White Bird

Album: Distance Inbetween (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • This started as a collaboration between Coral frontman James Skelly and his drummer brother Ian. The vocalist recalled to Drowned in Sound: "I was strumming a D chord on the guitar, saying we should write a song over one chord and he started singing 'Here comes the white bird on its long way down.' So I answered, 'here goes the feeling as it hits the ground', then we wrote a couple more verses and left it there. We started jamming it in rehearsal the next day and then Nick (Power, keys) and I finished the lyrics at his."
  • The recording of this song led to ex Zutons guitarist Paul Malloy joining The Coral. (Their usual guitarist, Lee Southall, was on paternity leave). James Skelly explained: "We did it live in one take in the studio, then Ian said 'We should get Paul Molloy on guitar for this,' they have a band together called Serpent Power. At the time I was the only guitarist, but when he started playing over the tune in the studio he was playing tuned down, distorted, drone stuff and we thought… He gets this, let's get him in."

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