Johnny Borrell, singer, guitarist
I worked at Stamford Bridge, guarding the players' tunnel on match days and walking the players to their cars after the match. I was standing between the locker room and the press area so I was able to hear the halftime talk and watch most of the Chelsea game. It was once every 10 days, but it was still the biggest job I've ever had. So when Mercury offered me £500,000, I was like, 'Well, I mean, I don't know…'
I lived above a Nigerian clothing store called La Chi Chi. There was a bed, a record player, a desk, and a fridge for beer. I was of the opinion that if you wanted to be a songwriter, you had to spend every waking moment composing. I was completely focused. I sat down and thought: “Most of my favorite songs are just three chords. If you play three chords for eight hours, you'll probably come up with a good song.”
I played A, G#m, C#m and sang, “I know a man with golden hands / You better have him / If you can.” . If you can find the first line, which means you know who you're talking to and what you're trying to say, the rest of the lines tend to follow. DJ Mairead Nash from Queens of Noize was a good friend of mine and part of our gang. It was us, the Libertines and Mairead. I remembered her story. After writing, “I know a girl with a golden touch / She has enough / She has too much,” I thought to myself. There's that song. ”
I still have all the recordings. Sometimes listening back can make me nervous. It's like watching Gazza slide in at the far post in Italia 90 and thinking, “I'll just make contact'' even though I know he's not going to do it. You can hear me come up with the first verse that fleshes out this song. Then I hear my old flip phone ringing. I put down my guitar with a clatter and said, “Hello.” If the phone had rang two minutes earlier, I might never have written this song.
Bjorn Øgren, guitarist
We had a small rehearsal space in Leyton, east London, near an ice rink. It was probably in the evening since I was the only one working normally. They were selling jeans at Diesel so I had to wait until I finished. The rehearsal began with snack time. Because Johnny used to say, “I have a new song.'' He was sitting on the couch playing it on his electric guitar. I remember being really surprised. I told him: “The verses are really great, but the chorus doesn't really get excited.'' At the next rehearsal, he took over the chorus. I thought, “This is going to be difficult.''
I just learned about chord inversions, which are commonly used by organ players. This allows the instrument to fit into one frequency range and blend better with other instruments. In conclusion, you don't need to move your hands much. The pre-chorus part of Golden Touch is a great example of chord inversion on the guitar. The two chords are repeated twice, playing higher and higher up the neck. When I looked at the score for the first Razorlight album and saw my guitar part, I remember thinking I must be like the Simpletons. “Even a 5-year-old can play with it!” I thought.
We had recorded some demos and decided that Golden Touch was one of our best songs, so we needed to polish it up. We soon had an album's worth of material, but after a few changes of producers, the first singles Stumble and Fall and Rip It Up, and the beginning of Golden Touch until the drums came in. Part of it. In Golden Touch's final verse, you can hear thigh-slapping sounds and breathy backing vocals recorded days before the final mix was completed.
I don't think I've ever performed live without playing Golden Touch. There have been several live iterations over the years. It has a very good groove, so you can get absorbed in it when you play it. We do a little section where we're completely dead and people sing along, which is a little unusual because it's a song from 20 years ago. Even at festivals, when it starts at 3 p.m., I think, “I guess there aren't any super Razorlight fans here.” But sure enough, people sing along. It's amazing that you can create something that resonates so much.
