KEYS’ ‘This Side of Luv’ is a feel-good summer treat

Cardiff-based band KEYS’ latest single ‘This Side of Luv’ is a feel-good, joyous ABBA-esque/Beach Boys number, destined to be put on repeat as we dance around to it this summer!

The band will release its new album, the appropriately-titled, Home Schooling: A Collection of 4-Track Rarities on 21 August, with the second single from the album, ‘Phases’ due for release on 8th August.

‘Initially, we’d planned to do more Jerry Garcia type stuff,’ said KEYS’ frontman Matthew Evans (vocals/guitar/songwriter), referencing the band’s album Bring Me The Head of Jerry Garcia, which came out last year, and which itself is a play on the spaghetti western Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia.

The band also comprises Gwion Ap Sion (guitar), Jimmy Bell (bass) and David Newington (drums) and Gavin Jenkins (drums).

‘This Side of Luv’ was a conscious decision on Evans’ part ‘to write something happy’: ‘I didn’t want to write something morose when I felt down during the first six weeks of lockdown,’ he said. ‘I’m a songwriter, that’s what I am, first and foremost (he also teaches songwriting at the University of South Wales). It was a real test – can the song be uplifting, can it heal?’

The album itself was written piecemeal according to Evans because of the lockdown circumstances: ‘To hell with what we thought we would do. It was an honest thing. I’m so pleased with how ‘This Side of Luv’ has been received.’

The tracks were recorded on cassette four track machines during lockdown. ‘Let’s not pretend we had access to an expensive studio, we didn’t,’ Evans said. ‘It was a time to connect with bedroom songwriting again. We wouldn’t have recorded on cassette four track before lockdown but I’m so glad that we did. It’s a real left-turn.’

KEYS is a big fan of Midlands pop from the 70’s, including ELO, and Evans sees parallels between the Winter of Discontent in the 1970’s, characterized by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions, and the grim situation the UK is in today and the ‘sublime’ music coming out of both periods.

‘The Strain’ will be the third single from Home Schooling to be released later this year and is Evans’ favourite song on the album. ‘I wrote bits of it before and during lockdown. It’s about friendship and being there for a friend. It’s about male bonding, really. It’s harder to pull off positive songs without them seeming frothy or trite. It’s a challenge but I do like a challenge! It’s always appealing to go for the difficult ones. This song conveys serious emotion but there’s also a lightness to it, what I call the Swansea soul.’

As a songwriter ‘you tap into things and have to just go with it’, according to Evans. ”It’s a gentle dance between letting it flow and crafting as a songwriter.’

When it comes to teaching songwriting, he is a believer in throwing away the rules. ‘It makes you more analytical when you teach songwriting but I’m trying to break through that, to just encourage the flow. To get to the ninja level, you have to ignore being analytical.’

Evans cites The Beatles as a huge inspiration: ‘I keep coming back to them,’ he said. ‘ I also like Pottery (a Canadian band), Ariel Pink, Country Joe and The Fish and Black Sabbath.’

He also believes that people don’t listen to music enough collectively any more: ‘Music has the power to lift the spirit, if we can do that for three and a half minutes then we’ll feel our efforts were not in vain. People don’t listen to music much together anymore. I get my students to listen together. Listening to music collectively, it’s a beautiful thing.’

(Photo credit: The Shoot. Evans is the one wearing a hat.)