Zak Abel pens track-by-track for new album Only When We're Naked

Unstable

Unstable is about my own instability as a human being. Some days I'm up, some days I'm down. It's also about how I'm aware of how that instability makes those closest to me feel too. The production on the record was hugely inspired by Highlife Music, of which I’m a massive fan.

Still Want UUU

Still Want UUU is about the hardships that come with pursuing someone, or something, that you love and how that person or thing is often the only thing that fulfils you. Deep!

Broken (The Wave)

I wrote this song after a break up. It’s about splitting up and then thinking maybe you’ve not been thinking clearly…. We’ve all been there.

The River

This was the result of a late night philosophical conversation with a cab driver. He said “I let my wife work”; I thought that was a bit strange, so asked him what would happen if his wife wanted to work but he didn't let her, he said she wouldn't be able to. I asked him why, and he said it’s part of his religion.

I asked what if she disobeys you? He replied that she'd be punished. I asked what if she wants to leave the religion, could she be killed? He said yes. I found it really shocking that quite a decent rational man had such a blind spot due to religion. He was almost enslaving his wife, and was justifying it with his religion. As a result, I was inspired to write this song.

Beautiful Life

I wrote this after receiving some pretty terrible news. I was in a really bad place at the time, and was seeing everything in a negative light. I was reminded by the people closest to me, and one person in particular, that a positive perspective is always available to me and all I need to do is choose to see it.

OWWN

The song is about connection: only when we take away the pretences, defences and deceit, only when we are naked, can be our true selves and have authentic relationships with others! I started this song jamming on the keyboard in my bedroom. I wanted to make something that was a mix of John Legend, Drake and Quincy Jones.

Awakening

I wrote this one about 2 years ago, when I had just come out of one of the darkest periods of my life. All of a sudden, it felt like I'd just woken up. The world didn't seem so bleak and I wanted to celebrate that. I feel like we’ve managed to capture that feeling of celebration within the production, I’m really proud of this song.

Deserve To Be Loved

I wrote this song with Eg White. We spent a lot of time talking, he made me see that a lot of my actions suggest that I feel like I didn't deserve to be loved.

And that’s complete bollocks; no matter where you're from, your sexual orientation, upbringing, religion, what you do, what you've done, everyone deserves to be loved. This is my favourite song on the album.

Rock Bottom

It was truly an honour to have collaborated with Wretch 32 on this track. I feel that he’s one of the best lyricists our nation has to offer. For me this track is about optimism. Once you've hit rock bottom, the only way is up.

All I Ever Do (Is Say Goodbye)

I wrote this with the same team that I wrote ‘Unstable’ with, and it was the last song we wrote for the album. My friend Danny had come in the studio one day, and had told us that unfortunately he'd lost about 5 people in his life in a very short space of time. We asked if we could borrow from his experience, he said yes so we started writing song, everyone opened up about their losses. It was a very therapeutic day.

Zak Abel's album Only When We're Naked is out now