Newcastle indie outfit Split The Ticket drop their latest single Unreadable. Written during a busy period the song covers themes, such as confusion, obsession, and love and was recorded at Polestar Studios in Byker by Alex Blamire. The song sees the band move to a darker, lo-fi sound and amongst the crashing beats, earworm melodies and gorgeous guitar jangles is brimming with understated anthemic qualities.
Here, the band tell us more about what inspired the track…
The first idea for Unreadable came when I was studying for my A-Level, reading Alfred Lord Tennyson’s work Maud. It covers themes of confusion, obsession, love, and madness going hand-in-hand. This inspired the first lyrics about ‘a speck of dust unreachable’ and a ‘grain of a chance’. Drawing influence from literature is definitely something we want to explore a bit more, after watching countless interviews with Fontaines D.C. explaining that external influences outside of music are just as important as musical inspiration.
In terms of the music itself, NewDad’s 2024 album, especially their tune Dream of Me, was quite influential towards the chorus section, with a focus on the impact the guitar and bass parts could have. Another influence would definitely be Bby who make use of a lot of dynamic changes through their songs with mega builds and drop-outs, which we wanted to capture in this song.
Production-wise, it was hard not to be inspired by Wunderhorse’s sound in their recent album Midas, which came out a few weeks before we went into Polestar studios with Alex Blamire. The unpolished, rawer feeling in their album made it sound so authentic. It’s the little things like leaving the guitars ringing at the end or the squeak of the drum stool being left in that gives the track more a live feel. Overall, this track bridges the gap between our initial style and the sound we are striving for with our new projects this year and moving forwards.
