Rationale writes track-by-track for his debut album

London-based artist goes through each song on his new record in detail

RE.UP

RE.UP started with a bass line that I'd been humming in my head for what felt like forever. I remember being obsessed with the idea of doing a duet on my album. Something like Luther Vandros and Mariah Carey coming together and turning up the sexy. I called my friend Zena Kitt, who has by far, the most alluring singing voice I've ever heard. We spent just one day working on it, possibly the most fun I've had writing a song in a long time.

Oil & Water

Oil & Water was a really fun track to make. I was really getting into using 808's at the time and I wanted to make something that was built around a massive bass-line. Sonically speaking, its one of my favourites on the album!

Loving Life

I wrote and produced 'Loving Life' right at the beginning of summer this year. I remember listening to my record and thinking wow, there's some pretty depressing stuff on here! It's really easy to start repeating yourself when you're nearly two years deep into writing an album so, twisting the angles to something more positive was like insanely inspiring for me. Not just for my lyrics but also for my production.

There's something super nostalgic about it that made me file like maybe old time heroes Artful Dodger would tip their hat in my direction if they ever heard it. Two months after it was released, they remixed it!

Fast Lane

This song will always hold a special place in my heart. It opened so many doors at the start and continues to go down well with people. I wrote it whilst sitting down on the floor of C2C track to West Ham after work, recorded it when I got home and nearly deleted it a week later because it 'felt a bit moany' - go figure!

Prodigal Son

Prodigal Son was a hard song to write. I wrote it shortly after my brother's dad passed away. Watching him struggle with it forced me to spend some time thinking about my father and our non existent relationship. The production was incredibly fun to start with.

I remember spending a day programming the main synthesiser sound and building a track around it. The rest took nearly a year to get right which was incredibly difficult but rewarding in the end as the reaction to it has been great.

Losing Sleep

I've always been a big fan of 70's disco and synthesisers. I couldn't make a record and not include this song. It's bathed in analog synths and drum machines and it's real crowd pleaser live!

Into the Blue

I rarely co-write songs for Rationale but one day myself, my mentor Mark Crew, Dan Smith and a fantastic writer/producer called Braque got together to see what we could come up with. In short, we quickly decided that we wanted a massive chorus that sounded like it had been lifted from an old body-form advert!

When that was born, we let it rest for a while. Much later, we played it during a writing session with the superbly talented Emily Warren. She fell over head over heels for it and also had some great ideas that helped us finish it. I cant wait to play it live!

Fuel To The Fire

This is one of my favourite songs on this album. I wrote it after watching the news one night in 2013. Tensions in London and around the world were particularly high and I wanted to express the way that I and a lot of my friends felt.

I wanted the production to be minimal and allow my voice to really deliver a message in the song. It feels really strange and sad to think just how much the lyrics apply to events around the world even more so now than four years ago. It's a song of real substance and I'll always be proud of it.

Phenomenal

Sometimes, some songs almost write themselves and this is one of them.

A random chance meeting with an old friend turned into a deep and meaningful conversation about his life and how he was on the edge of losing everything.

I couldn't help but write about it. At this point of the album process I was really into the idea of minimalism over glossy production techniques so refrained from doing too much and letting the song speak.

I guess this is quite a personal song about something I went through and a lot of people have been through in their lives. Its dark and haunting but madly uplifting in its own way. I performed it in arenas across Europe while on tour with Bastille.

One night in particular, 20k people spontaneously raised their phone lights and lighters in the air while me and my band performed it. Moments like that a hard to forget and probably cemented its place on the album for me.

Tumbling Down

This is one of only two songs that I didn't produce on the album. It was co-written and produced by a fantastic producer called STINT during an LA writing trip! It's epic, cinematic and moody as hell. I really enjoyed using a lighter part of my voice in the verses and love the way it explodes with energy.

Somewhere to Belong

Easily my favourite track on the album at the moment. I wrote this last year with a chap called Simon Aldred while sipping tea in the Manchester sunshine. No buttons, just guitars. I wanted to write something honest that wasn't about love. Something that helped define my journey from Zimbabwe as a kid and the overwhelming desire to fit in. We recorded the vocal & guitars in one take. It's perfectly imperfect and I guess thats part of its charm.

Rationale's self-titled album is out now to download, stream, and in physical formats - buy here