These Four Walls

In early 2012, we reissued our second single I'll Give You Electro, and included two new b-sides, the first of which was These Four Walls.


I think this was written in the second shared house I lived in when I was in Leeds. It was an enormous house, with plenty of space and some great people, but things fell apart a bit over the time I lived there. This was probably written one day while I listened to the sound of bass coming through the floor...

I'm not sure it all works entirely as a song, but actually I'm quite proud of some of the lyrics - I like the rhymes, and the way each verse refers back to the first one. The line about "a fallow machine," can be quite an apt metaphor for city living as well. Having said that, the repetition of "grey" was not intentional.

The music takes some inspiration from Take That's Back for Good, which is quite a claim to fame. At the last minute, Simon decided to add a new backing vocal line, which turned out to be impossible for me to get right, so the vocoder sang them in the end.

The lyrics:

Thinking back when the skies were blue
And these four walls seemed bright and new
Your faults were careless and unreal woes
That would get to me as I sank below

Those uncertain people who all seem the same
With no time for dreaming or playing new games
Their urban existence is hollow and grey
Drifting through life’s pathways on these endless days

Now all I hear is the selfish din
And these four walls are closing in
My will broken by vulgar streets
That hold me back as I face defeat

We’re uncertain people with different lives
And no time for dreaming, impatiently drive
My urban existence, a fallow machine
Drifting through life’s pathways with no sleep between

So yesterday I tried to break
Down these four walls inside my head
To clear the dust from my greying mind
And leave the past to crawl behind

Those uncertain people who all seem the same
With no time for dreaming or playing new games
Their urban existence is hollow and grey
Drifting through life’s pathways on these endless days

We’re uncertain people with different lives
And no time for dreaming, impatiently drive
My urban existence, a fallow machine
Drifting through life’s pathways with no sleep between

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Sleepwalker

At the end of 2011 we released a remix EP called Remission, on which we also included a new non-album track, Sleepwalker.



Sleepwalker was a very easy set of lyrics to write (admittedly they may not actually be very good) - I had a simple idea, and following it through to its logical conclusion was pretty straightforward. Simon had been trying to sequence an old track called What Makes it Go back in 2006, and this had furnished him with some new ideas.

It was a strong influence on the sound of Transmission, although it didn't quite make it onto the album in the end. When we were compiling Remission we decided that it would be nice to include a new track, and this seemed an obvious candidate.

The lyrics:

Midnight comes, I want to run
And hide from everything
I hear the voices in my sleep
And wonder what they bring

I can’t stop my mind from thinking
I can’t face life in the cold

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

And at this hour, I feel no power
I want to live and breathe
When freedom calls I can’t resist
Its lure and energy

I can’t stop my mind from thinking
I can’t face life in the cold

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

And then the days became a haze
With nothing to enjoy
Once vibrant streets are dead again
Like long-forgotten toys

I can’t stop my mind from thinking
I can’t face life in the cold

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

(R. Martin / S. Martin)