UK electropop duo, Moodbay – producer-songwriter Alfie Cattell and vocalist-songwriter Anna Stephens – have released their new single, “Alone” today. The track, which can be heard now below, was written to express extreme isolation.
Of the track Alfie said,“If we deny feeling lonely, it’s the same as denying hunger – we need human connection to thrive. We’re social animals.”
Anna explains the origins of the song, “We were in the car on the way to Manchester. It was raining heavily, and we were stuck in a traffic jam. Alfie started telling me about a guy he once saw walking along in the middle of a road like the one we were on. He had his hood up and you could just make out his nose and mouth. We started talking about this solitary character and what he must have been going through to decide to walk alone on a motorway like that. We invented a story for him and turned it into our song.”
Moodbay’s unusual shade of electropop incorporates a range of genres from R&B to Classical – the duo describe their sound as ‘moodpop’. They got together in 2017, after meeting in the corridor of BIMM music school in Manchester.
Before Manchester, Anna moved from her home in Darlington to Paris, where she worked at a magazine house. She spent most her time scribbling down poetry at her office desk and staying out late. While completing her French studies in Oxford, she started to put her words to piano.
Alfie also started out on piano, and it remains his favourite instrument. He is a self-taught musician, who grew up in North Wales, recreating Zelda tunes on a dusty Yamaha keyboard, in between blue WKD’s and listening to Radiohead. He has honed his studio skills in Moodbay and now produces the edgy sounds that drive Anna’s vocals along.