Dubstar: YOU & ME originally included on United States of Being album

You & Me is one of the earliest recordings made for what would later become the United States of Being album version 1. It was written all the way back in 2007 with Emma Kirby, now touring the world as Elkka. Emma and I had performed together at a selection of acoustic shows in Sussex and You & Me had repeatedly gone down as the best song in the set. I have a version with Emma singing somewhere, I must get it out one day.

DUBSTAR version

Steve Hillier

Friday 16th December 2022

My enduring memories of recording You & Me was the exciting experience of working with Sarah again after a six year break. We were back in my studio room in Adelaide Crescent, Hove. We hadn’t worked together in this room since recording the vocals for the ill-fated Dubstar EP all the way back in 2000 and in some ways it was a familiar situation, in others quite new. Part of the familiarity was the back room in the flat was just as cold as the old studio in Newcastle Art Centre, again something I think you can hear in Sarah’s vocal. And in a very real sense Dubstar was a family… no matter how long or how far you’re separated, as our song goes ‘we still belong’.

Part of the new feeling was that it was clear that so much had changed since we’d done this last. Sarah was in Client, I’d been travelling the world as a songwriter and getting involved in all sorts of projects. But doing Dubstar again without a record company and almost no expectations meant we could do whatever we wanted (to be fair Food Records had let us do whatever we wanted as well). This was one of the first songs we tried after the false start of recording ‘Talking in My Sleep’ with Stephen Hague. Not his fault, it just wasn’t the right song or musical approach.

Backstage at Distortion festival, Copenhagen 2022. Emma is second from right.

So back at mine all the vocals for You & Me were recorded with Cat Goscovitch’s amazing Neumann U57 mic. Most of the keyboard parts were from my Yamaha CP-70B electric piano grand piano (recently purchased from Gary Numan). There are almost no synthesisers on this track apart from some Korg MS20 bass at the end, all the textures come from the piano treated through guitar pedals. There’s even some Rhodes Piano playing the theme at the end. A new beginning indeed.

Maybe because You & Me is a cowritten song, it does have an unusual feel for a Dubstar record. The full DNA of the act is present, but there’s another creative in there too, and in this case someone much younger than the three of us. It adds something intriguing. You & Me is not a cover like Manic or St Swithin’s, it’s more of a hybrid. I suppose it’s that feeling when an act introduces a new member to their already established lineup, if only for one song.

Anyway, I love You & Me, it’s a memento of a time when anything seemed possible. Looking back, it’s reassuring to revisit and wonder at how far both Emma and I have travelled in the fifteen years since that sunny day in Cardiff.

That’s a long friendship. We should see each other more often, right Em?

This article includes excerpts from DUBSTAR.COM. Want more? You can find the story behind every Dubstar song ever recorded including dozens of unreleased songs right here at Dubstar.com

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