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Trapdora Explorer

from Chines by Ian Evans

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about

I wrote this song as part of a big batch, for my indie band Trapdoor to try. I was thinking of a big opening number for a gig, so it introduces the band, starts with a bang and then has a sing-along chorus. The concept is sightly silly, but I like to embrace that. (Obviously it's a pun on Dora the Explorer and it's corny to sing about our own band).

I like it that we are the kind of band who know each other IRL and go to weddings together.

lyrics

Turning my throne to send you through the trap door...

Drumming and axes advance…
We've just returned from a wedding in France
With heart-shaped, vegetable ash cheese

The EU's largest stained-glass screen
And psychic defences for me
Back to white wine and seaweed dreams

Girls Rock London row
Fundraiser at the Seabright Arms
This overdrive goes red or green

Waitrose on Queensway
Alaska's rough state of decay
Come we….
Sabrina! and Dan and me!

Sweeny and Scooby do
It's through the looking glass for you
It’s me, Sabrina, Dan and Karim

A fondue restaurant
Norwegian wood around the amps
And IPA the new winner

Fire, ice and water
Gigging by Le Maison Horreur
With Thomas Sherarton guitars

We are a family
Of quite hard drinking belle amis
The overdrive goes red or green

Clicking her heels to send you through the trap door...

Deptford fun city
To pick over the bones of structuring
Come Sabrina and Dan and Karim
Alice or oubliette
We ain't seen nothing yet
We are Trapdoor and we aint had our dinner


References:

* "Turning my throne to send you through the trap door" - This is a reference to the Castle Greyskull toy from the 80s, where turning the throne would open a trapdoor. Jabba the Hut's palace had a similar arrangement

* The EU's largest stained-glass screen - We saw this in France, at a friend's wedding

* White wine and seaweed - White wine used to be Trapdoor's drink of choice during early rehearsals. Dried seaweed was an unusual but delicious snack, sold in a local supermarket

* Girls Rock London - An organisation to help girls get into bands

* Queensway - A London road, near our first rehearsal rooms

* Alaska - Another rehearsal room we used

* Sweeny and Scooby do - Two characters associated with trapdoors

* A fondue restaurant - Where we played our debut show

* Fire, ice and water - A reference to a joke in Spinal Tap

* Le Maison Horreur - Jethro Tull named a French recording trip this, after it went badly for them

* Thomas Sherarton guitars - Thomas Sheraton was a furniture maker, whose workshop was next door to the venue of our debut gig. Sheraton is also the name of a model of guitar I once owned. I was silly to sell it.

* The overdrive goes red or green - I use a Boss dual overdrive pedal a lot

* Deptford fun city - Squeeze's first record label (and possibly the first ever indie label). Trapdoor rehearsed in Deptford for a while (as have many of my other bands)

* Alice or oubliette - Two things that might be found through a trapdoor

* "We aint had our dinner" - 70s cops The Sweeny would occasionally say this, to signify what a tough mood they were in

credits

from Chines, released October 19, 2019

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Ian Evans UK

Pop/experimental/rock musician and songwriter from London

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