The Warping Track-By-Track Breakdown Seed

This began from the “seed” of a short introduction to “Gnomes” and has since grown arms and legs. We wanted to give the album the proper welcome it deserved, to make the listener feel like they are stepping into our world, to be uplifted but wary. The droning string section harmonizing with the winding notes of guitar feedback introducing the suspenseful chords also played by the breathtaking string quartet, achieve this perfectly before distorted flutes, timpani rolls, warped synths and white noise crescendo until it cuts to just voice and Wurlitzer at the start of “Gnomes” in an emotional and rapid scene change that starts off the album in a way that sounds better than we ever could have imagined. - Jocelyn and Jack

Gnomes

The narrative of this track focuses on the effects of show business on a relationship. The subject of the track is a washed-up stage performer that gave it all to the “old limelight” at great personal sacrifice, as can often be the case in pursuing success and stardom on the stage. This topic felt close to us, as it is often hard to give an equal helping of yourself to all the things and people you care about. Most people that pursue a career that requires such personal and emotional investment can probably relate to this.

When we first demoed this track Jocelyn even sang in a hammed-up cockney accent to get into the character we were trying to illustrate. It’s always a lot of fun when everyone understands the assignment straight away and we’re both just tossing lyrics at each other and laughing the whole time.The accent became a little hard to shake once it came time to record the final vocal, we had a bit too much fun with it (as Charlie, the native cockney, frequently reminded us). Initially, our sonic vision for the track was very bare and simple, arranged like a four-piece guitar band but as soon as this character developed (and in typical Walt Disco fashion) the song grew arms and legs and became the grandiose show-tune it is now. - Jocelyn and Jack

Come Undone

The lonely party song. Written about the yearning for company, physical touch, and sexuality, that is often universally felt by a single person. Like I was at the time. These desires can be satisfied so briefly by dates and short flings, that for me were times when I’d open up more to these people I barely knew rather than to friends that I’d known and loved for years. The song touches on this being amusing to me. “Nobody sees me the way you perceive me is easy” is quite a ridiculous thing to say about someone you have just met. - Jocelyn

The Warping

This is a song about envy and gender dysphoria and how these emotions so often intertwine. The way they interact feels insidious and can often cause me to spiral into a place of pure self-loathing. A very dark place for a song to come from I know but acknowledging these feelings and writing about them was an important step for me and belting the words “My jealousy, it’s surrounding me, tearing me apart and looks to steal the air I breathe, I loath envy and its corrupting face, taunting me to dream of things that I was born to chase.” Feels very cathartic. - Jocelyn

You Make Me Feel So Dumb

This is our cynical disco banger. “Dumb” was written after a period of heavy networking and public appearances at various festivals, parties and events. Having to constantly be on our conversational A-game became exhausting and I started thinking “This seems to come so naturally to some people, so what’s the matter with me?”. All the social burnout I was feeling at the time manifested in the lyrics of the track. - Jack

Pearl

This song dwells on the homesickness and general disconnect from regular life that can come from being in a touring band. The demands of being a musician can put both literal and figurative distance between you and other people in your life. Your touring bubble starts to feel like the only people you can truly relate to, and this can start to feel quite lonely and alienating. In the chorus of this song, I cast my eye forward in time and consider where the consequences of this lifestyle will leave me, while also accepting that this is the life I’ve chosen and I know it’s what I’m meant to do. The song is built around the keyboard part which I first showed the band on the piano at Pearl Street Co-op while we were at SXSW. The piano you hear at the start of the song is a phone recording of that very piano.

Since the song blossomed from Pearl Street the instant working title was “Pearl”. It just felt too perfect to change. The south end of Pearl Street Co-op has wall art with the slogan “You’re gonna end up living in a van down by the southside” which I interpolated for the chorus to refer to the southside of Glasgow. To me the south of Glasgow, specifically the Queen’s Park and Shawlands area has always represented the well-off hipster side of town with loads of expensive little shops and restaurants where all the young professionals live. I can never afford to go there, so I placed my future self there, having “made it” but being totally alone nonetheless. - Jack

Black Chocolate

The beginnings of this track came from the nursery rhyme-like repeating part that went on to become the chorus, “Black Chocolate, Black Chocolate, Black Chocolate” I whispered into my phone as a starting point whilst with friends. I realize it’s almost never referred to as black chocolate but it sings better than dark chocolate. This idea stemmed from dark chocolate being a comforting food to me as my mother eats it all the time. I find it quite amusing that it’s comforting because I don’t even love the taste.

