Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
Purchasable with gift card
name your price
about
After Paper Anthem's third record—2021's not-COVID-album-COVID-album 'The Year You'll Never Get Back'—frontman Joseph Hitchcock felt it heralded the end of an era (begun in 2015 with debut album 'By Ghosts'), and a geographical relocation. The success of that album—and its anthemically dejected predecessor 'To All the Sailors We've Lost'—allowed the American-born songwriter a move to London, home to countless bands who inspired his sound, to form a new band under the same name and continue the project. Enter Romanian bassist Carlo Haltrich, Nottinghamian drummer Joe Spoors, and Lebanese guitarist Noor Harajli, each bringing a new level of passion and proficiency to Hitchcock's songwriting.
“Gameplan is me analyzing my own need for romantic companionship as I find myself in yet another cycle of painful courtship,” Hitchcock explains. Gameplan was produced by Danny Monk (Foals, Florence and the Machine, Daughter) at his studio near Baker Street, before being mixed by regular collaborator Brett Shaw at 123 Studios in Peckham. “Danny was a substitute engineer we met at 123, as Brett can’t work on weekends, but we got on with him so well that we just wanted to keep producing with him too,” Hitchcock adds. “Our next album will be pretty much evenly split between Danny Monk and Brett Shaw tracks.”
Says bassist Carlo Haltrich: “This is a very unique song for us—for me, personally—because it’s the first Paper Anthem song to have a bass solo.” Haltrich laughs as Hitchcock interjects: “Well, it’s also the first Paper Anthem song to have a guitar solo, too.” “Is it really?” Haltrich asks, before continuing sarcastically: “Well, we made sure to introduce both at the same time so you can’t hear the bass underneath.”
Drummer Joe Spoors remembers: “I forgot that we’d written the song until we went to rehearse it like literally two hours later, and [Joseph] explained to me that we had just written the song, and you played me the drums we’d written … and then we went to the studio the next day and recorded it. And so other than me forgetting the song entirely because I was so sleep deprived, it was the most prepared we’d been on a song. I don’t think it needed much tweaking after we got the parts down.”
“We had, like, ten takes or something,” Haltrich continues, “And we kept getting it wrong. I swear, it was the only song where I just couldn’t play it all the way through.” Hitchcock adds, “Danny was really pushing us to record it live as a band, but because we had just written it and I’m a massive, insufferable perfectionist, we kept tweaking parts and doing it again. It took us three separate productions of the song before it was done, and we ended up overdubbing my guitars again anyway. And Noor [rhythm guitar] had just joined the band days prior, and the last day working on Gameplan was our first day ever in the studio with her.”
“I really wanted everyone in the band to clap on all the snares,” says Hitchcock. “But Danny in his good taste restrained it to just the choruses.” “I did remote clapping,” adds Haltrich, who couldn’t be there that day. “I hid myself in my wardrobe covered in clothes and recorded [my] clapping separately.”
“I’m so proud of the lyrics here,” Hitchcock says. “This song is quite new, written this summer in Cantelowes Gardens, in Camden. I remember when the lyrics for the chorus came out of my mouth for the first time, in a state of improvisation… ‘I just want to feel like I’m your best, but I feel like less’, and I heard that come out of my mouth, and, finally realising how I’d been feeling lately without processing it properly, I just started crying right then and there.”
lyrics
Hand to God, I just wanna win
I wanna taste it, just this once
Can you hear what I'm asking?
I just wanna feel alive
Cause I don't like this anymore
And I don't wanna be here sometimes
It's all part of the gameplan and it's my life to lose
It's all part of the process
I try my best and you like me less
It's all part of the gameplan
And if it's all a game, will I pass the test?
Is it too much that I'm asking?
I just wanna feel like I'm your best, but I feel like less
I run outside, check the window
Inside is everyone I know, facing away
I rap on the glass with my knuckle, but they just tune me out
It's not your fault that I need you
And if it ever gets heavy, just take your time
It's all part of the gameplan and it's my love to lose
It's all part of the process
I try my best and you like me less
It's all part of the gameplan
And if it's all a game, will I pass the test?
Is it too much that I'm asking?
I just wanna feel like I'm your best, but I feel like less
It's all part of the process
I try my best and you like me less
It's all part of the gameplan
And if it's all a game, will I pass the test?
Is it too much that I'm asking?
I just wanna feel like I'm your best, but I feel like less
Yeah I feel like less and less
I just wanna feel like I'm your best, but I feel like less
credits
released November 8, 2023
Lyrics by Joseph Hitchcock
Music by Joseph Hitchcock, Noor Harajli, Carlo Haltrich, Joe Spoors
Joseph Hitchcock - lyrics, vocals, lead guitar, acoustic guitar, handclaps
Noor Harajli - rhythm guitar, handclaps
Carlo Haltrich - bass, handclaps
Joe Spoors - drums, handclaps
Danny Monk - percussion, handclaps
Produced by Danny Monk
Mixed by Brett Shaw at 123 Studios in Peckham
Mastered by Felix Davis at Metropolis Studios
Brighton, UK band leaven surging hard rock with spaced-out stoner-doom on their second LP, recorded in an old chapel on the English coast. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 9, 2022
Throwing rationality to the wind, Belgian experimental band the Guru Guru weave a quirky tapestry of post-punk, mathcore, and kraut rock. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 29, 2020
Mostly written & recorded during lockdown, the latest from Oregon group Corvair is big on early ’80s FM rock hooks & power pop charm. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 28, 2021
Seattle band conjure a summer-ready dreamscape through a swirling combination of dream pop, psychedelia, and disco. Bandcamp New & Notable May 11, 2022
Western State Hurricanes were an early iteration of The Long Winters, and some of that band’s beloved songs turn up here in an early state. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 16, 2020