David Gilmour Previews Title Track from Forthcoming Solo Album

The title track from David Gilmour's forthcoming solo album Rattle That Lock focuses on a journey, both within its music and its lyric. The longtime Pink Floyd leader, who will release the new project in September, says the initial spark came from something he noticed while traveling in France.

"'Rattle That Lock' was inspired, musically, by the sound that's played at French railway stations before they make an announcement," Gilmour says in a new promotional video, attached above. "It's a jingle, a four-note jingle that's played. Everytime I heard it, it would make me want to start dancing." He says on one particular trip, he was moved to capture the moment. "I turned my iPhone on," Gilmour says, "held my iPhone up nearer the speaker, and waited for the next announcement."

It became a key element in building the track, which is excerpted in the clip, as well. Gilmour worked with wife Polly Samson, his long-time lyricist, on "Rattle That Lock." "Her lyrics," Gilmour adds, "are inspired by Book 2 of Paradise Lost, by John Milton."

Gilmour says Rattle That Lock, his first solo project since 2006's On an Island, was largely recorded at his Brighton studio, overlooking the English Channel – as well as in his houseboat studio, the Astoria. Pink Floyd gathered at the Astoria to record both 1987's Momentary Lapse of Reason and 1994's The Division Bell. Gilmour and Nick Mason completed last year's Pink Floyd album The Endless River at both studios.

Samson, an English novelist and journalist, made lyrical contributions to The Division Bell and The Endless River, as well as On an Island. She and Gilmour married in 1994.

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