Welcome to HeartSongs, our new, regularly (probably) scheduled look at songs and the people who write them. We spoke to Cormac from Irish mathpunks Stoat about their latest single ‘Try Not To Think About It’.

“Like most Stoat songs, ‘Try Not To Think About It’ evolved over an extended period of time - we are not, alas, able to knock out finished songs in 10 minutes (or even, often, 10 months). John arrived in to a practice with the bassline from the verse and the "ching! ching-a-ching-a!" guitar part from the intro. It was faster than it is now, with a kind of Chumbawumba "I get knocked down, then I get up again" vocal rhythm, and no words. We all liked it straight away, and kicked it around for a few weeks, and Stephen came up with the rattling drum groove.”

“The first words were the "Try Not To Think About It" catchphrase. I was going through a kind of miserable period - my kids were young and I wasn't getting much sleep, the place I was working in was struggling to make ends meet, and the house we'd been living in for a few years still wasn't really finished. The band are scattered around the country, and on my two-hour-each-way drives to practice in Athlone I'd find it very hard not to dwell on what a disappointment being a grown-up had turned out to be. To "Try Not To Think About It" was the only remedy I could think of, and the line fit neatly into the song.”

“It stayed "on the slab" for ages - that's the Stoat word for when a song is in a state of being taken apart, fiddled with, and put back together. The chorus melody was originally a guitar line, and I did everyone's head in by insisting we try to put in an extra half-bar between the verse and the chorus, then when we eventually managed to pull it off realised that it sounded crap.”

“Visiting my parents around then I came across an article in a Sunday newspaper where some famous person talks you through a day in their enviable life, and was inspired to write my own, less enviable, version. It began with "I'm Awoken In The Dark", and I even sent it in to the newspaper in question. Never got a reply, of course, but that became the basis of the lyrics - I made it rhyme and there we were.”

“There were so many words that we had to slow the song down in order for me to get them all in, and then all of a sudden we had a song that was almost funky, something that had never really happened to us before, and that led us down a new road - the chorus got a cowbell and a shout-along bit, the guitar in the verses got more rhythmic, and eventually during the mixing we added in that honking baritone sax.”

“If you listen closely you can hear my two daughters, the younger of whose sleeping habits I'm whining about in the first verse, chiming in on one of the "Try Not To Think About It"s.”

I'm awoken in the dark

By someone who likes an early start.

She wants to play, and I know I should join her

But all I can do it sit, dazed, on the floor.

I'm still there when her sister arrives

And I'm suddenly too late to get to work on time

So it's out the door shouting "Bye!" to my wife

Who's in bed

Having been awake half the night.

 

Stephen! John! This isn't good.

Things haven't turned out the way I hoped they would.

I never get to see my wife naked anymore.

We're just partners in chores.

 

Try not to think about it.

 

It's nice of you to offer sympathy

When I'm feeling sorry for myself -

But frankly I was hoping for advice

That might be a bit more practical.

 

Outside my job I sit in my van

Delaying entry for as long as I can.

Later you'll find me frozen at my desk

Deciding what emergency to deal with next.

In a panic I blunder on. Oh!

Making mistakes I'll have to fix tomorrow.

I never meant this to be a career,

But now it looks like I'm stuck here

 

Til pension day. My life slips past

As I try to cross items off a vast

To-do list that never seems to get any smaller

Just taller

 

Try not to think about it

 

It's nice of you to offer sympathy

When I'm feeling sorry for myself -

But frankly I was hoping for advice

That might be a bit more practical.

 

At home in the evening I try to defend

My re-heated dinner from my offspring. And then

There's games to be played, stories to be read,

Tantrums and escape attempts on the way to bed.

Callbacks for lullabies, blankets and drinks,

And meanwhile the dishes are still in the sink.

Then when the washing-up's done, and the laundry's put away

I can do as I please for the rest of the day ...

 

Just as soon as the dishwasher's mended,

Which takes longer than I intended

So when finally into bed beside my wife I creep

She is asleep.

 

Try not to think about it

 

It's nice of you to offer sympathy

When I'm feeling sorry for myself -

But frankly I was hoping for advice

 

That might be a bit more practical.

You wait 12 years for a new Stoat song and two come along in the space of a month! ‘Trampolina’ is the follow up to ‘Talk Radio Makes Me Feel Alone’ and is the second song from the highly anticipated new album Try Not To Think About It which is due later in the spring.

The band first formed in 1998 and wowed audiences with their incisive lyrics and experimental, punk-influenced rhythms before going silent in 2005. Much has changed in the world in that time but little has changed in the quality of Stoat’s music.

‘Trampolina’ one is a bit more indie-pop than indie-punk, and less dancey than their previous offering but has a lot of bounce and a big chorus, with a full brass section. “Trampolina is a bit of a departure for the band”, says Cormac, “In that it’s an honest-to-god love song, the first I think we’ve ever done, but we’ve been playing together for decades and there are whole years I can’t account for. It describes a short lived affair, touches off the tragedy of the human condition, and ends – now I think about it – kind of poignantly.”

‘Trampolina’ is out today from usual outlets. The video, below, was done in one take, in a manner to rival OK Go.