THE OPTIMIST LP | 10 years | The Gallery Starts

Cubscouts are screaming, needing icescreaming and all the pleasures of June
I’m in a parked car, flowers seem friendly and people in hall ways feel walls.
Now it is night time, maybe we’re cruising avoiding the anti-cruise.
Oh I don’t really know where we are.

Three simple tones on the piano. Not a guitar riff intro, but a piano kicks of the debut LP of the guitar band we’ve come to love. Ten years on it illustrates the ever-changing nature of Turin Brakes. Never choosing the straight road ahead, but experimenting and doing things when necessary. It may not always be easy but ten years on it’s clear that whether you are an optimist or not, Turin Brakes are making music for all kinds of people. For young and old, for men and women. Whether you feel lost in the world and need to find your space, whether you are scared of big decisions or want to face the road ahead without any fear. Turin Brakes offer a soundtrack for all of us. And it all started with The Optimist LP. It all started with three simple piano tones.

This next month we’ll look back on the complete Optimist album. Expect stories and tales about the songs, the record, the videos and even the live gigs. Many fans have already send in their story and you can still send yours to ethersite@gmail.com. This month, all stories will be featured on this blog, afterwards they’ll move to their own space on the internet for everyone to see and read. All stories are beautiful, very personal, inspirational and sometimes even emotional and I feel honoured that so many people have responded to the Call for Optimists. Before the month of inspirational stories kicks off, I would like to say “thank you” to everyone. This is an on-going project and everyone’s contribution is VERY welcome.

Tomorrow (2 March) we’ll start properly – with the first fan story. The order of contributions is the order they arrived in my inbox, with a few exceptions for dramatic effect (the final entry will be from a very special someone).

I hope you will enjoy reading these contributions as much as I have done and that you’ll feel that this project does The Optimist LP justice. As you will come to realise, The Optimist LP has influenced a lot of lives (or maybe you know this already because it has influenced yours). From today, these stories come together in The Optimist Gallery, so that they may never fall into oblivion.