Traces of ‘In Colour’ had been floating around in Christy and I’s chats for years. I first heard the central riff in 2016, and as Christy gradually developed the song over time, I struggled to come up with something that felt right. I knew what I wanted to do – I wanted to somehow characterise collective identity and its fear of the unknown. But I just couldn’t get the words right.
Then came the global pandemic. Everything that had happened in the past few years suddenly felt explainable. The tribalism: The refugee crisis, Brexit, the storming of the Capitol building, the murder of George Floyd. There was a feeling of fear across all demographics and sides of the political spectrum. In an age of interconnectivity the world had never seen before, there was a feeling of complete isolation. No one understood anyone. And everyone was out to get you.
I took bits and pieces from everywhere – Police planting piles of bricks at protests in the hopes of allowing them the opportunity to violently escalate. Contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. Delusional right-wing conspiracies suggesting the government were filling drinking water with mind-altering substances. 5G towers set ablaze in glorious displays of technological regression. The world was fucking insane, and the idiots universally were grouping together. Identity politics and culture wars followed the same line of Us and Them. The individual was dead.
~BUCHANAN
