ABOUT THE SONG

The second song from Obey Robots, my collaboration project with Rat (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin), “Inside Out” started off as a shimmering acoustic guitar idea that Rat demoed and saved in a folder he called “Maybe send to Laura”. I’m very glad he did send it to me! After sharing the punchy riffs of “Let It Snow” with you at the end of 2020, we wanted to conjure a different mood, so I encouraged Rat to layer up the guitars while I went off to write the melody, lyrics and cello parts. 

This song is about dealing with the new groundhog-day-normal many of us have been experiencing for the past year: the highs, mediums and lows of a life made much smaller by circumstance. Ravelling and unravelling at different speeds to those around us, perhaps: trying to feel a semblance of forward motion; trying to remember what the point is. Deciding to keep hoping.

With musicians having to wait for in-person work to be possible again, it felt like the right time to get back in touch with my A-Level Music pal David Lale, who has played for the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the past 8 years. I always knew he’d go far!

David played the parts beautifully, of course, and added some extra touches in the instrumental to take it to new heights. It was a lovely opportunity to work together for the first time since we arranged Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” for a school concert back in the day. Thank you, David.

Fun fact: the original working title of this song was “Spider_Capo”. Rat, ever the fan of using different tunings but lacking the will to actually tune his guitars alternately, clearly needed to get a new toy. A novice attempt at using the spider capo (a piece of equipment strongly resembling a torture device) resulted in the basic melodic chords being written for the song that would become “Inside Out”.