Peter Gabriel has shared a new song, "This Is Home." It is the latest single from Gabriel's forthcoming new album, i/o, which will be his first album of original songs in over 20 years. The album's exact release date has yet to be announced. Check it out below.
Gabriel calls it "a love song" and also had this to say about "This Is Home" in a statement: "It began with inspiration from some of the great Tamla Motown rhythm sections so we're trying to recreate that in a modern way, complete with the tambourine and handclaps. The groove I like a lot, Tony Levin does a great bass part there.
"I did an unusual thing for me in that I tried doing this low voice / high voice thing, so you get this almost conversational voice at the beginning and the second part is a higher, more emotional voice. I thought that would be both intimate and emotive to put the two side by side."
Gabriel initially worked with DJ/producer Skrillex on "This Is Home," although he doesn't appear on the final track. Gabriel explains: "I'd had a call from Skrillex, who's a very talented musician, and I thought it would be interesting to see what he had in mind, so he came to my home studio and we sat down and talked and tried to evolve bits and pieces and it was mainly for this song. He was trying to encourage me to write a song about staying up all night in a night club and that sort of thing, but that's not really my life so I made it more about family and home and I like it. Though we took the song in this other direction it was an interesting experience nonetheless, and I think it is good for me to be taken outside my normal comfort zone sometimes."
"This Is Home" also features Swedish male voice choir Orphei Drängar and an orchestral arrangement from John Metcalfe. Says Gabriel: "I think it's got a groove but unlike most pop songs that have a middle eight or bridge this has two and they are both quite different. The first one is atmospheric and dreamy and we have this amazing all male choir which comes in slowly into this dreamy, garden-like section. The choir, Orphei Drängar, are based in Sweden and I think they get a fantastic sound, it's dark, stirring and emotional. The strings in the other middle section I really like, it's quite catchy, poppy in a way. I think John picked up on what I was trying to go for there and did a beautiful job, as always."
For each single from the album, Gabriel is working with a different artist to do the cover artwork. David Moreno and his work "Conexión de catedral II" forms the single cover artwork for "This Is Home."
Gabriel says: "The artwork this month is a wonderful piece by David Moreno. I was looking for contemporary art that represented the house or home in some ways and we saw a few things but his really stuck out. David often makes these one-colour, house-like symbols with piano wire connecting and I think it is very unique work. This is a relationship song, so given what I was trying to do with the lyric it felt like his image with the two doors was a very natural match. He was up for letting us use it, so I am very grateful to David for that."
Gabriel's last full-length album of original materials was 2002's Up, although in 2010 he released the Scratch My Back covers album and in 2011 he released New Blood, which featured orchestral re-recordings of songs from across Gabriel's career. Gabriel's last full tour was 2014's Back to Front Tour, which celebrated his classic 1986 album So.
The new tour will feature Gabriel's regular band-mates Tony Levin, David Rhodes, and Manu Katché and will include songs from i/o, as well as ones across his back catalogue.
