Let's be honest: life isn't all sunshine and roses right now.
Looking at the charts, though, and you could be tricked into thinking people were having the time of their lives.
As Joe Strummer once you observed: you have to have music like the way you feel. And PROSE definitely do this.
The Northern four-piece have experienced the harsher elements of life, and this is reflected in their songwriting. Poverty, hardship, homelessness, struggling to get by… it's all in there, with the band refusing to flinch from reality.
Yet this is blended with a romantic streak, with an urge to survive, and a ready Northern wit that takes everything in its stride.
New album 'Home Of The Brave' is out now – here's a Track By Track guide penned by PROSE themselves…
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Home Of The Brave
This song is a metaphorical and physical representation of the childhood home I grew up in, how it isn’t the same as it used to be, but the family bond we made there is stronger than bricks and cement.
Ballad
I wrote this while feeling stuck in the area I’m from and how it can sometimes feel like you're trapped there with no prospects and no way out. Things can get on top of you when you are there.
My Heart
Coming from where we do, not many people get a taste of success. It’s easy to sometimes doubt people’s motives for wanting to get close to you when they didn’t care before.
Caravan
I wrote this about the memories I made as a child going on holidays to caravan parks and holiday sites. We made some of the best memories there as a family and I know plenty more people had the same kind of holidays as kids.
Mountains
Leaving our children at home a lot while we was making this album was a hard thing to do. We would be away for days, even weeks, on end and would miss them more than anything in the world. So we wrote this to tell them that no matter what we are coming home soon and will miss them while we are away.
Half The Man
This song is about not fulfilling who you were supposed to be as a person. The concept is me talking to my father while he was in prison and asking him what led him to be there. But it can be for all of us who don't chase our dreams and fulfil what we are here to achieve.
Further
This one’s about a relationship on the rocks and how sometimes things get said in the heat of the moment that maybe take it a little further than you expected to.
Highs And Lows
This song takes you through a step by step night out for me, I’m renowned for being a little bit of a balloon when I’m pissed! I think this is a fun song to play at a gig because everyone else is a little bit pissed as well!
All Too Familiar
We had written this song a while ago and remade it in London with Sunny. The concept is me speaking to my subconscious and giving myself a bit of a grilling.
Have It All
I have a four year old boy named Eli, he is the light of my life and means more to me than anything in the world. This is a song I wrote for him when he was a little bit younger.
Let Us Down
This song takes you through the stages of a relation ship, whereas it starts out great and on top of the world and slowly things begin to unravel and ends in turmoil.
Mr 1 and Mr 2
I wrote this story a few years ago and originally we had different music behind it, but we went to London and in a session with Mojam and Lee started to play that dark riff and I just did that over it and it fitted so well. We got the vocals down in one take and loved it!
All Of Those Tears
Sometimes in this music game our minds can get in the way and our doubts can become so big that they cause problems, but we fight through them and become stronger for it.
Feel Your Way
Given the state of the world at the moment, this one was important for us to put on the album. It’s the only real social commentary we have on this body of work, but it talks about the corruption, racism and greed in our government and how if we all stand as one we are stronger than they could ever hope to be.
Pick You Up
'Pick You Up' is all about the sacrifices we made to get where we want to be and how people only see the good bits, but really there’s a lot of hard work and determination we've put into our dreams to get us to this point.
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'Home Of The Brave' is out now.
