Tiny Enemy is the musical project of Justin Grant, an Irish indie-pop musician known for blending sincere, reflective lyrics with melodic guitar-driven sounds. Into the Real World is his latest solo record and who better to talk us through each track than the man himself.
Wrath of Me
This song has an underlying heartfelt lyrical message all about the passing of my older brother Colin 3 years ago this July, It’s a tribute to my big brother who I miss so much, rest easy our fella. The song was lacking something in the studio when we listened back to it, then producer Cregan Black, came up with this great synth, keyboard loop melody, so we decided to let that flow throughout the song, I love it.
I Can Hear The Crows
I wrote it in lockdown six years ago but only finished it recently for this album. All I was doing in lockdown was binge watching TV Series like The Walking Dead, well you know the imagery in the opening credits where there’s this telegraph pole with crows hanging there, must’ve just hit me somewhere, so I got out of the way and the song wrote itself. I remember hearing Richard Marx song, Hazard, that’s where I pinched the idea for the chorus parts and plucking guitar notes, the verses are more to do with creating tension, paranoia and solitary eerie sounding-harmonies.
Rust and Rain
I was playing my acoustic guitar whilst staring out the window escaping reality like I always do, then came across this set of chords going minor to major, from those scratchy beginnings I ended up writing Rust and Rain, ain’t got a clue what the songs about but hope others get something out of it. In the recording studio I played acoustic guitar and sang, then popped down some floaty harmony-guitar notes & tasty licks in & around the vocals. Cregan really makes this one shine with his brilliant bass playing and Twin Peaks style synths.
Life Don’t Stop
I was inspired by the likes of Glen Campbell “Wichita Lineman” but with the jangly-ness of Johnny Marr of The Smiths, style guitar. Haunting melodies over sunshine indie-pop with a severe case of existential dread. I love the quirky lofi drum machine, there’s an eerie lead guitar sustainer on the choruses played by Cregan, he’s got a great way of pulling notes from outta nowhere that really compliments a song.
Real World
I guess this ones about confusion and searching for a sense of self, a lost, a found soul. It’s one of the first songs I thought up for this mini album & was inspired by the likes of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, I love dreaming up these strange little songs that fill up my phone memos, just stuff I hear out & about, on my travels, I’m a fully fledged member of the observer core.
Yeah Get Over It
It’s just a 2 minute something quirky indie-pop tune. I began messing around with triggers for ideas and song lyrics, writing lines, that caused stuff in me to surface, like it’s a dark circus and the clowns within you, ya know like if I’m walking about all sad well I’m just gonna live in a sad place, so it’s a note to myself that says, get over it, literally.
Shoegazer
Another tune I wrote in lockdown but never finished until recently, it’s just me saying I’m so hungover and I need a cure, hair of the dog but I can’t go out, so I’ll just suffer on through the day, eek. The choruses were inspired by Spacejunk by Wang Chung, those keyboard/ synth organ stabs. The rest of the lyrics baffled me, don’t know what I’m singing about, maybe a wizards balloon ? LOL, no but seriously.
Wake Up
Was a fever dream I had after getting COVID, I woke up tripping with a high temperature, these words and melodies were floating around my head so I just sang them into my phone. Cregan came up with and played the Middle Eastern sounding lead guitar solo, that totally put my brain into orbit.
