Attracting Flies

Album: Body Music (2013)
Charted: 17
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • AlunaGeorge are a duo comprising singer Aluna Francis and beatmaker George Reid, whose soul-influenced electronica has been dubbed "Popstep." Francis's first venture into the music industry came when she sang in a group called My Toys Like Me, whilst Reid was previously a guitarist in indie-math rock band "Colour". They met in June 2009, when Reid remixed My Toys Like Me's track "Sweetheart."
  • This is the third single from AlunaGeorge's debut album, Body Music. It finds Francis calling out an ex for telling untrue tales about her. "Little grey fairy tales and little white lies," she sings, "Everything you exhale is attracting flies." "[The songs] tend to be stories - stories people have told me that I can relate to," Francis told Billboard magazine of her lyrics. "Maybe the sentiment and the feelings can come from my experience. But in context, the inspiration for those songs tends to come from elsewhere."
  • The accompanying music video was directed by Emil Nava and sees the pair focusing on the fairy tale element of the song. We see AlunaGeorge put their urban spin on famous scenes from classic fantasy stories like Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Goldilocks and Sleeping Beauty.
  • Francis told The Sun the story behind the song: "A friend had told me a tale of woe," she said. "I didn't feel like there was a place for me to tell her to get rid of him. So I came up with this metaphor when I was messing about on the piano. The chorus came first and I imagined the rest of the story."

    "I want people to be able to listen to something through and enjoy the melody," Francis continued, "then if there's something about the lyrics that catches someone's attention they can go back. It's a fun game to weave further meaning into lyrics that initially can come across as quite simple. 'Attracting Flies' is quite immature in a sense but within those lyrics there are different layers."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Mark Arm of Mudhoney

Mark Arm of MudhoneySongwriter Interviews

When he was asked to write a song for the Singles soundtrack, Mark thought the Seattle grunge scene was already overblown, so that's what he wrote about.

Artis the Spoonman

Artis the SpoonmanSong Writing

Even before Soundgarden wrote a song about him, Artis was the most famous spoon player of all time. So why has he always been broke?

Christopher Cross

Christopher CrossSongwriter Interviews

The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.

Spot The Real Red Hot Chili Peppers Song Titles

Spot The Real Red Hot Chili Peppers Song TitlesMusic Quiz

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have some rather unusual song titles - see if you can spot the real ones.

John Doe of X

John Doe of XSongwriter Interviews

With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.