** PREMIERE ** Lhymes - Christo Rey

Words: Linn Branson

Little Indie featured emerging Darlington-based band Lhymes back in September with their debut single, 'Is This Life'.

Now they return with follow up, 'Christo Rey'. "We're looking forward to people's reactions to 'Christo Rey,'" the band tell Little Indie. "It's a complete contradiction in terms of style and sound, which is what we set out to do. It's probably not what people will expect."

Recorded by Jamie Devine at Loft Music Studios. bass player
Kieran Elliot says that while 'Christo Rey' has been in their repertoire "for what seems like forever", there have been several different versions of it. "It's had loads of different names and totally different lyrics, but I'm loving how it's finally ended up.”

So are we, and are stoked to bring you its debut.

'Christo Rey' is an atmospheric and moving downtempo number that while veritably simple in structure, is powerful and melodically affecting. "We very much enjoy making the chilled out, downbeat and cleaner melodic music, really focusing on letting the vocals and the smooth instrumental shine through," adds vocalist and songwriter Ben Connor. "A main aim of ours is for our songs to be very lyrically strong. It was really nice having the piano in this one."

The original song was apparently about someone who lived in Los Andes in Columbia, says Ben:

"I had mentioned the statue in the original. However, the song has changed over the years and it developed into a completely different song that can now be interpreted into 'Christo Rey' being a non-specific gentleman who seems to have got himself into a rather perturbed situation.

"I came up with this while on holiday in Spain and I was reading about the statue of Columbia because it came up in conversation. I also pulled the story from events that have happened to me and thought it was worth my while penning it down to form a song, all I needed was the guitar."

The band are already working on a third single, 'Looks Like Rain', and setting sights on an EP, both for release next year, which makes us think 2018 is going to be the breakout year for Lhymes.

Lhymes are: Ben Connor (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Kieran Elliot (bass), Joseph Allen (lead guitar), Matthew Jenkinson (drums).

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