“Soma” is the opening track from the newly released album “So That’s How It Ended…”.

 

 

Composition

The four lines from the chorus are taken from Aldous Huxley's classic 1932 novel, Brave New World: 

I thought it’d be cool to turn those four lines into an actual song and I immediately came up with a matching melody. 

I then wrote music and lyrics for the verses, pre-chorus and bridge. For this, I immersed myself in the book and peppered the lyrics with phrases from the novel (“Alpha-Plus”, “pleasantly hallucinant”, etc.).

 

Production

Brave New World describes a futuristic society in which feelings have been suppressed and music is a pacifier for the masses (very much like pop music today, actually). I thought the music had to be mostly electronic and emotionless, yet catchy and satisfying. A pop ditty people would hopefully want to sing along to…

I had been looking for a suitable project to work on with my friend Fay Cannings and very early on – almost from the start – I thought this would be a perfect song for her. Her delivery is stripped of emotion – exactly as I wanted it for this song – yet with a very satisfying pop sensibility. 

Apart from guitars, the entire backing track was built on my trusted Roland FA-06 synth:

• for drums, the “XV WayHipKit” patch
• for bass, the “TB Dist Bs 1”
• for piano, the “Full Grand 1”
• for the main pad, the “JP8 Strings 1”
• for the voice pad on the pre-chorus, a mix of “Longing…”, “Asian Morn” and “Synvox Comps”
• for additional synth parts, the “Phaze Pad”

For the arpeggios at the end of the bridge, I used FM8’s “Thumped Again” patch with the built-in arpeggiator. 

The guitar parts were played on the keyboard and rendered with RealStrat and various GuitarRig 5 effects.

 

Credits

Based on and featuring lines from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (Chatto & Windus, 1932)

Music: A. Robin

Lyrics: A. Robin, Aldous Huxley

Vocals: Fay Cannings

Instruments: SuperCool-Guy

Arrangement, mix and production: SuperCool-Guy

Mastering: Jon Astley 

 

Lyrics

We won’t make a mess and we won’t make a fuss

Honey, come over if you’re Alpha-Plus

 

Half a gramme to the stars

We’ll be flying without wires

 

CHORUS:

Hug me till you drug me, honey (honey)

Kiss me till I’m in a coma (coma)

Hug me, honey, snuggly bunny (bunny)

Love’s as good as soma

Love’s as good as soma

 

Euphoric, pleasantly hallucinant

So narcotic and so illuminant

 

Half a gramme to the stars

We’ll be flying without wires

 

CHORUS x2

 

Take me to the climax without end

Give me pleasure without pain

Where the feeling is magic and love is just a game

My pill, my friend

 

CHORUS x2

 

Hug me, honey, snuggly bunny (bunny)

Love’s as good as soma

Love’s as good as soma