"Distant Past" is a song recorded by British

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

band

Everything Everything Everything Everything are an English art rock band from Manchester that formed in late 2007. Noted for their eclectic sound and complex, avant-garde-inspired lyrics, the band has released seven albums to date '' Man Alive (2010),'' '' Arc (2013 ...

. The track was released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

on 18 February 2015 as the

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

from the band's third studio album, '' Get to Heaven''. It was written by band members Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard, Michael Spearman, and Alex Robertshaw, and was produced by

Stuart Price Stuart David Price (born 9 September 1977) is an English electronic musician, DJ, songwriter, and record producer. His acts include his own band Zoot Woman (with Adam Blake (musician), Adam Blake and Johnny Blake (musician), Johnny Blake), L ...

. The song, like much of the album it appears on, reflects on the events of 2014, with chief songwriter Higgs explaining that it " ooksat the fact that history repeats itself".

Release and reception

Prior to the song's release, Everything Everything featured lines of lyrics from their upcoming album on social media outlets

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and

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. The lyrics were released gradually over the course of two weeks, concluding with a line from "Distant Past" on 17 Feb 2015. On the same day, the song premiered on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reed Lowe (born 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through pr ...

's 'Hottest Record in the World'. On 3 March, Radio 1 featured the song as "Track of the Day". It has thus far peaked at #88 on the UK Singles Chart. The song is also featured in ''

FIFA 16 ''FIFA 16'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Android and iOS. The g ...

''.

Music video

A music video for "Distant Past" was directed by the band's frontman and lead vocalist, Jonathan Higgs, who stated "Distant Past is about primal human nature, and no matter how far we progress in our civilisations, we can never escape it." The music video was filmed in

Cheddar Gorge Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar, Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years ...

and stars British wrestler Ed Gamester. The narrative of the video is centered on a fight scene between two

cavemen The caveman is a stock character representative of primitive humans in the Paleolithic. The popularization of the type dates to the early 20th century, when Neanderthals were influentially described as "simian" or "ape-like" by Marcellin Boul ...

, and also includes shots of the four band members singing against a blue-white background. Higgs explained this as "a strong contrast between the 'past' and 'future' scenes, to emphasise the primal nature of the past and the overly civilised future." The fight scene's time period is ambiguous due to the brief appearance of a

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keyboard.

Trivia

The track features a recreation of the bridge scanner sound from the original ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' TV show.

Track listing

Charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2015 singles Everything Everything songs 2015 songs Songs written by Jonathan Higgs RCA Records singles Song recordings produced by Stuart Price Works about cavemen