Walk with Me

The fourth track on Transmission is called Walk with Me.



This shouldn't take long, as neither of us seem to be able to remember much about writing it. When I first lived in Yorkshire, before even Dusk came out, I used to walk a lot, and I think it grew out of that. I think we came up with a few vaguely profound moments, such as the second verse: "Come with me down this long path / The one we walk down every day." The words in full:

Walk with me beneath the trees
Where the shadows play their secret game
I hear your voice on the light breeze
And see a shape running away

I’m silently fighting the militant crowds
Still passive but restless, another lost hour

Is there anywhere for me to hide?
Any place to stay alive?
We hunt for the strangers deep inside
Chasing rainbows in the night

Come with me down this long path
The one we walk down every day
One eye ahead, one in the past
It twists and turns in every way

I’m silently hiding in dissident fear
My energy fading, all hope disappears

Is there anywhere for me to hide?
Any place to stay alive?
We hunt for the strangers deep inside
Chasing rainbows in the night

I’m sheltered by demons who force me to wait
They hold back my passion, and drive me away

Is there anywhere for me to hide?
Any place to stay alive?
We hunt for the strangers deep inside
Chasing rainbows in the night

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Eyeballing

The third track on Transmission and the first track on our remix EP Remission was a song called Eyeballing.



I was sitting on a train back in 2004, reading an academic book about "eyeballing", which is a computing term. I thought the term would make an interesting starting point for a song, and wrote the whole thing in under half an hour.

The original demo, recorded in 2008, was very dark and industrial. The album version is still supposed to have the same simplistic, robotic, Kraftwerk-like quality, but is considerably easier on the ear than its earlier counterpart.



We were tentatively toying with the idea of releasing Eyeballing as the second or third single, when largely by accident we entered the world of remixes. It started with someone offering to do a dub version of Golden Wheel, which ultimately didn't work out, but while we were waiting for that, we also asked around, and came across Sappy. His version of Eyeballing took us both aback completely. It was utterly brilliant, and entirely unlike anything we would have ever thought of doing with it.

The lyrics go as follows:

Eye on the target
Food for the flame
You can taste it
The speed of a rocket
Mind on the game
You could fake it

You could fake it
And claim your place in my sights

We’re eyeballing until
The sights have gone astray
We're daydreaming again
Don’t turn your eyes away

Dive for submission
Swim for the shore
You can make it
Flesh on metal
You're back for more
You can take it

You can take it
In any way that you want

We’re eyeballing until
The sights have gone astray
We're daydreaming again
Don’t turn your eyes away

But I can tell
That you won’t blink first
You're in control
Your hunger is worse
We’re eyeballing until
The sights have gone astray
We're daydreaming again
Don’t turn your eyes away

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Golden Wheel

Second up on Transmission is Golden Wheel.



Whereas Almost was the newest track on the album, Golden Wheel is by far the oldest. At some point in early 2002, I was reading something in the National Geographic about something called the golden wheel spider, which prefers to spin away from its predators. Something about the feat of evolution or the general lack of songs about spiders made me think that it might make a good song.

Then a year or so later, I was visiting Simon at his home in Birmingham, and we just started to jam, with Simon playing chords on a guitar, and me adding synth noises over the top. I sequenced it, and we built the rest as we went along.

We never really took it very seriously as a song, so it missed out on a chance for release on both Empires (2003) and Dusk (2006), and it didn't even make the early selections for what would become Transmission. Somehow it just seemed to fit on this album, though. So, daft lyrics aside, it's a track of which I'm rather proud.

Walking along with my head held high
Nonchalant, I fight the reproof
And tread so steady with my load

It fuels the frenzy in my mind
So I wonder if it's that time now

Golden wheel, just spin away
And hide from me beneath the day
Take the moment from my hand
Just steal away beneath the sand

Wonder again why I feel the cold
Destiny brings another day
I stand unsheltered breathing fire

And search for something I can't find
But I wonder if it's that time now

Golden wheel, just spin away
And hide from me beneath the day
Take the moment from my hand
Just steal away beneath the sand

I see the wall, and change my stride
And I wonder if it's that time now

Golden wheel, just spin away
And hide from me beneath the day
Take the moment from my hand
Just steal away beneath the sand

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Almost

The first track on Transmission is called Almost.



Completing Transmission was tricky to say the least. Most of it was written and recorded - in some form at least - by the end of 2007, but it then took another three years to finish it off. And one of the catalysts for finalising the album would very quickly become the opening track.

Almost, or Life of Almost, as it was initially called, was by far the youngest track on the album. Simon had invested in new recording equipment in 2010, and had learnt how to use it by composing this track. Quickly partnered with a simple lyric about loneliness, and it turned out to be one of our favourite songs on the album.

So much so, in fact, that we were both keen to consider it as a single. But what we hadn't bargained with was that so many people in the internet age only ever listen to the first track on an album. So, in its own way, it had its time as a single, and was pretty well received too.

The lyrics:

Almost was an only child
Who grew up all alone
He never walked the extra mile
In a world of his own

I've almost been
I've almost seen
Everything
I think you'll find
Most of the time
You're almost mine

Almost wore a lonely smile
And sat alone again
She never called, or came outside
Or so it seemed to him

I've almost been
I've almost seen
Everything
I think you'll find
Most of the time
You're almost mine

(R. Martin / S. Martin)