Interview in Australian Times (London Newspaper)
Interview Published in the Australian Times on April 22, 2009.
Your long awaited debut album is due to hit the shelves in April. Tell us more about it?
Recording the album was a really special process. My label at quite short notice decided that we needed to do the album and so it was quite a rush to finish up the songs and find a place to record.
We wanted to steer clear of a big studio to save money and just have a space we could let it all hang out a little. Low pressure – high inspiration. They mentioned a place they used to stay as kids – an old Victorian hunting lodge in Northamptonshire.
I made a call to the owner and told her that I’d look to book the place for a week to do some writing. It was kind of true – but the mental image she may have had of us sitting around with acoustic guitars was a bit pared back from the reality.
We drove up with three cars jammed packed full of recording gear and instruments.
The place was beautiful – in the middle of nowhere, secluded, old, cool, chilled. We scoped it out – there were about ten rooms so we figured out where we should setup the main studio hub and then we setup the drum kit in the stairwell, and guitars, bass, organ and so on in different rooms.
It enabled us all to have a little space to make noise but also to play off each other. Each day we’d wake up really early, have a coffee and then start talking about the songs we’d work on that day.
It was an amazing week – we really captured the heart and soul of the songs. It was pretty exhausting and I sang myself to a standstill relying on the numbing powers of fiery ginger beer to keep my voice going through the week. We got all ten tracks down and only had some extra “icing on the cake” stuff to overdub when we got home.
It came together beautifully – it sounds amazing, at times tender and at other times quite huge, and the songs really tell a story about the journey I’ve been on for the past few years. I’ve invested a lot of heart in it – as have so many people that have made their own heartfelt contributions to it. Read the rest of this entry »
