How We Made… Fur Patrol’s Lydia
Every fortnight, we talk to an artist about their best-known work. This time around, Julia Deans reveals how Fur Patrol’s chart-topper, Lydia, proved everyone wrong.
“It’s a classic story. The jilted ex, and it’s not necessarily an ex, walks into a cafe or bar and sees the significant other at a table with another other. We have all been there.
It was drawn as much from one’s own relationships as it was from other people’s. When you are young, you end up being that person sitting in a bar and watching your recent beloved getting cosy with someone else.
“So I guess the song is about that moment when you know a relationship is over but are faced with the reality of it, that someone you thought you loved and thought loved you, has moved on
There’s no point in feeling hurt about it or being a drama queen because you don’t really want that person either. You are still harbouring hurt, so you are a little spiteful but there is no point in dwelling on it.
Lydia also laments the loss of that love and the good times. I don’t think, even when I was young, I was one to hold onto a grudge. People change and your relationships change and even though it hurts at the time, you do get over it. You move along – nothing to see here.
“There was nothing cerebral about the selection of the name Lydia. It just fell out.
“It was syllabically and phonetically pleasing within the song. When I write, a lot of words that come that way. Lydia came very quickly. I wrote it pretty much in the time it takes to play the song maybe three times.
“It’s one of those moments that you live for as a songwriter. I don’t think it has ever happened that quickly with anything else that I have written.
“Because it happened so quickly and naturally, it felt good.
“I played it to my boyfriend at the time and he was very excited about it. He made me go around to various people’s places and play it to them.
“The funny thing was, at the time when we were recording Pet [Fur Patrol’s debut album, produced by The Muttonbirds’ David Long], we got a DJ from one of the ZM networks to listen to some of the songs that we had recorded and, while he was very kind and said it was a great song, he also said it would never get played on radio.
“The fact that it got to No 1 was largely due to student radio and Channel Z and everyone at Warner Music, who released the album. They were determined to make it a No 1. They worked really hard.
“One of the prime motivations for the staff was that James Southgate [the then head of Warner and now manager of Devilskin] agreed to wash the staff’s cars in a pair of cut-of denim shorts if they got the song to No 1.”
Courtesy : stuff.co.nz
Photo : Music Publishing
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