We Are Bodies

We Are Bodies is a rock group composed of Dave Pen and Robin Foster. Dave is the singer and musician of English electro-rock collectives Archive and Birdpen. Robin is an English guitarist/composer based in France. After mutually spying on each other through social media, the pair first met in 2010. Dave contributed to Robin’s second album, writing the lyrics and singing five songs on ‘Where do we go from here?’. Dave also featured on Robin’s soundtrack to the feature film Metro Manila (Audience Prize Sundance 2013) with the title track ‘Life & Death’. The soundtrack was nominated at the 2014 World Soundtrack Awards for the public choice award. We Are Bodies, the eponymous name of the opus, is a true reflection of modern society. Tracks such as ‘Pressure Compressor, We Are Bodies and Replicants’ narrate the numb monotony of living in the unconscious conformity of 21st Century planet earth, an age of consumerism where people scurry around like androids, unaware that their every action has been manipulated and is under observation. There’s a clear Orwellian feel to Pen’s prose, yet with songs such as ‘A Light On, Guide Me Home, and Shadows,’ there’s plenty of optimism and hope, as we can still choose between a more humanist world or our pre-destined dystopian future. Many of the songs border on the pop-rock, where melodies are wrapped up in new wave synths and powerful electric guitar, reminding listeners of music from another era (new wave, Neu! Talk Talk, krautrock, Tears for Fears). Once the vocals were recorded in a cathedral in Quimper in France, the pair entrusted the mixing of the album to Jim Spencer (New Order, Johnny Marr) in Manchester before heading to Abbey Road Studios to be mastered by Frank Arkright, who Hi-Fi Choice describes as England’s greatest mastering engineer for contemporary rock music.