The nursery rhyme-like nature brought me to quite a childlike state when it came to writing the rest of the lyrics, of craving comfort and love from a parent. I sing “There once was a girl, her hair very curled, and her smile ever so worried” referring to my younger self, over a droning bagpipe-like synth that was later layered with meandering strings and French horn. The next line “That’s the thing with a boy, When he loses his toy, He is scared that he is falling,” refers to being raised as a boy and how differently young boys are told to deal with emotions, something I struggled with in ways I was yet to understand.

The second verse jumps to the present day, but a few months after the first verse and chorus were written. It was springtime and I was on the phone with my mother whilst on the bus home to visit her, I was telling her of the lambs playing in the fields. This was bittersweet as because of her disability this is something she can’t go and see herself. - Jocelyn

Jocelyn

Everyone has a side of themselves that at some point, or maybe always, they feel they need to keep hidden away. This track explores the isolation of hiding a part of yourself and the euphoria of the times when you can let it out. The despairing lyrical matter of the verses opens up into the joyous choruses, it’s meant to feel transformative almost like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. This is to represent the idea of leaving your shame in the past and finding the strength to start anew. ‘Jocelyn’ is probably the most uplifting track on the album, and even then it’s bittersweet. This song came to life the old-fashioned way: sitting in a circle and playing together. First came the bassline from Charlie, then we both sang in unison and penned the lyrics together in just an afternoon. -Jack

Much of the lyrics paint a picture of a internal dreamlike conversation between myself (Jocelyn) and my mother. The narration jumping between the two of us, with myself acting as the narrator as well part of the conversation. We talk on many things, from small talk to death, mannerisms I’ve since I’ve had since childhood such as being a daydreaming little kid with a worried smile. Such conversations that you have with your mother, I think these come to mind when you do something such as change your name, they don’t erase any of these memories and I hope to live in a world where parents can allow themselves to understand the upset they may feel when a child makes this decision but can love and support them all the same. - Jocelyn

The Captain

”The Captain” began as a very Celtic-sounding guitar part Finlay came up with, that made us think of the sea. We came up with a character that was aboard a fishing boat, craving gentleness and femininity, in a setting that would be devoid of this such as an industrial fishing boat. “The Captain” of this boat represents the greed and destructive nature of the rich of the world, poisoning and exploiting the world’s resources mindlessly. - Jocelyn

Weeping Willow

This song was written immediately after we’d all met to discuss our keyboard player and one of the founding members of the band, Dave, leaving the band. Only a couple of months before we were due to go to SXSW, release our debut album, and tour the UK and Europe for 3 weeks. We felt no hate for him but we did feel very down and deflated about the timing of things, but rather than stay in the pub we went to the studio, picked up an instrument and wrote this song in a couple of hours about what had just happened and how when big things ending like a band member leaving or falling out of love with a friend, it can lead us to think about a more ultimate ending. - Jocelyn

I Will Travel

This is a song about my childhood dog that recently passed away since I wrote it. It was written about my feelings reflecting on having an old dog and the comfort she gave me over the years while knowing that soon I would need to travel home to say goodbye and thank her for the time I have had with her. Knowing that she’ll always be a feeling of home and safety, something we all crave more and more. - Jocelyn

Before The Walls

Lyrically sparse and forever building and pulsing, this album closer was written in a state of fear of loss. A fear that became all too real in the recording process of the album, just three days into recording the album at The Vale in Worcestershire I had to rush back home to as my Mother had been rushed to hospital. On the train up I had lots of time to reflect on the feelings I had when writing this song, about things I want to be more open with her and my family about and fear of running out of time to do this but in the end just wanting to have as much time to be caring and loving to each other because that’s all you can do in the end. - Jocelyn