If your name is Alison, you might already know it’s inspiring to shoegaze artists. And if it isn’t, well, now you know. Following the tradition of music bands like Slowdive, Daniel Land releases today the radio edit of his song Alison, taken out from his latest album, Out of Season. To make it even more special, the new version of the song comes accompanied by a music video featuring the British singer in blurry black-and-white visuals.
For this new release, the original five-minute song featured in his latest album is cut into less than four-minute track. Dramatically shortening the instrumental intro from the original song while also making it sound more muffled, the new Alison still starts with the same striking lyrics: “Ey, where are you now?” There is a sense of longing, nostalgia, even melancholy, in both the words and hoe Daniel sings them, so heartfelt.
Speaking of how the idea came to be, Daniel explains: “Alison is the title of a famous Slowdive song, and the band Swimming Tapes also has a track with the same name. My bass player, Rob Sykes, who wrote part of the song with me, joked that it’s actually the law that every shoegazer, eventually, has to have a song called Alison.” It might be a coincidence, but a fun one. “Obviously, the band Slowdive is a big influence on my sound, but the song is called Alison because the chorus melody and lyrics arrived just like that, in my head, fully formed. I tried changing it, but the song just resisted… ‘Alistair’ just doesn’t have the same ring, and when I tried ‘Madison’, it sounded like I was singing about Wisconsin. So, I stuck with the name, even though I have no idea who Alison is,” he concludes.