Diving For Hearts

Album: The Sea (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This soul ballad recalling her church upbringing was written by Bailey Rae during some writing sessions in 2007. She told Jam! Music about the song: "It's (about) spiritual experiences that I've had. And I really wanted to have a song that was really heavy and sort of aggressive on the record. And a good friend of mine (Jennifer Birch) who was the guitarist in our old band, she wrote the chords for the bridge that go into the chorus."
  • Rae explained to I Like Music why she included a choral backing on this track: "I didn't want it to be gospel or soulful, I wanted this real English classical sound to it. I wanted it to sound spiritual, and thought 'what about a liturgical choir?' The sort you go and see in an old church."

    "So I looked up this choir from Leeds University, went on their website and heard what they were doing. I just emailed them, I think it was just before Christmas, and told them who I was and what I was doing. It was really good to have had this idea, to find the choir and to engage them myself."

    "I really wanted to record them in this abandoned church on Burley Road called St. Margaret's. It's just been taken over by an Arts Council project, but they haven't had any money to do it up yet. On the outside it's all bricked-up, and I'd seen it as I was growing up and been a bit curious, but just thought it was an ugly old church. But when you go inside it's this Gothic church with huge marble pillars, all white stone, and the reason the front is brick is because the committee that was building it ran out of money, so just had to finish it in brick. But anyway, it's gorgeous inside! There were pigeons and spiders' webs, no toilets or electricity, but I really wanted to record in there."

    "I got the choir there and ran a cable from the church to a guy who lives next door that I know. So, going from a choral line in your head, a four part harmony that I wrote out, to actually hearing it with that kind of reverb was amazing! It sounded terrifying, which is exactly how I'd wanted it to sound."

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