Around the time that work commenced on The Gift, Ure had hosted Danny Mitchell and Colin King of Messengers at his house after he had engineered one of their sessions in Glasgow.

After they had departed, Ure was sifting through tapes for potential material to record when he found a demo that Mitchell had left behind.

According to Ure, King "ended up playing the most simplistic bassline you could think of – it was incredibly basic for him.

"[3] Ure selected "If I Was" to be the first single from The Gift, believing that it was a "good pop song" that would "immediately establish the solo album as different from Ultravox.

[3] The music video featured Ure's face and body patterns on a Pin Art pinscreen.