By Jack
Occasionally we get sent something that validates why we do this. Thank God It’s Not Friday are a duo based in Mexico who have written a song celebrating, you guessed it, Stoke-on-Trent.
Given that the Potteries is pretty much as far as you can get from Mexico, I asked them to elaborate:
“One day we were looking through the list of cities where our Spotify listeners are from, and we saw that someone listened to us from Stoke-on-Trent. We thought it was a really unique and cool name (because every city we’ve been to has the typical one word name), and since we were coming up with city names for our story we thought it was a perfect fit.”
‘Stoke-on-Trent’ is a gorgeous tune, full of life, passion and colour. Yaiza & Laura, who make up TGINF, imagine for themselves a place they’ve never been, bringing their imagined Stoke to life. Because this isn’t the Stoke we know. Going on nothing but that name, the girls imagined for themselves a lush tropical paradise (just like the real Stoke). It forms part of the wider story on the album Nearby Ocean:
“‘Stoke on Trent’ is about a town that our main character (Louise) discovers…in the middle of the jungle in a perfect, peaceful island called Nearby Ocean…basically the song is about how Louise really admires the town because it’s the perfect place to be. She wishes she was from there and wants to stay there forever, but she has to accept that she has another home and must eventually go back to it.”
Considering the two make music via the internet (one studies in Mexico, the other in Canada) it’s amazing how cohesive and natural the track is. It’s a laid-back extended jam session, with multiple parts and an expressive sound encompassing distorted guitar, bongo drums, hand claps and jazzy ascending keys.
The idea of creating a setting for your song based off of a city name is such a refreshing and fulfilling creative process, and the results truly shine.
They’ve done Stoke proud.
Follow Thank God It’s Not Friday here.
