Give Me The Ground

Album: Mura Masa (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Mura Masa is the stage name of Alex Crossan, a music producer from the island of Guernsey. This is one of two tracks on his eponymous debut album where Crossan supplied his own vocals.
  • The lyrics for the folksy tune may catch the listener off guard. "It's kind of like a 'Hey, f--k you,' I'm gonna do what I want," Crossan told Billboard magazine. "All punk music is is rebellion, going against the grain. It takes different forms. Sometimes it's a band throwing their instruments around or making really violent and noisy sounds, but it doesn't have to take that sonic form. It can take more of an energy."
  • The song is a final kiss-off to an ex: "I basically only used to make music about this one breakup that I went through," Crossan told Noisey with a dry smile.

    "I was so sad about it. [I was] too young to care that much," he added. "I really dragged it out, as well. It was like a couple of years I was miserable about it, and I'd forgotten about it, how I felt. I went out into the country, up the River Thames outside of London, just to be on my own and make music in this cottage with a recording studio in it. And for some reason, [that relationship] came back to me... and I wrote 'Give Me the Ground.'
    That was like my final 'f--k you,' and all that came out was that little one-minute stint—a whimpering end to that whole feeling. And I like, coughed at the end 'cause I'd been smoking! It's just like a footnote, and it's totally different from anything else on the album."

    "[The song] just came out," Crossan concluded: "And I was like, 'Cool, I really like this.' So I put it on."

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