Surfacing

Album: Palace (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Chapel Club is a British indie/alternative rock band from London, England. The five-piece comprises singer Lewis Bowman, guitarists Michael Hibbert and Alex Parry, bassist Liam Arklie and drummer Rich Mitchell. The name "Chapel Club" was inspired by Bowman's interest in religion and religious imagery and by the proximity of the band's rehearsal space to St. Luke's Church on London's Old Street.
  • "Surfacing" was the first song recorded by the band. It was laid down with US producer Chris Zane at London's Strongrooms studio. Despite significant radio play it wasn't initially released because of copyright issues over the chorus borrowing lyrics from the standard "Dream a Little Dream." The band claimed that they merely use the song as a "quotation" in the way a poet might and the copyright wrangle was eventually resolved enabling Chapel Club to include the song on their debut album, Palace.
  • Bowman told The Sun about the song: "Surfacing twists a part of 'Dream a Little Dream' with Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' and is about someone I know, who is obsessed by the celebrity life in London. She doesn't know it's about her but there's plenty of sarcasm in the song."

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