During the past years, every full moon has signaled the release of a new Peter Gabriel song. The latest one is “Face the Wall”, featured on his album “o/i”. “After last month, where we were ‘looking for the happy’, we can just follow that line all the way through and come to Face the Wall, which is looking directly in the face of death. A nice, cheerful subject.”
“The lyric is partly about getting older, facing illness, and it’s looking death in the face, which I think we don’t do enough of. I know I’ve talked about this before, but cultures which seem to include death as a normal part of life seem more comfortable with it and live life to the full. That was the starting point.”
“Music is a cathartic process for a lot of us and when I’m singing at the end, ‘I see you coming through’ that is a cathartic moment. I think that is an important line; conditions are getting worse and more intense as the song progresses, but with that lyric it suggests there is a reason to be hopeful. You never quite know when you’re in the studio whether the song is going to be a vehicle that can carry people, or not. I know this is going to speak to some people,” Peter Gabriel said.
Hear the new Peter Gabriel song “Face the Wall”
Face the Wall features noteworthy contributions from a number of regular Gabriel collaborators; Tom Cawley on piano, “There’s that fluidity in the way he thinks about his playing and his improvising that I enjoy a lot. I don’t have anything like his chops. I think of myself as a songwriter articulating ideas and he’s a real virtuoso player.”
Tony Levin on bass “he’s very good, very sensitive, and tends to underplay, which really suits this song” and the New Blood Orchestra, arranged by John Metcalfe, “there’s only a small section in this song making use of the orchestra but it’s important. John Metcalfe is such a brilliant writer, arranger, and I love his own work as a composer. Anyone who enjoys John’s work as an arranger should check out his album ‘Tree’ which I was delighted we could put out on Real World.”
Gabriel has already released “A Hard Lesson”, “Won’t Stand Down”, “Till Your Mind Is Shining”, “What Lies Ahead”, “Put Down the Bucket”, “Been Undone, “I Belong to the Sky” and “One By One”.