I wrote "Break the Chains" on the piano during the lockdown, so we recorded it almost all remotely. It started with the piano intro and chords inspired by something Elton John would do as an anthem. The structure of the chords and melody came together quickly. I wanted to express how I was feeling about the state of humanity as we watched so many events unravel through a microscope during the pandemic. While in many ways people pulled together, things like the killing of George Floyd and January 6th made us more painfully aware of how so many attitudes and prejudices keep us a country and a world divided to surprising extremes given that we are in the 2020s. If we are to progress out of a highly dysfunctional moment in time we must "break the chains" of those attitudes which limit us and hold us back from loving and evolving...
I love the bridge section of the song which stretches out harmonically and makes us feel even more uncomfortable before returning to the refrain...
Produced by Adrian Harpham, the recording features Marvin Sewell on a haunting slide guitar, Clayton Bryant doing all the choir vocals himself from his apartment, Adrian on drums, Dave Inniss on bass and Anthony Robustelli on Keys, me on acoustic and electric guitars and of course vocal :)