Photo credit: Hollie Fernando
London trio RITUAL are proud to share the second track from Dreamers Never Learn, a brand-new collaborative project born out of London and conceived in Los Angeles. “Using (with Emily Warren)” launches today with a striking video, featuring American musician/actress Cailin Russo and model Felix Spooner. It was directed by upcoming British director Sophia Ray.
View the official video for “Using” HERE.
RITUAL may not yet be household names, but many of the songs they have written will already be familiar to millions. As songwriters and contributors to hits by the likes of Dua Lipa, Little Mix, Avicii and countless more, their innate ear for hooks and melody has put them in high demand.
Dreamers Never Learn will unravel a kaleidoscopic array of 21st century love songs. Leaning on their contacts book, RITUAL have called upon some of the most important breaking and established female artists of today to help tell their very modern stories of love and love lost.
The second release in the series is “Using” which features Emily Warren. Warren is a GRAMMY-award winning songwriter and artist. As one of the most prolific hit makers in the business, she has written some of the most iconic pop tunes of this generation, including “New Rules” by Dua Lipa, “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers, “Boys” by Charli XCX. It’s fair to say that Emily Warren knows precisely what makes a great song, great.
As a vocalist, Warren’s unique, soulful delivery has previously appeared on indie hit songs like “Capsize” by Frenship (a viral hit that has amassed over half a billion streams) to four songs on The Chainsmokers’ multi-platinum debut album.
Explaining the track, RITUAL’s Adam Midgley comments: “‘Using’ is about a moment of realisation, not only that you’ve been used by someone, but by someone who is a habitual user. It’s realising that this person you thought you shared a unique and real connection with just has a charm that makes everyone who meets them fall and feel the same. You’re all victims of the same hoax.
“There’s some bitterness and resentment at being ‘used’ in the song, but it’s also a celebration of just how great it felt to be used by this person, it’s a ride that you would go on all over again just to experience those moments of bliss.”
“Using” should propel the unsung backroom talents of pop music into the spotlight together as they deliver a seductive, widescreen heartbreak anthem and another very fine statement of RITUALS’ intent.
The video here sticks to the lyrical theme of the ‘user,’ but explores the dark side of internet culture. In an era of fake news, cat fishing and skewed social media profiles, the web is a place where anything is true if a ‘follower’ believes it. Everything is only ever a version of itself. ‘Influencers’ project a façade of perfection, success and happiness that is unobtainable, millions obsess about ‘likes’ from strangers while we distance ourselves from real human connection with those around us ‘IRL.’ More than just a thought for concerned parents of teens, the online vacuum has ferociously engulfed us all.
The themes of “Using” form part of a conceptual backbone behind all the songs throughout the Dreamers Never Learn project where love in a digital age becomes more elusive and confusing than ever.
Recorded at Trevor Horn’s famed studio, SARM LA, in Bel Air, less than twenty-four hours before forest fires devastated it to the ground, the narrative of this project came to RITUAL (Adam Midgley, Gerard O’Connell, and Tommy Baxter) over a period when their book of contacts was overflowing with incredible, unique vocalists, but their time to focus on anything but other people’s music was limited. Setting aside six weeks to nail everything from the writing, to the recording, to the endless phone calls that would make Dreamers Never Learn happen, the trio flew out to LA and didn’t return until it was a dream fully realised.
Check out the first track shared from Dreamers Never Learn earlier this year: Love Me Back (Feat. Tove Stryke) streams HERE + watch the video HERE.
