Your Life Is Over Now…: Track by Track with Bicurious

One of most fascinating and lovable names in the European post / math scene, the new record from Bicurious see’s the Dublin duo expanding their scope whilst furthering what made them brilliant in the first place.

The second full length from the project formed of Gavin Purcell (drums) and Taran Plouzané (guitar, vocals), Your Life Is Over Now… see’s Bicurious further building upon their renowned take on once instrumental rock. A far more lyrical and vocal-led body of work compared their previous output, whilst the record may see’s the band pushing their sound into new lyrical pastures, this second record is by no means a departure for the band. Instead, that playful, technical, delirious and loose sound that we all know and love is retained and only augmented by lyrical work and personal ruminations that define this album.

With the record out now via Big Scary Monsters, we got in touch with Gavin and Taran to break down Your Life Is Over Now…, track by track.

Coming Around

Gavin: This was the first vocal-led song Taran brought to me. I remember he had an instrumental version on a logic session done with pre-programmed midi drums and than Taran told me after listening to the song that he was going to sing over it. I love albums that open with a fast paced heavy energetic drum groove like ‘Heart Attack American’ by The Bronx or ‘I Think You Ain’t Worth A Dollar’ by Queens Of The Stone Age. I love that this track opens the album and the lyric “and then I had a son and then another one” because it’s true…he did…and they’re both class!

Taran: I was inspired by DFA 1979’s ‘Freeze Me’ – I love that main riff, and I wanted to have a riff that uses the same structure, jumping back and forth between melody and bass line. I remember sitting on the couch at home and hashing out the main riff, which paved the way for the verse riff, and so on. It felt like a pretty natural thing to put vocals on it. When I started adding vocals to some of these song ideas, I was mainly just singing the guitar line, as I didn’t want them to become “proper” vocal songs… So you can hear that in the verse and the outro of ‘Coming Around’. The chorus vocal melody, however, was something that took about two years to sort out. There were multiple different versions of it, none of which I was completely happy with. Eventually we just ran out of time, so I went with the one I liked the most! Lyrically, the song is about family. The chorus opens with the line “I’m the captain”, which is something my 4 year-old son was shouting around the house one morning, and that somehow inspired me to write the chorus lyrics. Overall, I really like this song, its positive power, the way it just bursts open right from the start – which is actually the reason why we have it as the album opener, and also our new live set opener!

Gutless

Taran: ‘Gutless’ written after my son June, just a one year-old at the time, spent a few days in hospital, fighting what seemed to be gastroenteritis. Before we brought him to the hospital, he was unable to keep down any food or drink, which quickly got him very weak and dehydrated, almost zombie-like. In hospital, he was hooked up to IVs to be fed and hydrated, and thankfully got better after a while. The song is written from his perspective, as a baby who doesn’t have a clue about what is going on around him – doctors, nurses, parents are running around trying to find out what’s wrong and trying to get him better, and he is just clueless, helpless.

Musically, I weirdly tried to channel my inner Jamie Lenman when writing the opening riff. I don’t know if there actually is any similarity to a Jamie Lenman song, but that’s what I had in my head at that point. The rest of the song just flowed naturally after that. The bulk of the song was written at home, apart from the bridge section, which we wrote in the rehearsal room together.

We created the music video by asking a bunch of our friends and fans to film themselves singing along to the song. I then edited all the footage together, and ended up with a really cool music video that shows the strong relationship we have with our fans, which I find really wholesome and powerful.

Gavin: It was awesome to see how much people put in so much effort for the footage they shot of themselves for the music video. It was really wholesome to see people filming themselves enjoying our music with their family members which I suppose ties in to the whole concept of the album being about family and community. Then on the other scale there were some people who literally filmed themselves eating dirt to our music which was impressive and very entertaining to watch.

Uncle Kevin

Taran: ‘Uncle Kevin’ is one that changed a lot over time. It originally stemmed from a guitar line that didn’t even make it onto the final version of the song. We went through numerous arrangements and various ways of playing each section, before settling into this kind of simple, fat Thrice-y chorus. The outro is one of my favourite parts of the album. It’s something that just kinda came together during the pre-production sessions with our producer Tom. Lyrically, the song is about an estranged father and child, and the uncle in the middle, trying to keep what’s left of the relationship alive. Difficult relationships with parents is something that is too common, and I hope that the song might bring some comfort to some people.

Gavin: The voice sample at the end of ‘Uncle Kevin’ is my friend Hannah who sadly passed away shortly before the recording process of the album. It was one of the last voice notes she sent me alongside a funny song she sent me. The outro section and the lyric “You’ll never be alone” switched meaning for me after Hannah died and it reminded me of Hannah and the last conversation we had on the phone together a few days before she died.

Magic Marker

Taran: I think this might be my favourite song on the album. The chorus in particular, it gives me goosebumps every time (that’s what I was trying to achieve!). That chorus was actually completely different before I decided to try a “Purdie shuffle” version. I remember almost dropping the idea after someone told me that my computer-drum demo version of it sounded like John Mayer. I don’t like John Mayer at all, so that was a tough one to hear. But when Gav played it, it actually made sense, and it didn’t sound like John Mayer anymore, thank god. The song is about making a promise to myself when I was a kid that I would always try as hard as possible to live my life in music, and how having a family, getting married, and life in general can sometimes make that a bit complicated. It’s about balance, and figuring out what’s really important to you, I guess.

