Matt: 'The Numbers'... That seems to be [relating to] the other one of the recurring passions of yours, environmentalism. I don't know if "passion" is the right word.
Thom: The thing rattling around in my mind was: Is it still possible to write a political song? Is it still possible to bring these subjects up and try and get any kind of semblance of emotion out of the corpse of these issues in a piece of music? I was listening to this Adam Curtis podcast that Mr. [Adam] Buxton just did, where he's talking about the fact that as soon as someone realizes "Oh, this documentary is about the environment" or as soon as someone realizes "Oh, well this book is about politics," people just switch off. They go "Ah, right I'll put that in that box over there, because it doesn't mean anything to me." And that was the thing that was going 'round and 'round in my head. Why is that? Why is it that I'm not allowed to mention these things? Why is it that if I sing "a river running dry", or "the system is a lie"... Painful cliché, but it's also true! So what am I supposed to do? How else are you supposed to say "the system is a lie"? Why bother? Why bother hiding it? It's a lie! That's it. So it was like this weird fight with myself of like, "Can I get away with it? Is this the right thing to do? Or shall I write another lovey-dovey song about nothing in particular? Is that what the world needs or has someone else got that covered? I think so."
