Q Is the song written from a “1984 is coming true“ perspective - a common viewpoint in these times, or were you driven by something else ?

WB. No, the song doesn't really make any reference to the dystopian world of 1984 just the relationship between the two main characters but I do think in the last 10 years or so the world of “1984” has become reality to an extent. There’s always a new enemy to worry about, or so they tell us.

Q You chose to use an ironic play on the “Summer of …” type love song theme that became the hook of the song - did that idea of “Orwell’s” Summer of ‘84 just come to you during the writing process and did you wonder if you could get away with that?
WB. The song came from me reminiscing about my own 1984. After all, despite the literary connection, it was just another year. In fact a very happy one for me – I had moved to Glasgow and all of a sudden I had a whole new set of friends many of whom had different backgrounds but shared the same love of music -and drinking to be honest. It was a great period of my life and Glasgow at that time was full of great old bars. We all drifted apart in the 90’s.
When the band started doing our monthly americana nights a few years back in The Griffin bar in Glasgow (which had been a haunt in the 80’s) a lot of the people from the old days showed up at the gigs and I got the chance to sit down and chat and have a laugh over a glass of whisky or two. The verses were put together from my memories of the book and the main characters' relationship told in flashback. I like whisky, it appears in a lot of Hellfire’s songs.

Q. The version on the album is a full-on blast of guitars, keys, horns and layered harmonies - did you always imagine the recorded version to come out that way?
WB. The original demo of the song was acoustic with double bass, mandolin and 12-string and was in 3/4 timing. It sat like that for several months before I tried changing it to 4/4 and it became a totally different song. With the change in rhythm came the potential for adding the Hammond and sax and a layering of guitars. What's not to like about that I feel very lucky to be part of an eight piece to be able to do stuff like that. The four-part harmonies where always there though.