Breakups are a universal symphony of heartache, a melody of pain that resonates with almost everyone. They are never easy to deal with, often leaving one to wade through a sea of emotions, nostalgia, and a longing for what once was. It is within this tumultuous symphony that DD Walker has crafted his latest single, In the Way or Disappear, a poignant and melancholic ode to love lost and the journey through the aftermath.
In the Way or Disappear sees DD Walker embracing a more sombre and reflective musical landscape, stripping back the energetic new wave guitars and uptempo rhythms that fans might be accustomed to. Instead, Walker opts for deliberate acoustic guitar strumming and ornamental vocal harmonies that dance across the chorus, creating a soundscape that is both intimate and expansive.
The song begins as a bedroom pop lament, the pulsing strum of the guitar echoing the heartbeat of a broken soul. It’s a raw and unfiltered exploration of emotion, a whisper in the dark that slowly builds into a cathartic burst of Walker’s live rhythm section, reaching a maximalist fervour that is both intense and liberating.
DD Walker’s approach to this piece is deeply personal and swift, having penned this melancholic melody in a mere 15 minutes at 2 in the morning, amidst a months-long low following a dramatic breakup. Crashing in his childhood music room, Walker found himself surrounded by nostalgia, a makeshift recording setup his only companion in the wee hours of solitude. The longing to return to a time before the pain is evident in every note and every strum, echoing the wish to be back with his lost love before it all turned sour.
“I wrote this in 15 minutes at 2 in the morning after a months-long low after this dramatic break-up. I was crashing in the room I made music in when I was growing up and just put together a little make-shift recording setup for 2 weeks back there. The nostalgia was palpable in that space, and with this wish to be back with this person and how we were before, it was a negative thing…” Walker reflects.
In a span of a couple of weeks, Walker demoed a record’s worth of material, with In the Way or Disappear standing out as the most direct and quick to finish. It’s a testament to the raw and unfiltered emotion that permeates the track, a direct conduit from Walker’s soul to the listener’s heart.
In the Way or Disappear captures a journey through the valleys of heartache and the peaks of catharsis.