News Track By Track: Troumaca - The Grace

Somehow Troumaca defy everything, all these downbeat expectations that crop up at the mere mention of ‘dub’ and whatnot. If anything the Birmingham group far closer sport a clever Peaking Lights-style balancing act, where these terms are anything but dirty words. ‘The Grace’ is defined by frontman Sam Baylis’ proud pronouncements. He bellows every word out like it’s a mission statement. Often these lyrical nuggets are repeated over and over again, as if forming into some kind of trance. No wonder they landed a deal on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label. ‘The Grace’ is the first of many steps, you’d suspect; a boat paddle making its first splash; a deserted island showing hints of its wild climate.

DIY has an exclusive stream of ‘The Grace’, plus word from the band on how each song ended up coming together:



Trees
Geoff: ‘This first song is for us. It’s for what we’ve been through to get to this point.’
Sam: ”Trees’ is about the struggle. The trees are a metaphor for the walls that rise up and try and stop you doing what you want to be doing.’

Sanctify
Sam: ‘It is about decisions. Think of it as a guy who is looking back on choices he made, but he’s writing it after his life has ended, wondering what would have happened if he’d made other choices.’

Gold, Women & Wine
Sam: ‘The word for this one is - debauchery.’
Geoff: ‘It’s a guy who can have anything that he wants, whenever he wants, but he’s caught up around one woman. But he’ll always go back to the women, not the woman.’

Kingdom
Tom: ‘A carnival track, about regret.’
Geoff: ‘It’s the story of a man who had everything he wanted, but he made mistakes and is asking for forgiveness from the people of the kingdom.’

The Sun
Tom: ‘This was the last song we made for the record. It pushed through and elbowed its way onto the album.’
Geoff: ‘It’s an apocalyptic track about the flaming ball in the sky. It’s us trying to show that from what we’ve all been doing to this planet, we’re all fucked. We’re gunna get burned. ‘The Sun’ is a dark track. Ironically.’

Interlude
Tom: ‘This piece on the record is quite dark and naughty. It locks the mood of the album. It’s a window into the feeling of making our own record in our own studio with no interference.’
Geoff: ‘There’s the hint of getting fooled by a woman. ‘Your words are cheap’.

Tiger Eye
Tom: ‘Fulfilment is something every soul chases. This is about risking your heart, for the chance of fulfilment. The tiger’s eye is this dangerous, mesmerising thing. It’s letting down your boundaries and throwing caution to the wind, for the wild tiger female.’

Ivory
Geoff: ”Ivory’ is the oldest song on the record. It has grown and always been around, and something was caught.’
Sam: ‘The story is about death. I wrote it when I lost my granddad, and was getting through that. The chorus is about not showing your emotions. Not opening up. It’s an emotional one! Stay hooked on the beat and the bass. And you should feel it!’

Layou
Tom: ‘I wrote this song very quickly, just me and the acoustic guitar. We lost the vocal, for the live show, so it was an instrumental for a long while. The vocal returned for the album. It’s about adventure, and being free, seeing things that aren’t on your plate every day. Layou is a place in Troumaca. It’s a place no one really knows anything about, so to someone else, it could represent the escape of being anywhere.’

Lady Colour
Geoff: ‘Lady Colour began as a full-on garage track. Matt started playing piano, and that brought it down a bit and gave it the feeling it has now. It felt like it grew over a few days, matured, like a good whiskey.’
Sam: ‘It’s about the magic of a female. How females can make you feel. With ease.’
Geoff: ‘We’re young men, and this is what we’re into.’

The Grace
Geoff: ‘The last track on the record, and it grew out of four organ chords. It’s about going through soul searching, and finding happiness in who you are. Grace is my Nan’s name - she was the head of the family, and she was the queen of Troumaca. Everyone felt the love from Grace. She was a very important woman to a lot of people on the island, so it’s great we got her name in there.’
Tom: ‘She’s actually sampled on the album, between ‘Lady Colour’ and ‘The Grace’. She’s telling Geoff’s family how to cook breadfruit, in such a melodic way. Breadfruit is the fruit of St Vincent. We were lucky enough to have family video that we could use. Geoff’s uncle is on the album somewhere too.’
Geoff: ‘Uncle V makes an appearance, sounding like a dancehall MC!’
Tom: ‘Musically, ‘The Grace’ has got quite a gospel feel to it, and it’s almost like the rejoice at the end of the record. It closes the mood, but leaves the final thought of ‘the girls are killing me’, which sums up the record.’