Singled Out: Lakes' Start Again

Keavin Wiggins | 07-11-2021

UK rockers Lakes are gearing up to release their sophomore album, "Start Again" on July 30th, and to celebrate we asked vocalist/guitarist Roberto Cappellina to tell us about the title track. Here is the story:

By the time Blue [Jenkins] had joined the band we'd written most of the new record, which we were set on calling 'Talk!' at the time. Matt had two instrumentals floating around that Blue and I were trying to write to, but with no joy. My process for writing in Lakes has always been the same: Matt sends me some music over WhatsApp, then I'll usually follow the initial vocal melody that the music evokes...it's pretty instantaneous. However, I couldn't get past that initial hook 'and it makes me feel that I could start again'. What was it that I was starting again?

I'd spend a lot evenings over the following months, usually high, trying to build around that one line, but it was miss after miss. Then one weekend I had some bad mushrooms, along with some other indulgences and experienced my first panic attack...I actually thought I was having a heart attack. Granted, I was high, but it really felt life-threatening. It was horrendous - my heart rate was through the roof! The ambulance came pretty quickly and I ended up in the emergency room for 8 hours. Given how stretched the national health service was and still is, I was so embarrassed. These nurses and doctors had better things to do than to reassure me I wasn't dying. I felt like an absolute disgrace.

Anyway, the event itself had a lasting impact and it took me months to recover. But it was during that time I started to understand why I'd be living the way I had been, and what actually triggered the attack (apart from the psychedelics). I took the opportunity to be kinder to myself and to essentially hit the reset button. I sought therapy, I started meditating...did some really unflattering yoga poses- everything I'd ever read about to support my mental health.

But I'm conscious that this isn't just my story; there's a collective suffering right now. The song was my personal anthem during those months and it really kept me going, so I wanted to share the motivation. That's essentially what coaxed the song out of me. That and 'You Learn' by Alanis Morissette...I totally ripped off the ending.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below or stream the song via Spotify here