Missing Hours Release New Single 'Falling Down'

"'Falling Down' is a song that to Em and I, has a very cold feel to it. We wrote this song in the depths of a London winter - Em had the lyrics/melody of the first verse in her head for some months ("Now, she'll be sitting in her room; it always seems like it's late night there"), and the chorus idea came to me out of the blue whilst in the kitchen of our tiny flat in Fulham late one night.

We always liked the slightly darker, almost witchy quality in the opening lyrics and we were intrigued to follow that initial idea wherever it took us; we had no preconceptions about what we wanted or intended that song to be, we just went along for the ride and allowed 'Falling Down' to take shape in its own time.

The lyrics for the chorus came about one night after a London party where Emma had noticed a man constantly checking out another woman while his girlfriend's back was turned. She could see he wanted to be somewhere else, but didn't have the balls to break away from his current situation to go after what he really wanted. This scenario was the inspiration for the song's theme - Em is basically saying to the stranger across the room that she sees through his disguise, but she won't give his game away... for now.

There is no sense of empathy or sympathy with the stranger when Em sings this song, she is simply asking the question "do you want to be alive? Or do you want to be a liar?" either way, there is an unsettling sense that if you choose the latter, the ultimate power lies with those who discover your deepest secrets.

This song was a stylistic change in direction for us at the time and we recorded the original demo in Groove Armada's Oxford Studio "Lazy Moon" (the one featured on the cover of "Goodbye Country, Hello Nightclub"). It was the first time we had experimented with slightly darker beats and samples underneath electric guitars as opposed to writing/recording with acoustic instruments and it opened up a new way of approaching song writing for us.

'Falling Down' was also the first of the rock songs recorded for the Missing Hours album and its inclusion on the record inspired the writing of songs like 'Machine', 'Make You Better', 'Run' and 'So Far Away' as well as generating some really good label interest. Before 'Falling Down', we were still an independent band with no major label deal so the song definitely opened some doors for us.

We tracked 'Falling Down' at Studio 1 in Melbourne with Barry Palmer and Aaron Humphries and had some amazing performances by Tim Henwood (the signature guitar riff belongs to him), Peter Jones, Michael Den Elzen and Sam Holloway. After signing with Sony/BMG the track was re-mixed by Chris Lord-Alge (My Chemical Romance, Greenday etc) which was a real thrill for us.

'Falling Down' has a cold and calculating, almost voyeuristic feel to it and it shows a darker side of Em's personality. This song will always feel like Winter to us.

Ant."