|
THE MAKING OF (PART 1):
April 1999. After the success of the Cures For Broken Hearts sessions with Suzanne Rhatigan and her old reel to reel eight track, I was looking for something that I could record on at home, preferably something that didn't hiss! So I bought a new Roland VS840 digital studio and using just one condenser microphone, I began what were to become the A Long Way
To Blow A Kiss sessions, in the small upstairs bedroom of the council flat I was sharing, in Bermondsey, South London.
May 1999. Pathway. (A song about always seeming to take a different path to that of your lover). A very simple and sad track recorded with just acoustic guitar, organ and harmonica. It didn't make the final album, as I thought it was a little too sad, so I kept the recording to use for something else at a later date. (It now appears as the exclusive track on the compilation CD Sad To See It's Morning).
September 1999. Any Girl Can Make Me Smile. (The song is about the very moment the relationship ends and you suddenly find yourself crying for the first time in many years). I put down the organ track first (using the jazz organ sound), then overdubbed the steel acoustic guitar and sang the vocal. To lift the second part of the song I added a stereo track of egg shaker and maraca. Then a very short and sweet harmonica solo for the break. Simple.
History. (Another song about breaking up). I recorded the nylon acoustic guitar first and then put down the vocal and the harmony vocal. Then I overdubbed the balalaika track.
January 2000. Come To The Phone. (A song about hoping your ex will pick up the phone and tell you what's happening). Another song that didn't make the record as it was simply too sad. It featured an acoustic guitar and two tracks of a wooden flute which I felt sounded too much like a recorder. So I wiped the song. (I recorded a new more upbeat version recently which is pencilled in for the Acuarela EP for 2005/2006).
February 2000. Maybe Love Will Return. (Another song documenting a break up). Based around the picky steel acoustic guitar with a droning organ (jazz flute sound) and some brushed conga drums on the chorus. John Morrison came over one afternoon towards the end of February with his Fender bass to overdub some parts onto a few of the new songs. I can't remember two of the songs he played on that afternoon which I later wiped (they weren't very good songs!) but the two he definitely played on that I kept, were Any Girl Can Make Me Smile and Maybe Love Will Return. Thanks John mate.
Then everything started to get real busy and exciting with Hefner so the sessions were postponed...
THE MAKING OF (PART 2):
May 2001. I now found myself with very little spare time due to the growing success of Hefner. So I was forced to revisit some of my old four track demos which Suzanne Rhatigan had mixed for me back in September 1998. (See The Making Of Cures For Broken Hearts). The music and the melodies (not the lyrics) from four of these demos became Waste The Days Away, A Long Way To Blow A Kiss, Every Drop Of Rain and I Always Hurt The One That I Love. My new love had moved over from Sweden to London a few months earlier and we had just found a very small (and soon to become very damp) studio flat in Stratford. It was there that I began to fit my new lyrics to those old tunes and the sessions resumed in the small kitchen where there was only enough room to set up one instrument at a time. A very slow and frustrating way to work but the main living room was just too noisy to record in. There was a bus stop right outside the flat and each time a bus pulled up the walls shook! (See the forthcoming single on Unhip Records, I Long To Quicken The Beat Of your Heart).
Waste The Days Away. (The song is about being in a long distance relationship, when your lover is far away in a different country). This was the first song I got down in the new surroundings. I started with the nylon acoustic guitar and then put on the vocal. I remember being really happy with the cabasa track and the harmonica part. I'm not so sure about the keyboard line now. John added his bass part in August.
The Trick. (The song was written in April 1996 and was about the on off relationship I had with my first love). This was another old song revisited. I kept this one in its entirety as I had always really liked the song and needed something upbeat to get the album going. I put the drum track down first with my new Japanese Zoom drum machine with its flashing lights, then I added the nylon acoustic guitar and the steel acoustic guitar and the vocal. Finally I put a keyboard on the end ( jazz organ sound) and that was basically all it needed. John came over and added some bass guitar in August.
June 2001. I Always Hurt The One That I Love. (The song is about how great my new love was and how big my fears were that I would mess it all up).
It was recorded in the kitchen with my Japanese Zoom drum machine and then the acoustic guitar and the keyboard (brass sound). I added the vocal and my favourite part of the song, the end keyboard melody, which was supposed to represent a trumpet. I didn't quite get the pop feel I was going for but a nice song none the less. John added his bass part later in august.
Every Drop Of Rain. (Another song about the long distance relationship. About all the memories left behind whenever she left to return to her own country).
Using the jazz organ sound of my keyboard, the nylon acoustic guitar, a vocal, my old squeaky ukulele banjo and a few taps on a tambourine towards the end. Another of my favourites. I love its gentleness. I was trying to record a very quiet song.
When I need You To. (This song is about the one and only time I very nearly did mess up the new relationship).
It's probably my least favourite track mainly because it's just a little too naked on the verses. It makes me cringe a bit at the beginning but by the time the ending kicks in I remember why I liked it. I think I had run out of ideas and instruments by this stage. I started with the drum machine, then overdubbed the electric piano (music box sound) and then the picky nylon acoustic guitar. I added a steel acoustic part to the ending and then finally I put the vocal on.
April Rain. (This song is about my love missing her friends and her country). I started with the drum machine track and then put on the organ (jazz flute sound) and then the nylon acoustic guitar. Finally I overdubbed the vocal and the backing vocal and the keyboard line at the end, which is meant to represent a flute. I faded out the track to leave you wanting more... hopefully!
August 2001. Today As Yesterday. (It's a song about the novelty of living together and getting on your lover's nerves).
A well needed more upbeat song. This made me feel that I just about had an album. I used the nylon acoustic guitar in two parts, then the conga drums and two different shakers at the end. It has an almost samba feel to it.
I repeated the chorus at the end a few times more just because I needed to make the album longer! Ha!
John Morrison came over and overdubbed all his bass parts in one afternoon. He played on: The Trick, I Always Hurt The One That I Love, Today As Yesterday, When I Need You To and Waste The Days Away. As always he played perfectly and if I remember rightly he was paid with cold lager and warm biscuits.
A Long Way To Blow A Kiss. (This song is obviously about a long distance relationship and missing your lovers touch, waiting impatiently for the next time and not about being rejected by a girl as the reviewer in Mojo seemed to think).
I recorded this with just nylon acoustic guitar and then overdubbed the vocal. I wanted to get Suzanne Rhatigan on the album in some way and this song seemed perfect. So I took my studio (small enough to fit in a bag) over to Cushy Productions in her flat in Stockwell and she overdubbed a gorgeous harmony vocal and a lovely Wurlitzer piano part (if a little hissy). The album was finished. I only wish that I had used Suzanne on a few more of the songs just to help liven up the album a wee bit. But still, you live and learn.
I did the final mixes to DAT early September 2001 and the album was mastered on 21st September 2001 at Transfermation near London Bridge by Richard Dowling. It was released late April 2002 by Fortune and Glory Records.
|
