Behind The Tracks: Midland Railway - Unwavering Optimism (Single) (2025)

Unwavering Optimism initially had no intro. The vocals just came straight in. Neil Maunders, our pretend Rivers Cuomo in Wheezed, had told me about how excessively long intros is a really common songwriting faux-pas, so he challenges his students to write songs that just go straight in. While I am not overly guilty of excessively long intros, I had never written a song that just goes straight in. However, in the first rehearsal (in which only Kat, Billy, and I were there, as Sarah and Andy were away), we experimented a bit and the buildup at the start definitely added to the song. Because the song is so simple, it was very easy to get up to speed very quickly to add it to our live sets, and playing in three-piece form does give each of the instruments more space, and the bassline and drums filled that space really nicely.

 

We recorded it at Through The Roof Studios in Hyde, with production by Andy James, and mastering by Lismore Mastering. Billy got the drums down in, I think, just 2 takes. Kat and I added the guitar and bass parts we had been playing live, and then one of the most fun parts of a recording session is always the musical equivalent of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, and Andy came up with some really good ideas. We added the muted chords on the 3rd verse and the discordant high notes on the guitar. Kat sang the backing vocals, and we added the keyboard solo (which I played on my 2nd hand Casio keyboard) and the cool weird effect at the end.

 

The end result is that we have what is, at it's core, a really simple pop song, recorded in quite a heavy rock way, and I love how it has come out. It might just be our best single so far? I also like that it feels a bit different to the songs on our first album and our Late Arrivals EP. It is important for the sound of a band to evolve, to keep things interesting, but doing so while maintaining or raising the quality of the music is not so easy. I feel like we have done pretty well with Unwavering Optimism.