YORK band Miles And The Chain Gang release their second song and video, Drag Me To The Light, on November 15.
Available on Spotify, iTunes and Apple Music, with the video on YouTube, this follow-up to February’s When It Comes To You reflects the experience of the pandemic lockdown in Spring 2020.
“I wrote the song during lockdown in April,” says frontman Miles Salter. “I was trying to capture the emotional feeling of what was happening, the sense of hunger for human interaction.
“We are social creatures and I think everybody felt the absence of human connection and warmth.”
Drag Me To The Light was recorded in June and July at Young Thugs Studio, at the South Bank Social Club in York, where the video was then filmed in September. “I had no idea that when it came out, it would be during a second lockdown,”’ says Miles, musician, writer, storyteller and presenter of The Arts Show on Jorvik Radio.
Singer and guitarist Miles is joined in The Chain Gang by Billy Hickling, drums and percussion, Tim Bruce, bass, and Alan Dawson, guitar.
Swelling the gang on Drag Me To The Light are Sean McMullan, guitar, Holly Taymar-Bilton, backing vocals, Sam Pirt, accordion, Thomas Rhodes, trumpet, and Jonny Hooker, organ, most of them drawn from the York area.
Hooker also produced the track. “Jonny’s really good to work with and Young Thugs is a great facility,” says Miles. “They want to champion music in the north of England and have enjoyed success with York band Bull, who signed to EMI Records this year.”
Drag Me To The Light is “a bit more funky than things” Salter would write usually. “I think playing with Billy, Tim and Alan has opened me up to other ways of approaching music. It has something of a Nile Rogers feel to it,” says Miles, who then reflects on a very frustrating year.
“As a result of the pandemic, we haven’t played any public gigs. We were due to play our first gig in late-March, and then the first lockdown happened. We’re trying to focus on video and reach people that way.
“We’ve had more than 2,000 views of various things, so that’s not bad, and we’re also developing our social-media presence. We’ve made a lot of progress since the start of 2019. Nobody knew who we were then! So, things are building, slowly.”