Howie Payne – “Some Believer, Sweet Dreamer” (audio) (premiere)

Once upon a time, Liverpool’s Howie Payne fronted the Stands. Through the band’s short lifespan of three years between 2002 and 2005, they’d garnered the attention of Noel Gallagher and supported Oasis in concert multiple times. The cult following they’d received from the exposure netted them five consecutive Top 40 hits on the UK charts.

It stands to say that Payne’s come a long way since then. On “Some Believer, Sweet Dreamer”, he wears his heroes on his sleeve. It’s a retro rock track inspired by some of the greats. A memorable guitar riff opening up proceedings seals the deal as the song commences into something slow-burning and seductive. Things pick up around an earworm of a chorus before a sprightly organ carries the song on into the next verse.

Payne says, “I wrote ‘Some Believer, Sweet Dreamer’ walking around London. I wanted to write something that had a kind of epic ness to it, like those great ’60s/’70s songs by Neil Young, Nick Drake, Pink Floyd and all that. I had this chord someone had shown me; it’s in a tune by Love, a magnificent sounding chord. So I was playing around with that and came up with this little pattern that I thought was pretty cool.”

“Over the next couple of days when I was was out and about, I had this pattern in mind and started to make up some words for it. I wasn’t really thinking about what or who it might be about; I just liked how the words sounded together. I mean, it’s probably me singing to me, you know, but it could be about anyone who’s moved around some, who’s chasing something, and I think we all feel like that sometimes.”

Howie Payne’s new album, Mountain will be released on October 27, 2017 via Full Stack.