Guy Garvey's track-by-track guide to Asleep in the Back (Deluxe Edition)

Any Day Now

‘Any Day Now’ reflected our feelings of wanting to leave our home town Bury and go and see the world. In order to follow our career in the band none of us went to university, and so this song is about wanting to get out of there. Musically it owes a lot to DJ Shadow and trip hop; Massive Attack, Portishead etc, we're huge fans of that.

Red

This was about a concern for a friend who was doing too much speed, to the point where I worried how it was going to turn out for her. She’s fine as it turns out.

Little Beast

‘Little Beast' is about growing up in Bury, not being a fighter, and occasionally being in dangerous environments. When there's nothing to do in a small town apart from what’s expected of you, you can get caught up in it all. My favourite lyric is "the whole town's dripping down a hill like the spine of something dead". There's actually a mill town north of Bury where the street layout looks like the spine of a dinosaur coming over the hill.

Powder Blue

I saw a couple who were both withdrawing, from whatever it was they were addicted to, in Dry Bar one day. I noticed a tenderness between the two, despite them obviously being strung out; it was a very romantic, but a rather dark, situation.

Bitten By The Tailfly

‘Bitten By The Tailfly’ is about ritualistic Friday and Saturday night pursuits in the centre of Manchester. It’s about the 'find a girl or have a fight' culture that exists in most cities on a weekend; the tribal nature of it is something I love. I was completely leathered, drunk out my skull when I recorded the vocal for this, and the sound / crowd you can hear are the good people of Bury piling out of a night club. Craig [Potter] recorded it from the front seat of his car.

Asleep In The Back

We only added this after the album was finished, bizarrely. Quite often when you're in love you find yourself testing your partner in the early stages of a relationship; telling them all the naff things about you, the dark stuff about you - almost testing how far their love goes (at least I used to do so). It was wonderful working with Ben Hillier, and this track, I think, is sonically one of the most interesting we did with him.

Newborn

An old friend; it’s still the song that’s in the live set all these years after its release. It’s a love song really, despite its dark images: “I'll be the corpse in your bath tub” etc. It was complicated to write, and we were trying to mimic an orchestra whilst doing so. Love that tune.