Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – AKA… What a Life!

Second debut single: Kinks shuffle meets Strings of Life by accident

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds released AKA… What a Life! as the second single from the debut album on 9 September 2011. It did not start as a dance record. Gallagher said it began as an acoustic shuffle he linked to the Kinks. One afternoon he accidentally heard Derrick May’s Strings of Life and the piano figure pulled the song toward the floor without losing the tune at the centre. High Flying Birds issued AKA… What a Life! on 9 September 2011, still the second single from the debut album on Sour Mash. He did not set out to cut a dance record. The Kinks, he said, were the model for that first acoustic shuffle, before any piano.

The finished record sets a rock vocal on a beat that clubs already understood. As a Sour Mash single it took the debut past the expected ballads and showed the Birds could move a room as well as recall Britpop. One afternoon he accidentally heard Derrick May’s Strings of Life and that piano figure pulled the song toward the floor while the written tune stayed put. Rock vocal, club beat: that is the mix the finished single kept.

The accident is what still explains it. The idea came in from the side, and the record sounds deliberate. It is the early High Flying Birds moment closest to a dance floor. On Sour Mash, the single took the debut past ballads and showed the Birds could move a room and still recall Britpop.

The accident still explains the single. The idea came from the side, and the finished record sounds deliberate. DJs found a way in, and so did rock radio. Chart positions, session credits and later live versions leave a concrete trail for anyone coming back. Reissues, compilations and radio edits show the song travelling past the first pressing without erasing the original take. Next to other tracks from the same campaign, the arrangement is easier to hear: what stayed, what was left out, and why this single still gets another play. Studio, label and year are simple to name. The vocal and the rhythm section do the rest, in plain words, with nothing dressed up around the story.