We had a few wee ideas kicking about that would eventually be recorded and find their way onto the album but when Johnny and I found ourselves in the Somerset countryside about to start writing for this album in earnest The Beginning was written on the very first day. That’s why it’s called the beginning in fact.

I tend to name songs before I write the lyrics. So if Johnny, Nathan and I are working on the music for a track it will generally have a placeholder name that will get changed once I write the lyrics, one that better reflects the words of the song.

BUT in this case, even though there are probably better words and phrases (that actually appear in the song) to be used as titles, The Beginning stuck. This album took us on many uncharted routes, with sometimes weird and sometimes wonderful turns, and so it’s hard not to think of the start of this album as a new beginning.

We honour the past, deeply. This is our thirtieth year, so we have an awful lot of it, past I mean. Tons of it. We have a profound love and respect for all who have been on this journey with us those many years. But while we honour the past we also want to cherish the present and look to the future.

So this is the beginning of something, and we are so excited to share it with you all. gL.x