Oh my GODDDDDDDDDDD the album is finally out and I have been SITTING on this demo vs final comparison because honestly, I find it to be one of the most insane ones to listen to. The original demo for this song was so rough but I can remember making it so clearly!
Angel was a song I wrote sort of spontaneously in November 2024. I remember that because it was the morning of Worlds 2024 and I was planning to head to the venue later that day (I didn't have a ticket to the event btw I just did that thing I often do where I show up to something and find a way to get in. It literally pisses off my friends). I was sitting on my bed with my big keyboard out (the one I wrote all of letter to the stars on because my old flat had the room for a full setup and my current one absolutely does not) trying to come up with ideas.
When I wrote the song there were a couple of specific sources of inspiration: as far as style goes, I was really influenced by Grimes' Butterfly, which is one of the album cuts from Art Angels but is rarely spoken about compared to some of her other work. That song has a really fat kick and throbbing bassline in the chorus, and a lot of my songwriting and production at that point had leaned away from those more typical 'dance music' tropes. But I just felt so drawn to making a big, danceable pop song again and indulging in the types of sound design that had captured my intrigue as a teenager in the 2010s.
As far as theme goes, that's a little deeper. At the time, I was looking at LIKE LIGHTNING from far more of a third person lens than it finished as. The story I was telling in the album I had kind of convinced myself was vaguely fictional. Like how Feeding Demons was about selling your soul to become famous, I wanted to write another song that kind of explored that chase for fame. So it starts off as a girl meeting a guy who tells her she has all this potential, and that he can help her get to where she wants to go, and it'll be great. And these seemingly small asks he has of her -- to put out for his friends, or whatever -- she brushes off because, y'know, look at how much he's doing for her! Look at what he sees in her! And even though he's continually telling her that she's not good enough yet, and that the world doesn't want her yet, she's so lucky to have someone like him who will love her and support her regardless of how inadequate she is. Eventually, she realises how miserable she is and that even though he's the person telling her she's not enough, he's also the only person who can make her feel better when she feels that way. And she realises that he's actually not a good guy and that staying with him is breaking her.
It's kind of a lot for a pop song, although I'm a sucker for an emotionally intense story wrapped up in an upbeat bow (see: a special girl on my first EP). It felt cool to write a fictional story in my music and really go to town on the weight of it.
But looking back, I'm not super sure how true that is. I wanna make it clear: I've never been in this specific situation with someone. But as many of you may know, in December 2025, right around the time I finished the album, I confronted my ex-boyfriend who had done some pretty awful things to me. And I remember for so many years feeling like I needed him to validate my worth and to comfort me.. for the very things he had done. And he would do that sometimes, and then he'd treat me poorly again. I feel like, looking back on this 'fictional' song, I was actually really speaking from an extremely overwhelmingly truthful experience.
The final synth solo is one of my favourite passages of music I've ever made. I think I added that in some time in August or September 2025. The song had gone through a lot of work. The original throbbing bass got replaced with a bouncy bass guitar, until I later put the synth bass back into the second and last chorus to beef them up again. The second verse took me ages to finalise. The bridge I took so much care and attention to get the emotional landscape exactly right. It was just a matter of how to finish the song.
Around that time, I was listening to so much Tyler, The Creator. And through studying his music, I ended up listening to a ton of 90s g-funk, some French house (this was partially also because of my Madeon influences), and basically a lot of stuff that had stemmed from funk music. The analogue, in-the-moment, imperfect synth leads that are ubiquitous in these genres really spoke to me, and I decided Angel was the perfect song to include one in. I recorded the solo live, although it needed a little neatening up in post, and straight away knew that I'd nailed it. The catharsis of freedom and escape from such a tragic story was so palpable it literally still gives me goosebumps when I listen to it today.
Even though I laugh when I listen to the original demo of this song now because of how bad it sounds, I'm super proud because I think I would have been blown away to know what this song turned into. Choosing to not release it as a single and keep it hidden until the album dropped was SO hard because I was so excited for everyone to hear it. The fact it's kind of become the fan favourite album cut makes me so happy because secretly, it was my favourite too.
Hope you enjoyed a little lore on this song and I hope you're loving LIKE LIGHTNING!! Sorry for the weeks of silence here -- it's been insane trying to handle everything for this drop on my own. I plan to film some production walkthroughs for the songs, so let me know which ones you'd wanna see that for.
Thanks so much for being here guys, you literally kept a roof over my head while I slaved away on this record. See you very soon <3
Geo