that I can never resist using! I love Dawn’s voice on this song.
‘We Come and Go’ – Piers explains…
Dawn came up with the riff, I think I probably ended up pushing the more African side of the guitars in the final arrangement which I love doing. When Dawn first played the if she had, I heard as a kind of saharan desert vibe, putting English lyrics onto something that you could imagine in another tongue always makes for an interesting result. Dawn laid down the drums down after our session when she was back in Brooklyn with her friend Ray Rizzo.
‘Crying out Loud’ – Dawn explains…
This was a song that I had kicking around for a while but couldn’t seem to finish. Piers changed up the rhythm of the guitar line and suddenly everything started to fall into place, then we added the B section and it took a new turn. I think of the B section in here as our “Kanye” section ;)
Desert Songs is out now, and available here:
Vinyl 12″: shop.beatingdrumrecords.com/
iTunes: smarturl.it/desert_songs