'Destroy' was our second EP release and the title track kind of lives up to it's name. We wanted to come up with a 'revenge' song of almost biblical proportions, real fire and brimstone stuff. The three horsemen of the apocalypse conjured from the hatred of a former loved one!

Although it was a complete break from what we'd been doing before, we realised the only way to produce a song like this was to make it theatrical - like a musical. But unlike a musical we didn't want to have cheesy lines and funny metaphors - we actually wanted lyrics more like out of a death metal song, the kind of thing a nihilistic band like Slipnot would write:

I will cast your shallow hope into a sea of sorrow
Throw your dreams onto a shore where there is no tomorrow
Drag your soul across the sand until you're just a shell
Then pat you on the head and wish you well..

OK, there is some humour in there as it's all so over the top, and the last line of the middle 8 '..pat you on the head and wish you well' is a nod to the Doris Day type musical one-liners, served cold in this case.


We don't have the budget for full orchestras (yet) so the whole thing had to be programmed on the computer. Hopefully one day we will be fortunate enough to record this with a full symphony orchestra, but for this recording many hours were spent on the computer scoring strings, woodwinds, brass and all manner of orchestral percussion by point and click. Although all the notes had to be played in using a keyboard, the whole process is extremely laborious if you want to even get close to sounding like a full orchestra - take it from us, it's much easier to simply score the music out and hand it to a conductor! But we were determined to get this song as close as we could with no budget so we stuck at it.

Finding the right way to sing the song was also quite a trick - it really is a bit of a performance! The whole song is about attitude, and Steph had to find a way of singing that sounded seductive yet chilling. The song starts off like many of those musical numbers we all know and love - finger snaps, a one note bass line - and an alluring lead vocal. There is even a touch of the flamenco in there with castanets. This was inspired by Marilyn Monroe musicals and West Side Story. But unlike these songs Steph had to sound outright more sinister - in fact more cabaret, more operatic, more femme-fatale. It took us many attempts to get the attitude of the performance just right and we went through many many takes while Steph discovered the best way of singing the song.

We first started performing 'Destroy' as a guitar and vocals piece, very simple and very understated, almost whispered. When we did this at gigs we always got a great reaction and the whole audience would fall silent, hanging on every word. We realised we were on to something when a certain part of the chorus would always have the girls all laughing (or squirming):

I will destroy you
Kick your face in to the ground and pray for darkness
'Cos you had it all coming

That line would always get a laugh from the ladies (usually an uncomfortable one), and there would be lots of guys in the audience looking at their partners wondering if their better half was laughing about a former lover - or about them.