We Are The Ocean are marking the 10th anniversary of their second album Go Now And Live with a limited-edition vinyl release.
Essex post-hardcore/alt.rock gang We Are The Ocean are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their second album Go Now And Live with a limited-edition vinyl release of the record.
The LP – the follow-up to 2010 debut Cutting Our Teeth – was released in April 2011 via Hassle Records, and will now get a shiny new vinyl edition (limited to just 500 copies) to celebrate its decade of existence. As well as the massive singles like The Waiting Room and What It Feels Like, this new release will also feature rare bonus track Distances.
To mark the occasion, vocalist/guitarist Liam Cromby has reflected on the album's creation, release and its impact on the band as a whole.
"Before beginning to write Go Now And Live, we had just released a four-track EP with some of our most melodic songs so far, Lucky Ones and Playing My Heart," he says. "We had also been on the road with bands like Funeral For A Friend, People in Planes, Mayday Parade, Canterbury, Straight Lines – bands that had big, melodic anthems. We also had a new touring crew with us at the time, which brought new music to our ears, listening to bands like The Draft and Hot Water Music. We were also listening to The Police and The Beatles a lot at the time. Inspired and hungry to grow as a band, we fearlessly set out to write our most melodic material so far. Not only were we set on writing big anthems, but we had also matured individually and collectively, and felt the need to write more direct and honest lyrics.
Read this: An oral history of Hassle Records: One of the UK’s most important labels
"We were on the road endlessly at the time and so had to take whatever writing opportunities whenever, and wherever, we could," Liam continues. "What It Feels Like was the first idea to come through – a song written as a conversation with myself. Runaway was written in the front room of our tour manager's house in Leeds – we stayed there a lot during this time. With Leeds being the home of Slam Dunk, bands from the scene were coming through all the time, most of them staying at this house. We were in the thick of it!
"Trouble Is Temporary, Time Is Tonic came a week before heading to the studio. With the material we had so far we knew we had to have a strong opener that would match with the rest of the record, and so came the opening line, 'I would like to say some things and get them off my chest.' We decided to record at Middle Farm Studios; tucked away from the world in the hills of Devonshire, it was a new studio run by producer Peter Miles. Pete had come to a show some months before, where we had an opportunity to chat and share ideas for the upcoming record. It was there that we decided to record with him, and so in the middle of December, snowed in, we began to record our second album, GNAL. Pete is a musical genius, whom I respected greatly, and studied from the get-go. During the recording process we still had a couple of songs to write, and subsequently it was in the studio that both Now And Then and The Waiting Room came to life. The latter would be an expression of the frustrations of a young man wanting to reach great heights.
"Hassle had backed us and put faith in us to write and record a follow up to Cutting Our Teeth. During the first playback session the songs were blasting through the Hassle office speakers; those guys were as happy as we were at how well the songs had come together in the studio. They were excited and the band was buzzing… we couldn't wait to release the album!
"It would catapult the band into Radio 1 playlists. I'll never forget hearing our songs on Radio 1, it was like the scene from the movie That Thing You Do. It also bagged us a spot on the main stage at Reading & Leeds festivals – an absolute dream come true!
"Recording Go Now And Live at Middle Farm Studios is one of my fondest memories, and set us up for the band's most successful years. Forever thankful for Pete Miles, Hassle Records and my bandmates, Dan Brown, Jack Spence, Tommy Moosh and Alfie Scully."
The tracklist is as follows:
Side A
1. Trouble Is Temporary, Time Is Tonic
2. What It Feels Like
3. The Waiting Room
4. Runaway
5. Trials and Tribulations
6. Overtime Is A Crime
Side B
7. Godspeed
8. Now & Then
9. Follow What You Need
10. Before I Die
11. Distances
And the vinyl looks like this:
