Do Nothing till You Hear from Me (album)

Background

Nick Beggs began to put a band together at the suggestion of Thomas Waber, of record label InsideOut. In 2014, Beggs approached Roger King — a fellow member of Steve Hackett's band for several years — with the suggestion that King would produce Beggs' new band; King took up the offer. Beggs also called on the services of drummer Marco Minnemann, with whom had toured as part of Steven Wilson's solo band. Beggs revealed that he wrote the majority of the album while on tour in 2014. Beggs announced the creation of his new group, The Mute Gods, in August 2015, and two months later revealed that their debut album, Do Nothing till You Hear from Me, would be released in January 2016. Minnemann, who is featured on most of the album's tracks, contributed some guitar parts and sound modelling to the album, in addition to drums. Nick D'Virgilio and Gary O'Toole are also represented on the album as guest drummers.

In November 2015, the band released two videos for the album's title track. One is a 'normal' music video, while the other is a 360 degree video, directed by Crystal Spotlight. Two weeks before the scheduled release of the album, a video for "Feed the Troll" was also released. A video for "Father Daughter" was released on 22 January, to coincide with the album's release.

Two further promo videos were released later in 2016, for "Praying To A Mute God" and "Night School For Idiots" respectively.

Themes

Beggs has described Do Nothing till You Hear from Me as "a rather disgruntled rant at the dystopia we've created for ourselves and our children". He further opines that "The people in this world who should be listened to are often the ones who are silenced. The voice of reason seems strangely quiet in the face of so much media disinformation".

The title track, "Do Nothing till You Hear from Me", was inspired by former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's warning about the potential rise of the military–industrial complex, as well as the geologist Phil Schneider, who made several claims regarding UFOs in the 1990s, before dying under mysterious circumstances. According to Beggs, the title "sums up how I feel about religion".

Beggs also singles out the tracks "Swimming Horses" and "Feed the Troll". The former is as "a warning about the passing of time and the rising of tides", and the latter, as the title suggests, relates to trolls, described by Beggs as people "who have too much time on their hands".

The album is dedicated to the late Yes bassist Chris Squire.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Nick Beggs, except where noted.

Personnel

Adapted from Do Nothing till You Hear from Me liner notes.