Gavin: John Mayer is gonna be raging when we won’t let him support us on our next tour. Sorry Mr Mayer but that’s show biz!

Monday Afternoon

Taran: This is one of the first vocal-led songs we wrote. I remember wanting to have a song with an intro similar to ‘Scentless Apprentice’ by Nirvana. I worked in a supermarket at the time, and I spent my shift writing the opening riff in my head. Sure, it’s nothing like Nirvana, but I think it has that big riff kinda vibe. At least that’s what inspired it. The rest of the song just came out gradually. Thematically, it’s about feeling like a waste of space, having nothing to offer, and needing to grow up fast. It’s a really fun song to play, there’s a kind of bratty positive energy from it.

Untitled

Taran: It’s difficult to talk about this one openly. We changed the title of the song at the last minute because the original title was too obvious, and I didn’t feel comfortable with people knowing what the song was about at first glance. The lyrics are pretty obvious, so if you listen to the song you’ll figure it out pretty quickly, but I wanted to keep it somewhat subtle. This one, along with ‘Monday Afternoon’ and ‘Coming Around’, was part of the first batch of songs we had for the album, which we demoed at our manager’s studio in Cork back in 2022. When we were tracking the vocals back in March/April, we were under time pressure to get 10 songs done in seven days. I was doing quite well until my voice broke on the 5th day, as we started to record ‘Untitled’. So if you listen carefully, you can hear the weakness in my voice in various parts of this song, especially the verses.

Mr. Big Time Manager

Taran: This one is just a little love letter to our manager Alex!

Gavin: Alex never got his drum key back and he is the real meanie.

Blind

Taran: I was listening to a lot of Turnstile at the time of writing this song, and I think that had an influence on the main riff. This was a pretty straightforward song to write – I came up with the bones of it at home, and we put it all together in the rehearsal room. The lyrics speak of the difficulties of being a father at times, as anything you do, good or bad, can have a lifelong impact on a child’s life. Kids learn from imitating their parents, so it’s really important to always try and set a good example, but the reality is that human beings are not perfect, and we make mistakes. I guess the challenge is to try and rectify those mistakes, or being honest and transparent with the child and, and explain, apologise, and learn together from those mistakes. It’s a pressure that I put myself every single day as a father, always trying to be the best possible version of myself, to try and raise strong, confident and kind human beings. But when you’re also trying to work on yourself as a person, stretching yourself between family life, being a parent, a husband, a musician, a friend… it can be exhausting, and that’s when mistakes creep in. We live and learn.

Irish Summer Day

Taran: This song was originally a finger-picked acoustic ballad that I wrote for myself, separate from Bicurious. It’s a really delicate song, and a very sad story. When we started adding vocals to our music, I wondered whether this one could work as a heavy Bicurious tune, so I got working on it. Gav really liked it, so we went with it. It’s difficult to talk about the meaning of the song, but essentially it’s about suicide, and the loss of a loved one.

Gavin: I personally think these are the best lyrics Taran has ever written.  Goose bump classified banger.

Acrylic Fences

Taran: I believe ‘Acrylic Fences’ is probably the best song we’ve ever written as a band. It has riffs, groove, catchy melodies, raw emotion and weird time signatures. That’s why we chose it as a lead single, and why it got the most expensive music video! As it was the lead single from the album, it was really interesting to see how people might react to it, assuming they expected another instrumental song. It was pretty amazing to see the love that everyone had for the track, it kind of paved the way for the rest of the album release. Thematically, the ‘Acrylic Fences’ refer to the walls that one can build around them in a relationship, and how narrow-minded one can become trying to break those walls down.

Gavin: I agree with Taran probably the best song we’ve ever written. Riffs, dancey, fun but dark… all the right ingredients for a Bicurious tune. The main drum groove started taking shape after seeing Jamie Lenman play at StrangeForms. We were jamming the day after and I was trying to play a groove similar to his song ‘Hardbeat’ and that groove eventually evolved into the groove during the verses on ‘Acrylic Fences’.

Crumbled

Taran: ‘Crumbled’ is, in my opinion, the song that stands out the most in comparison to our previous material, in terms of how different it is. It’s basically a poppy rock ballad kinda thing, but something about the emotion and honesty throughout the song makes it very special. That outro is also up there as one of my favourite parts of the album. It’s anthemic, and I think it’s a pretty perfect way to close out an album. You can even hear some piano in there, courtesy of our producer Tom Peters. The lyrics speak of the disappointment a partner can feel towards their better half, when they continuously come short of their expectations.

Gavin: When we were putting the finishing touches on this song during one of the pre-productions sessions we couldn’t find a part to fit underneath lyrics for the part at 1:15 in. We tried loads of different variations and then one of us said “let’s try it half time” and we did! I looked over at Tom and Alex while we were playing and I saw they were digging it. If you ever want to make anyone do a stank face play a section in half time!

Your Life Is Over Now… is out now via Big Scary Monsters. Purchase the record here.