by Back From The Brink is the second single from Crawford Mack’s forthcoming EP Panic Attack. The track opens in warped, lo-fi filtered folk before a dark bass synth and ticking, clock-like drums draw the listener into a slow, deliberate build. The vocal stays soft and restrained throughout, leaving the drama to a sweeping piano-driven instrumental chorus that arrives after the words “back from the brink.”
Lyrically, the song was sparked by a photograph of the Christ the Redeemer statue in San Salvador, the perspective making it appear as though the figure’s hand was reaching for the moon. From that image, Crawford began writing from the point of view of someone putting questions to their maker about corruption and violence carried out in their name, drawing parallels between historical and contemporary conflicts. The tone is agnostic rather than confrontational, more a plea than a protest.
Co-produced by Jamie Evans and Rory James, the track features Alex Reeves (Elbow) on drums and was mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios. The accompanying music video, filmed at the Asylum Chapel in Peckham, centres on a handcrafted replica of a stained glass window from Glasgow Cathedral. The original was installed by Mack’s five-times great-grandfather David Kier. Throughout the video, light is gradually removed from individual panes as the artist pleads for the light of hope not to leave humanity.
“I started writing this after seeing a photograph of the Christ the Redeemer statue in San Salvador. The angle of the shot made it look as though his hand was reaching for the moon, and something about that image stuck with me. I began writing from the perspective of someone putting questions to their maker. Not angry questions, more like the kind you’d ask if you believe someone might answer. The corruption, the violence carried out in God’s name, the arms we sell that come back to haunt us. I wanted to ask why nobody’s intervening, while knowing that the question itself might be naive.”
The visual approach draws on Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Back From The Brink is out Good Friday, April 3rd on all platforms.
Previous support: BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio Scotland, The Quay Sessions, The Scotsman, Songwriter Magazine, Fresh on the Net (Fresh Faves).
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