Chris McConville produces heartfelt single ‘Fire’

London based Scottish singer-songwriter, Chris McConville has released his new single ‘Fire’ in memory of Blackhill Pioneers member Tony Eke.

Originally, a collaboration between his former band members Tony Eke and fellow singer/songwriter Simon Dawes, ‘Fire’ re-created by Chris McConville after Eke died in 2019 with a short battle of cancer.

The band was unable to complete ‘Fire’ before Tony’s death, so it took on further meaning to Chris to finish the single with a new twist.

This heartfelt re-do of ‘Fire’ originated when Chris McConville picked up the guitar in the immediate aftermath of learning about Tony; and as part of the grieving process, he began to work on it in his studio. Soon, completing ‘Fire’ became a conscious decision and drive.

Chris had Simon’s go ahead to work on the song and found inspiration when Simon shared about how he and Tony originally developed it: “Tony had the verse and I wrote the chorus melody as well as the middle 8. That’s how Tony and I used to do it, he always had a verse and I found a chorus”.

Tony often hummed the baseline to ‘Fire’ and the bass melody has stayed true to these hums. The song deviates towards the end, as Chris was pleased to develop this section into a climatic outro chorus, which differs from the original. This new ending came into being from improvising on early vocal takes, trying to find something different, and feeling that this section had potential.

Chris added: “Throughout the process, the objective had always been to make a recording that represented the originality of the song. It is a dream come true to hear this final outcome – ‘a fitting tribute to Tony who too died young and whose talents and lovely soft English tones we lost too soon’”.

Listen to ‘Fire’ now and leave an ICM Rating out of 10!