Bengal Lancers have released their new single ‘I’m Still Here’.
Speaking of the single, lead singer Harry Sullivan said “‘I’m Still Here’ is about coming to terms with your place in the world and taking a step back to see how you fit into the bigger picture. It’s about seeing through the
tougher times in your life and making it to the other side, celebrating everyday victories. Sometimes we struggle
to see the brighter side of life and this track is a rally cry to move past that and focus on the positives.”
To celebrate the single release, we caught up with Bengal Lancers to discover 5 tracks that influenced ‘I’m Still Here’.
Tall Ships – Home | Listen via Spotify
I was exceptionally late to the party in discovering Tall Ships. So late, in fact, that I was devastated to find out they’d broken up. I stumbled upon ‘Home’ and was hooked. I remember messaging a friend who was a die-hard fan and being absolutely furious he hadn’t dragged me to a gig before they’d stopped. This song (and the whole ‘Impressions’ album) is just absolutely beautiful – there’s something very moving about the music they wrote and there are moments of massive euphoria. It massively influenced the direction of where we wanted to go both sonically and lyrically as a band.
The National – Rylan | Listen via Spotify
Good God this track is a tune. I found out over Christmas that The National were my most listened to artist of the decade and I have a feeling it’s mostly due to ‘Rylan’ despite the fact it came out last year. I’ve always been a massive fan of The National (as you can probably tell), but there’s something about this song – the intensity of the drumming and the slow and steady addition of more and more layers is awesome. When we were writing ‘I’m Still Here’ and the other tracks we’ll be releasing shortly, I remember really wanting to push what we were doing a bit further outside of just guitars, drums and keys and starting to experiment further. As a result, we’ve got Charlie on the Trombone at the end and I think it makes the track!
Frightened Rabbit – Good Arms vs Bad Arms | Listen via Spotify
Despite the outrageous listen count, Frightened Rabbit are hands down my favourite band of all time and it’s nearly impossible to pick a single track that has influenced my songwriting over the years. I’ve played ‘Good Arms vs Bad Arms’ acoustically for years and it still remains probably my favourite song of all time. Lyrically Scott Hutchison just had a way of painting a story that I don’t think we’ll see again. It definitely had a big impact on me when he sadly took his life and I think I turned to songwriting at the time to process that. When I was writing ‘I’m Still Here’ and the rest of the tracks around it I wanted to make sure to convey that sense of honesty and catharsis that was translated so well by Frightened Rabbit.
Augustines – Chapel Song | Listen via Spotify
As live bands go, I don’t think you’ll be able to beat Augustines. They had probably the best stage presence I’ve ever seen and I remember watching them at the Roundhouse, Camden and you just feel something in the air. I’d highly recommend watching the RISE documentary if you get a chance because it gives more justice than my words ever will. They poured every blood, sweat and tear out for every show and it meant something to everyone watching – I know that when we were writing ‘I’m Still Here’ we wanted to make sure it was a track where we could just let everything out when we played it and have that moment with the crowd.
Foals – The Runner | Listen via Spotify
I remember hearing ‘The Runner’ and just thinking “Fuck yeah! Guitar music is back in.” Whilst it didn’t influence the lyrics to ‘I’m Still Here’ I remember sonically just wanting to make sure that when we had those big moments with everything crashing in, that it was a solid wall of force knocking the air out of your lungs like ‘The Runner’ does so very well. I think the way that Foals weave electronics with this hard rock edge definitely played a big role in how we put together the track as well, with an electric kit and lovely synth lines throughout complimenting the organic instruments.
You can stream Bengal Lancers ‘I’m Still Here’ via Spotify below: