Morphine was nearly a track on my first album. It carries on from the idea of grief and being helped back into reality. The irony is that sometimes the friends who help you back are also going through some horrible things.

Listen to ‘Morphine’ on SoundCloud.

It’s a thank you letter to a close group of friends. It celebrates them and acknowledges what happens.

I started writing this song wanting it to sound like Tellison. At times it comes close.

It’s also my first time recording in standard tuning since before I can remember. I wasn’t comfortable in anything other than drop D, and the song was originally written like this. I realised it had no need to be in drop D, given it was a simple harmony in G major. I practised with this “new” tuning and it settled in well.

When recording in standard tuning on my Telecaster, it sounded like a country song which I did not like. I put a bit more distortion on the virtual amps and tried to regain that Tellison post-rock sound.

Morphine took far too long to write. I think I settled on the song a year ago. I had trouble teasing out the bridge and the prechorus. But we got there!